When Load drops in 1996, the "Sandman '96" (as fans call it) becomes the centerpiece of the album. Purists are horrified—where is the palm-muted chugging? Where is the menace? But on alternative radio, it’s a juggernaut. It sits comfortably between Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots.
The year is 1995. Inside a sun-drenched studio in Sausalito, Bob Rock leans over the mixing console, squinting at a track sheet. Lars Ulrich is behind him, nursing a latte, while James Hetfield tinkers with a hollow-body Gretsch guitar.
James steps to the mic. The "hush little baby" lyrics are gone. In this timeline, the song is a mid-tempo, Southern-fried gothic stomp. He sings with a soulful, bluesy croon, dragging out the vowels: "Exit... light... Enter... niiiii-yight..."