I was pretty depressed at the time because our gear had just been stolen, and we had been thrown out of our manager's house for breaking shit and drinking his liquor cabinet dry. I wrote the song at a friend's house in New Jersey. You could hear every squeak, so I had to be careful. Recording that song, I learned how frustrating acoustic guitar can be.

It was pretty much our first ballad, so we knew it would freak people out.

James Hetfield commented on the song in a 1991 interview with Guitar World: It begins with an acoustic guitar introduction and becomes progressively heavier as the song goes on, similar to their future songs, 'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)', ' One', and ' The Day That Never Comes'. The song's lyrics address suicidal feelings. Hetfield later admitted that a break-in to their gear truck resulting in the loss of his favorite Marshall amplifier also contributed to the mood of the song. In an interview on the set of the production MTV Icon: Metallica in 2003, drummer Lars Ulrich recalls how he and vocalist/rhythm guitarist James Hetfield were 'obsessed with death' at the time the album and song were produced. In March 2023, Rolling Stone ranked 'Fade to Black' at number 35 on their '100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time' list. The song is certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The song peaked at number 100 on Swiss Singles Chart in 2008. The song was ranked as having the 24th best guitar solo ever by Guitar World readers. ' Fade to Black' is a song and the first power ballad by American heavy metal band Metallica, released as the first promotional single from its second studio album, Ride the Lightning.

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