Metallica: The $5.98 EP - Garage Days Re-Revisited [BLACKENED/UNIVERSAL]

Why you'll love it

This Blackened reissue brings back a record that sat out of print for nearly 30 years, newly remastered by Chris Bellman. It was the band's first recording with Jason Newsted and its first EP.

This edition

• Remastered
• Original five-track EP

About the album

Metallica had a Monsters of Rock slot at Castle Donington coming up, a new bassist and no new songs. James Hetfield had broken his arm skateboarding, so the band did the sensible thing: Jason Newsted put his construction experience to work soundproofing Lars Ulrich's garage in El Cerrito, and they rehearsed a stack of old favourites before recording them in Los Angeles over six days.

The picks show where Metallica came from. Diamond Head's "Helpless" and Holocaust's "The Small Hours" fly the flag for the new wave of British heavy metal, Budgie's "Crash Course in Brain Surgery" swaggers, and Kirk Hammett wandered into Killing Joke's "The Wait" while rehearsing something else. The Misfits' "Last Caress" and "Green Hell" are fused into one breakneck track. The sleeve credits the arrangement to Metallica and the production as "not very produced." The record closes with a deliberately ragged snippet of Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills," a cheeky wave across the Atlantic.

The title was there to stop shops overcharging fans. We've read it carefully and would like to point out that 1987 was a very long time ago.

Also at Kops: more Metallica on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Blackened Recordings, a reissue of the 1987 EP.