My Friend Of Misery

Bob Rock was chosen in 1990 to produce The Black Album due largely to the band's admiration of his production of Mötley Crüe's 1989 long player Dr. Feelgood. He would subsequently produce all of the band's material until their 2008 Rick Rubin helmed Death Magnetic. Rock told Music Radar about the recording of this song in a 2011 interview: "The song is all about a mood, which is very cinematic in feel. Metallica know how to play to their strengths, dishing out raw power, but on this song we went for more of an atmosphere. It's ominous, and it works."

The origins of this song lay in a riff that bassist Jason Newsted bought to the rest of the band. Producer Bob Rock explained: "It started out with his intro, so a big part of working on this track was spent developing a great riff into a song that would take flight and really go places. Which it does – it builds and builds quite nicely." Newsted got a writing credit on the song along with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. It was one his three Metallica co-writes; the others were "Blackened" and "Where the Wild Things Are."

Newsted told Billboard magazine he was particularly pleased with his contribution to this song. "That was a moment where those guys kind of bowed and said, 'Here you go, man, put your song on there,' being the guy who came up with that," he said. "As opposed to being part of the team, I got to be myself for a minute there, which was a real accomplishment."