Metallica: Garage Inc. (3LP) [WARNER]

Why you'll love it

This 3LP set in a gatefold jacket gathers every cover Metallica had recorded up to 1998 in one place. It has their versions of "Turn the Page," "Whiskey in the Jar" and "Die, Die My Darling," and the band's own sleeve credits it as "somewhat produced" by Bob Rock.

This edition

• 3LP set
• Gatefold jacket

About the album

Metallica have always treated other people's songs the way mechanics treat a classic car: strip it down, bolt on something louder and take it for a spin. After three serious albums in a row, Lars Ulrich wanted a change of pace, so the day after the Poor Re-Touring Me tour ended in San Diego they went straight into the studio with Bob Rock and spent three weeks on new covers. The sleeve even dresses them as greasy garage hands.

The 1998 sessions pay tribute to the band's heroes, from Black Sabbath's "Sabbra Cadabra" and Blue Öyster Cult's "Astronomy" to Diamond Head's "It's Electric," Sweet Savage's "Killing Time," Discharge's "Free Speech for the Dumb," a Mercyful Fate medley and Nick Cave's "Loverman." "Tuesday's Gone" was cut live with a few friends in tow. The archive half rounds up the whole Garage Days Re-Revisited EP from 1987, the B-sides that had been bootlegged to death, and four Motörhead songs recorded live in 1995 for Lemmy's 50th birthday.

They launched it with a short run of club shows in November 1998 and booked a Metallica tribute act as the opener. Which, if you think about it, is the most efficient way yet devised to make sure the support band knows all the words.

Also at Kops: more Metallica on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Blackened (cat# BLCKND013-1), a reissue of the 1998 album.