"The Unforgiven II" is a song performed by Metallica. It was written by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Kirk Hammett, and appears in the album ReLoad, as a sequel to "The Unforgiven" (which appears on Metallica).
It has been performed live only once: at a 1997 Billboard Awards when Metallica received the Artist of the Year award.
"The Unforgiven" is one of the slower songs on the self-titled album, Metallica (also known as the Black Album). It also has a sequel, in the form of "The Unforgiven II", from the album ReLoad.
Drummer Lars Ulrich explained that the band wanted to try something new with the idea of a ballad - instead of the standard melodic verse and heavy chorus (as evidenced on their previous ballads "Fade to Black", "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" and "One"), the band opted to reverse the dichotomy, with heavy, distorted verses and a softer, melodic chorus, played with classical guitars and James Hetfield's new-found singing voice crooning "So I dub thee unforgiven".
The horn intro was essentially taken from a Western movie and then reversed so its source would be hidden, as Hetfield later explained on "Classic Albums: Metallica - The Black Album". While Metallica has never disclosed what movie the horn was taken from, it is believed to be from a piece of music called "The Showdown", which was composed by Ennio Morricone for the 1965 Clint Eastwood "spaghetti western" film, For a Few Dollars More.
"The Unforgiven" was played live as part of Metallica's Nowhere Else To Roam world tour which lasted from 1991-1993, in support of the Black Album. It was played again on the Madly in Anger with the World world tour in 2003-2004 and the Escape from the Studio '06 tour. It has most recently been played as part of the 'Sick of the Studio' tour.
The live version of the song includes a second solo near the end of the song, something the original recording did not have.
