Which song closes the standard 12-track edition of Metallica’s The Black Album?

“The Struggle Within” closes the standard 12-track edition of Metallica’s The Black Album.

It is track 12 and runs 3 minutes 53 seconds. The song follows “My Friend of Misery,” which occupies track 11, and completes the original album’s listed total of 62 minutes and 31 seconds.

The track was written by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, with lyrics credited to Hetfield. Its placement gives the album a forceful ending after the longer, more reflective “My Friend of Misery.”

Listeners sometimes mistake “My Friend of Misery” for the closer because it is the penultimate and longest song in the final pair. The Japanese edition also adds “So What” as track 13, but that bonus track is not part of the standard 12-song sequence. Therefore, “The Struggle Within” remains the canonical original closer.