Hear St. Vincent and Jason Isbell Cover Metallica’s ‘Sad but True’
St. Vincent and Jason Isbell have released covers of "Sad but True" ahead of the expanded reissue of Metallica's 1991 Black Album on Sept. 10.
You can listen to the tracks below, along with another cover of the song by singer-songwriter Sam Fender. Metallica have also released a demo version of the original song, the 36th take, that was recorded in February 1991.
A total of 53 artists contribute covers of Black Album songs on The Metallica Blacklist, which is also due on Sept. 10.
The reissue of the Black Album, an LP that marked a distinctive shift in sound for Metallica, includes more than 24 hours of demo recordings, rough mixes, interviews with band members and live material, all documenting the journey to the breakthrough LP and the subsequent tour.
"Kids come up and say, 'How come you don't do Kill 'Em All again?'" frontman James Hetfield told Rolling Stone in 1991. "And I go, 'Yeah, I like that album, too. But there's more to our music than that.' We can still do it live, and when we play it, we mean it, man. But we have those songs in the set already. And they'll be there for the life of the band.
"But sitting there and worrying about whether people are going to like the album, therefore we have to write a certain kind of song — you just end up writing for someone else. Everyone's different. If everyone was the same, it would be boring as shit."
Listen to Metallica's 'Sad but True' (Take 36)
Listen to St. Vincent's 'Sad but True'
Listen to Jason Isbell's 'Sad but True'
Listen to Sam Fender's 'Sad but True'