30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Dave Mustaine says Metallica stole ‘Enter Sandman' riff from another band
Dave Mustaine, frontman of Megadeth and former Metallica guitarist, has reignited a long-running controversy by accusing his former band of lifting the signature riff from their most popular hit, 'Enter Sandman,' from a lesser-known thrash act.
In a recent appearance on The Shawn Ryan Show, Mustaine claimed that Metallica's 1991 hit bears a striking resemblance to 'Tapping Into the Emotional Void,' a track by Los Angeles crossover thrash band Excel released just two years earlier.
'Hell, their biggest song, 'Enter Sandman' — go look up the band Excel right now,' Mustaine said. 'Look up their song, I think it's something 'Into the Unknown.' Pretty similar.'
The track in question appears on 'The Joke's on You,' Excel's second studio album. Though the band never filed a lawsuit, similarities between the two songs have fueled speculation for decades.
'A lawsuit, unfortunately, sucks everything else out of your life,' Excel's then-manager Jane Hoffman told the Los Angeles Times in 1991.
Metallica co-manager Cliff Burnstein said at the time that he had never heard the Excel track, though he was familiar with the band.
Mustaine, who was dismissed from Metallica in 1983 before the band recorded its debut album, has a history of accusing his former bandmates of using his material.
'I told them when I left, 'Do not use my music.' And of course they used it,' he said, citing songs like 'Ride the Lightning,' 'The Call of Ktulu' and 'The Four Horsemen.'
'I wrote a bunch of 'Leper Messiah,' too,' Mustaine added. 'They didn't give me credit on that. You listen to the riffs, you know they're my riffs.'
He first raised the Excel comparison more than 20 years ago, and the claim continues to resurface.
In 2023, 'Enter Sandman' surpassed 1.6 billion streams on Spotify, securing its place in the platform's '1 Billion Club.'
Earlier this month, the track headlined Metallica's first-ever show at Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium — a fitting location, as the song has famously accompanied the Hokies' football entrance for nearly 25 years, even causing minor seismic activity.
'Enter Sandman,' which debuted on Metallica's self-titled 1991 release, also known as 'The Black Album,' remains a staple of the band's live performances.
Metallica — consisting of frontman James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo — is currently touring North America on its 'M72 World Tour.' The band is scheduled to perform at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara on June 20 and 22.
