Metallica has unveiled a new rough mix of classic song, “The God That Failed,” from their 1991 self-titled album, also known as The Black Album. According to Blabbermouth, the song is taken from a remastered deluxe box set of the album that is set to come out on September 10 via Blackened Recordings. 

In the rough mix of “The God That Failed.” mostly everything sounds the same, but there are slight differences in the fullness and crunch of the guitars, and the originally clean sound of the vocals. In the original, the guitar’s crunch can be felt on a wide plane, and James Hetfield’s voice can be heard cleanly on top of that. On the rough mix, Hetfield’s vocals feel like they fall inward instead of projecting over and on top of the guitars. Similarly, the guitars don’t have the same distortion or fullness as they did in the original. In fact, they feel thinner. The rough mix gives us an inside look into the process that they went through into constructing what we know today as “The God that Failed.” 

The Black Album is being released as commemoration for its 30th anniversary, and it’s one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed albums of all time. On top of winning a Grammy, the record was 16-times platinum certified. With hits like, “Enter Sandman,” “The Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters,” this album solidified Metallica’s place at the top. 

Aside from the 30th anniversary celebration for The Black Album, Metallica recently announced that they will be performing two special anniversary shows in San Francisco this December to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the band. Metallica is active outside the music community as well. Recently, All Within My Hands, Metallica’s charity organization donated $50,000 to the Direct Relief‘s Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.

Photo credit: Marv Watson