Which song on Metallica's Black Album is the longest, running 6 minutes and 49 seconds?
Answer
My Friend of Misery
“My Friend of Misery” is the longest song on Metallica's standard Black Album, running 6 minutes and 49 seconds.
The track is number 11 in the album sequence and was built from a main riff written by bassist Jason Newsted. It began as a planned instrumental, continuing Metallica's earlier practice of including an instrumental track on each previous album, but it eventually received lyrics and vocals.
Several other Black Album songs are also lengthy, which makes the comparison easy to miss. “Wherever I May Roam” lasts 6:44, “Nothing Else Matters” lasts 6:28, and “The Unforgiven” lasts 6:27. “My Friend of Misery” exceeds each of them by a few seconds.
The answer applies to the standard album's original tracklist. Running times can vary slightly across remasters, formats, or databases because of mastering and indexing differences, but the official listing identifies the song at 6:49. Its unusual writing origin also makes it one of the album's most distinctive deep cuts.