“Don’t Tread on Me” was issued to rock radio but was not commercially released as a single from Metallica’s The Black Album.
The song appears on the album’s second half and takes its title from the historic “Don’t Tread on Me” motto associated with the Gadsden flag. Its lyrics and imagery draw on American patriotic symbolism, while the music uses a compact, riff-driven arrangement consistent with the album’s more direct style.
Metallica promoted the record with five commercial singles: “Enter Sandman,” “The Unforgiven,” “Nothing Else Matters,” “Wherever I May Roam,” and “Sad but True.” “Don’t Tread on Me” was instead sent to rock radio for promotional airplay, making it easy to mistake it for a formal single.
This distinction matters because promotional radio releases and commercial singles are not identical. A song can receive radio support without having its own retail single release or matching the chart history of the album’s five official singles.