"The Unforgiven" is a song by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released as the third single from their fifth album Metallica. Though one of the slower tracks on the album, its chord progression is distinctly one of the heavier.

The song has since spawned two sequels (both in name proper as well as thematically), in the form of "The Unforgiven II", from the album ReLoad, and "The Unforgiven III" from the album Death Magnetic.

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 dynamic, with heavy, distorted verses and a softer, melodic chorus, played with classical guitars.

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 - Metallica. 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 in the bands current "World Magnetic" tour. Also, the song was the band's third Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #35. It had a music video directed by Matt Mahurin.

The live version of "Unforgiven" includes a second solo near the end of the song, something the original recording did not have.

An accompanying video was released for the song. Directed by Matt Mahurin, the black and white video is themed around a boy who spends his life living in captivity inside a small, windowless room made entirely of stone. As the video progresses he ages into an adult and then an old man. He spends his entire life carving into the stone to create a window while occasionally grasping his one possession: a locket. It is inferred that another captive lives on the other side of the stone room. The video ends with the old man finally creating a window through which he deposits his possession and subsequently lays down to die. A 11:33, "theatrical" version of the video exists, featuring several minutes of introductory scenes which precede the timeline of the main portion of the video. This version was featured on The Videos 1989-2004, the band's 2006 music video compilation.

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