Metallica - Garage Inc. | ||
| Tracks: Disc 1 |
Album Cover: |
Label: Vertigo Producers: Bob Rock with Ulrich & Hetfield Year: 1999 Total Playing Time: 2 hours + Review date: 6 March 1999 |
| Web site: www.metclub.com
Email: | ||
| Rating: 7/8 | ||
| Verdict: Metallica have found their niche in life - as a covers band. | ||
| Quite why I keep buying Metallica albums is a bit of mystery, even to me. I would never describe myself as a Metallica fan & they are the only 'thrash metal' band that I've shown any interest in. In fact, the whole trash metal thing was when I lost interest in metal and started to concentrate on more melodic music. It started with 'The Black Album', which I like, but also includes And Justice For All (literally one decent tune) and both Load & Reload, which are pretty damned forgettable. I think this release is a stop-gap measure to keep the fans interested whilst they contemplate their next move following the discontent the so-called 'true' Metallica fans showed when presented with Load/Reload. Metallica have always been very vocal about their influences and their love of the NWOBHM in particular. My own interest in music started around the punk/NWOBHM era, so that period holds an interest for me as well. Over the years they've issued EPs with covers of various NWOBHM and punk tunes. Disc II is simply these EPs collected together onto one CD. The first batch of tunes off the Garage Days Re-revisited EP aren't much more than noise and "Am I Evil?" represents the start of the disc as far as I am concerned. Top tunes are "Am I Evil?", "Breadfan" and all the Motorhead covers. Disc I contains the new recordings. The band stamp their Load/Reload sound all over the cover versions. Surprisingly, it is an entertaining proposition. This disc also makes it obvious why Load/Reload were disappointing - the songs were crap. Give Metallica some decent tunes to work with, i.e. written by other people, and they excel themselves. All the songs are given the Metallica treatment and there is no danger of you mistaking these versions with the originals. As you can see the tunes covered are a mixture of metal and punk, with Bob Seger & Lynyrd Skynyrd being the surprises of the package. The Discharge songs at either end aren't to my tastes, but elsewhere the covers work fairly well. The exception being Tuesday's Gone which feels awkward. My favourites are "It's Electric" & "Astronomy". Included with the package is a comprehensive set of liner notes telling the Metallica story & the part these songs played in that story. An interesting read. The very first sentence in those notes reads - "It may be the worst thing you can say about a rock band: "They just play covers."". Well, to my mind Metallica have found their niche in life - as a covers band. Maybe they should enlist some outside help in the songwriting department for their next proper studio album | ||
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