• AllMyVinyl #95
• Band: Metallica
• Album Title: Garage Inc
• Release Date: 24 Nov 1998
• Date purchased: 19 May 2022
• Location purchased: Walmart
• Color of vinyl: translucent blue (they call “Fade to Blue”)
• Number of discs: 3
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

This is an album that people either love or hate.  Part of that I think has to do with the fact it was the next thing released after the Load/ReLoad albums which a lot of Metallica fans didn’t care for – and the album that came after this was “St Anger” an album that nearly everyone dislikes.  So I always attributed Garage Inc’s status as coming out during that period of the band’s history.  If Garage Inc was released now, it might be received differently.

This is basically an album of nothing but covers by Metallica.   As such the inspiration is all over the place.  In this vinyl series I’ve been doing, I’ve been breaking down the songs musically, but this time around since it’s all covers, I’m going to list them mostly so I can say who did the original – most won’t have commentary (just a short yes/no type thing), but some will.

I bought it on CD back when it was new in the late 90’s – still have that around somewhere.  However in 2022, I got it as part of Walmart’s re-release of all of Metallica’s studio albums.  They were released in three sets, one of which included Garage Inc here.  The vinyl is actually one of my favorite looking from just a physical standpoint off any of them.  The packaging calls it “Fade to Blue” vinyl, but it’s really just a nice translucent light blue color – almost baby blue, but not quite that bright. There’s a picture of that below.  The vinyl also has three discs where the CD had two discs.

A word about the past.  Back in the late 80’s after OG bassist Cliff Burton died, the first thing they did with replacement Jason Newsted was to pop into the studio and do a quick and dirty EP of covers.  It was called “The $5.98 EP – Garage Days Re-Revisited“.  It had just five songs, and I bought it back in the day.  However, I no longer have that original.  I don’t know why, but I ditched it for some reason. Wish I could remember why I did that.  Oh well.  The recordings from that original are all on here were a reference to the studio in Lars Ulrich’s house – played in his actual garage – hence the title.  That original artwork is included in here in the various pictures printed in the set, one of them modified with then current pics of the same guys which was amusing.

Anyway, to the tracks..

Free Speech For the Dumb – Cover of a song by the band “Discharge”.  It’s quick, fast, and mostly just repeats the title.  Not one of my favorite songs, but the title made me chuckle, as it’s an allegory for today’s current political climate in the US.  ha. :)

It’s Electric – Cover of a song by the band Diamond Head.  Don’t know the original, but I enjoyed this.  Quick and fast – but not a ton of variety in its musical construction.

Sabbra Cadabra – A Black Sabbath cover.  Good cover.  The original comes from the 73 “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” album.  Always loved this one.  It doesn’t end there, as the cover keeps going and covers part of Sabbath’s “A National Acrobat” as well.  One of my favorite Sabbath covers, actually.

Turn the Page – A Bob Seger cover, and was the first single off the album.  I have a friend of mine who is a big Bob Seger fan who would give me that bitter beer face when he heard it.  I rather liked this cover, but then I tend to like Metallica covers for the most part.  I still thing Seger’s original is better here, though.  They produced a music video for this song.

Die Die My Darling – Cover of a Misfits song, written by Glen Danzig.  Didn’t do much for me.

Loverman – Cover of a song by “Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds”.  Too long – didn’t like this at all.  One of the actual negatives here for me.

Mercyful Fate Medley – A medley of Mercyful Fate songs.  They’re credited as being written by King Diamond and Hank Shermann.  Fate’s not one of my favorite bands around, but I did like the medley.  It worked out for King Diamond, he was apparently able to buy himself a nice car with the first royalty check from the sales of this album.  :)

Astronomy – A Cover of a Blue Oyster Cult song.  Can’t say I knew this BOC song.  About halfway through the song, the power level goes up which makes it quite nice and elevates the BOC original into a higher plane as Metallica can do.

Whiskey in the Jar – A cover of well..  a really old song.  I used to think it was a Thin Lizzy song, but that was just where I found out about it originally.  I *ADORE* this cover.  It’s by far my favorite thing on the entire set.  It’s also one of those songs that gets me stuck, when I hear it once, I tend to have to hear it like 3-4 times in a row.  It’s by far the thing I’ve listened to the most from this album. There was a video produced for this at the time which itself is fun.

As a side note.. There used to be a podcast I would regularly appear on back in my days working at Apogee talking about various game things.  The host went by the nickname of “TC” and the show was called “Daily Dementia”.   I was on so much I had my own theme song, it was the start of this cover of Whiskey by Metallica.  :)

Tuesday’s Gone – A Lynyrd Skynyrd cover.  I really liked this cover.  It isn’t all about how loud Metallica can make the song louder.  One of my favs on the album, actually.

The More I See – A cover by a band called “Discharge”.  Don’t know them, don’t know the song outside this album.   Has a great bass line that runs through most of the track.  Good stuff there.

Thus ends what the album refers to as “New Recordings ’98”.  On CD that was Disc 1.  On vinyl it takes up all of Disc 1 and the first half of Disc 2 (or Sides A, B, & C).  The next few tracks are what comprise the original $5.98 Garage Days EP.  One other remark about the $5.98 EP – given it was recorded in the 80’s, it sounds different than the newer stuff.  Not bad or anything, but the different production values in the various eras can heard when you listen to the entire album in full.

Helpless – Diamond Head cover.  Probably my favorite from the original $5.98 EP.  This was an introduction for me to Diamond Head – I didn’t know them before this song.  Good cover.

The Small Hours – A song by a band called Holocaust which was totally unknown to me.  I didn’t care for the opening to this track, it has a really weird guitar sound that was in the neighborhood of “fingernails on a chalkboard” for me.  However once the full band got it, it had a nice sludge sound akin to early 70’s Black Sabbath.

The Wait – A cover by another NWOBHM band – “Killing Joke”.  Never heard of them either.  Good track.  I like the main crunchy riff that runs through it.

Crash Course in Brain Surgery – My second favorite from the OG $5.98 EP.  It’s my favorite thing – a 3:10 mostly fast song that just hits you and doesn’t stop.  The riff isn’t the most inventive out there, but the combination of the band together makes this work for me.

Last Caress / Green Hell – This one always weird for me.  As a piece of music I liked it, but I honestly don’t care for the lyrics at all.  It’s a Misfits song written by Glenn Danzig.  Although I do say I like the Green Hell part much better.  It’s pretty thrashy where the Caress part is not.  This ends with a weird guitar riff which is an Iron Maiden song, but it doesn’t go anywhere.

The next couple of tracks are from what’s called “Garage Days Revisited” – the first one.  The tracks above were from the second one in 1987.  As far as I can tell, that wasn’t a proper album or EP that was released, just a colloquial name of two tracks recorded in that era and referred to by that name?  If you’re reading this and can show me a proper release of the original “Garage Days Revisited”, I’d like to see it. Links please.  Tkx.

Am I Evil? – Probably the most played song from anything on the entire set – Metallica still plays this track to this day – I can’t lie and say it’s played at every concert, but it’s at a lot of them.  The original is a Diamond Head track.  Metallica played this so much I initially thought it was their track.  Obviously I was wrong about that, but in the early days I thought it was them.  :)

Blitzkrieg – Cover of a song by the band Blitzkrieg also called Blitzkrieg.  They’re still technically around these days (although with just one original member).   It’s a great song.  Sounds like a band I probably should have been more into back in the day.  Anyone following me a Blitzkrieg fan?  Any recommendations?

The next several tracks are labeled “B-Sides and one offs 88-91”..

Breadfan – A track from the band Budgie that originally came out in 1973.  Parts of the Metallica cover still sound like the 73 original.  An excellent cover.  Really enjoyed this.

The Prince – Diamond Head again.  They must really like Diamond Head.  Great fast track.  Not a lot to say but it was definitely enjoyable.

Stone Cold Crazy – Now this is stellar AF.  It’s a cover of the most balls out metal track Queen ever recorded.  This cover is just as good.  I always wished Queen did more songs like this.  My favorite moment with the Metallica version was the year after Freddie Mercury died, what was left of Queen did a tribute concert where in their half of the show they played Queen songs with a ton of different guests.  They did Stone Cold Crazy live with James Hetfield on vocals.  Was Brian May, John Deacon, & Roger Taylor along with Tony freakin’ Iommi on stage.  Was one of the best moments I’ve ever seen live – wish I would have seen it in person.  I’ve embedded the video for this on my blog post.

So What – Cover of a song by a band called “Anti-Nowhere League”.  Don’t care for this musically or lyrically.  Actually skipped it on this listen today – got about 30 seconds in, went “nope” and moved to next track.

Killing Time – This one is interesting because it was a cover of a band called “Sweet Savage”.  SS is notable for being the place that Vivian Campbell was before he left SS to join Dio for their first three albums.  Campbell is credited as one of the authors of this song.

The last four songs on this are collectively called “Motorheadache ’95”.  That’s because all four of them are Motörhead songs.  The four songs are:  Overkill, Damage Case, Stone Dead Forever, & Too Late Too Late.  Lemmy’s voice is so distinctive as vocalist there that James’ vocals on the Metallica covers seem to pale a bit.  I’m not the biggest Motörhead fan, but man do they have a distinctive sound that serves them well.  These four aren’t my favorite tracks on the album because of that.  As music, I think it’s covered well, but Hetfield’s vocals IMO are the weak point – which really isn’t something one normally says.  I do really like their take on Damage Case, though.

Overall, there’s lot a lot to say about the set as a whole.  It’s basically three vinyl discs of Metallica covers sourced from all over the place.  I do wish I never got rid of my original $5.98 Garage Days EP.  But I did.  The music form it is on here, and that’s something.   I know Metallica has covered Black Sabbath more live, I don’t think they’ve covered them on a studio track again?  Wouldn’t mind that.  I know they covered a bunch of Dio stuff for a Dio tribute album which was cool, but I’d like to see ’em tackle Sabbath again.

Overall, a good listen today – I like the majority of this with a few of them being really great.   But I can also see where some wouldn’t care for this.