Who directed Metallica’s music video for “The Unforgiven” from The Black Album?

Matt Mahurin directed Metallica’s music video for “The Unforgiven” from The Black Album.

The video was filmed in Los Angeles in September 1991 and premiered on November 19, 1991. It uses stark black-and-white imagery to tell a symbolic story about a captive who spends his life trying to create a window in a stone room.

Mahurin’s video is notably different from a conventional performance clip. Its narrative focuses on confinement, aging, isolation, and the hope represented by a key and a possible escape route.

A longer theatrical version also exists. That extended cut runs about 11 minutes and 33 seconds and includes introductory material before the principal story. Mahurin later directed other Metallica videos, including “King Nothing” and “The Unforgiven II.”