A snake appears on the cover of Metallica’s 1991 album Metallica, known as The Black Album.
The cover uses a nearly black design with a subtle coiled snake and the Metallica logo. The low-contrast artwork made the symbols difficult to see at first glance, reinforcing the visual identity that led audiences to call the record The Black Album.
The snake is associated with the Gadsden flag, whose famous image shows a rattlesnake above the warning “Don’t Tread on Me.” Metallica also included the song “Don’t Tread on Me” on the album, creating a clear connection between the artwork and the record’s themes.
The animal is sometimes misidentified as a generic lizard because the cover is intentionally subdued. However, the design specifically uses a snake, and the album’s visual concept is closely tied to that symbol.