The Unforgiven II

"The Unforgiven II" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica from their 1997 studio album, Reload. It was written by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett and is the sequel to "The Unforgiven", a song from their 1991 self-titled album. Another sequel, "The Unforgiven III", was released in 2008.

Composition

The chord progression during the verses is similar to the one used in the chorus on "The Unforgiven". Hetfield's verse melody is played with a B-Bender guitar; a guitar that allows the player to bend the B-string independently of other strings.

Music video

"The Unforgiven II" video is similar to the first video's story, though a tunnel is substituted for the blank room shown in the first video. It begins with a shirtless boy stuck in a wall, showing the wall breaking piece by piece as the boy ages. As the video progresses, it becomes more abstract, with waves crashing on the other side of the wall and rupturing it, making the wall smaller each time. The final scene shows the remaining piece of the wall turning into a woman, with the now older boy's hand still embedded in her back. The boy opens his hand, allowing the woman to take the key out of his hand and allowing him to take his hand out of the wall.

Live performances

"The Unforgiven II" was first performed live on December 8, 1997, at that year's Billboard Music Awards. It was not played in a live setting again for the next 17 years, until Metallica re-introduced it into the setlist for their 2015 European festival tours. Following its performance in Gelsenkirchen, Germany's Rock im Revier festival, Metallica then included it in the setlists of their next three shows.