November 24, 1998 - Garage Inc.

A week after my last release and a year since "Reload", Metallica released a cover album titled "Garage Inc." on November 24, 1998. Metallica covered songs largely by bands that inspired them in their youth, but there are a couple newer covers as well. Just like Slayer a couple years ago, Metallica decided to pay homage to the bands that they love. Let's listen to some Metallica covers!

The album begins with "Free Speech For The Dumb", originally by Discharge and it has a pretty repetitive and distorted main riff that Kirk Hammett nicely does some soloing overtop of. The only lyrics are the name of the song and "free fuckin' speeeeech" but James Hetfield delivers them well and sounds solid. A pretty simple cover but it was still a solid little opener. Up next is "It's Electric", originally by Diamond Head, and it has a nice upbeat main riff with some catchy guitar from James and Kirk and Hetfield sounds pretty good singing the verse. This sounds like an early 80s metal song for sure and it seems like it would've been a decent single I think, it's pretty accessible. Hammett's guitar solo is pretty awesome and it's way faster than anything we've heard from Metallica lately, which is definitely a good thing! For a more made-for-radio sounding cover, this was pretty cool! Track 3 is "Sabbra Cadabra", a cover of the legendary Black Sabbath, and Hetfield's guitar sounds just like Tony Iommi's and everything sounds pretty great. Hetfield's voice isn't quite as loud or passionate as Ozzy Osbourne's, but he still does a solid job singing along. They do a good job of sticking to the original blueprint, but Black Sabbath certainly did it better. Sorry to Lars Ulrich and Jason Newsted but the rhythm section is nowhere close to Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. Still a decent cover, but those are hard shoes to fill. The next track is "Turn The Page", a Bob Seger cover that would become a pretty big single for Metallica. Newsted's bass sounds much better in the background on this one and Hetfield plays some slow and epic guitar to carry things along. James' vocals sound really good on this one as he nicely hits some low notes and just sounds nice and epic to match the mood perfectly. After a quiet start they nicely shift to a heavier, more Metallica version of the same riff and James continue to sound good in this version and the chorus. I'm not a fan of Bob Seger or the original version of this song, but this cover is pretty cool and really well done even though it's not very flashy. The quiet part with just Hetfield and Newsted sounds great and it makes the return to the heavy part sound better as well. Hammett plays a simple but still solid little solo and Hetfield gives it all for the final couple choruses as they nicely wrap up a pretty cool cover and single! Track 5 is "Die, Die My Darling", originally by Misfits, and it's an upbeat and pretty quick song with a catchy main guitar riff and some easy to sing along to vocals. This song is just chorus/verse over and over, but it's only two and a half minutes so it doesn't drag and it has a nice bouncing beat to it. Up next is a newer cover, "Loverman" which is originally by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Hetfield sounds pretty good singing overtop the quiet music in the verse and the loud chorus hits pretty hard as they snap into a distorted and pretty heavy riff. The lyrics in the verses are a little weird but the quiet verse/loud chorus combo sounds pretty good. Even though it's almost eight minutes long they don't start from these two parts, and surprisingly things don't drag and sound solid the whole way through. An odd but interesting cover for sure. Track 7 is a medley of five different songs, all by the band Mercyful Fate, and so Metallica named the track "Mercyful Fate". Hammett comes out firing with a nice opening guitar solo and this first part is nice and upbeat with Hetfield sounding good overtop of a catchy guitar riff. They move into a new part with some thrash-y guitar and bass that sounds cool and Hetfield sounds good singing in a higher voice here as well. Hammett delivers another guitar solo and I love how everything sounds like 80s Metallica here! It's a pretty wicked and long solo and the backing riff is pretty catchy and cool as well. This section was pretty awesome and they segue nicely into the next part where Hammett leads the way with another catchy and cool guitar riff. This part is more made-for-radio, but it's shorter and what's really impressive is Metallica's progressiveness as they weave all these parts together really well. The next part sounds like another catchy and thrash-y riff and there's some good contributions from everyone, especially another cool solo by Hammett. The final section of the song has a stop-and-start riff that sounds pretty good and Hammett is really showing off here with another pretty sweet solo and I love that he gets to solo so much, including another fast one soon after! This is easily my favourite song on the album and it's the thrashiest we've heard Metallica in a bit, and boy is it refreshingly awesome! The next track is "Astronomy" by Blue Oyster Cult and some synths sound very un-Metallica but the quiet guitar and bass are alright and Hetfield sounds solid leading the way. The chorus is louder and heavier and sounds decent but it's still fairly simple and this is all pretty tame for Metallica. Hammett tries to spice up the second chorus, but his lead guitar is still pretty chill until they reach the long finale. Hammett gets to show off a little bit more here in this cool closing part that eventually fades to a close. Track 9 is another succesful single called "Whiskey In The Jar", a song that is technically listed as traditional, but it's the Thin Lizzy version that inspired Metallica. The guitars are slow but heavy and sound alright and Hetfield sings a verse that matches the mood very well. The chorus is pretty catchy but it's hard not to chuckle at Hetfield's "whiskey in the jar-o". Hetfield plays the guitar solo on this one, and you can kinda tell it's not Hammett because it's a pretty simple and not that exciting solo. It's certainly made-for-radio, but it's undeniably catchy and also fairly decent. Up next is "Tuesday's Gone", originally by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and there are a whole slew of guest musicians who help out with this cover. There's Les Claypool from Primus on banjo, original Skynyrd member Gary Rossington helping out on guitar, and both Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney from Alice In Chains, just to name a few! There's a whole ton of people all helping to rekindle Skynyrd's Southern magic and things sound pretty similar to the original actually as Hetfield does a decent Ronnie Van Zant. There's a pretty sweet harmonica solo after the first couple rounds, and that's a sentence that doesn't get said often! Everything about this is not what you'd expect from Metallica, but they and their friends do a surprisingly good job at playing this style. As the song comes to a close at nearly nine minutes we hear James thank a bunch of the guests and Lars even says "let's do that again" right at the end. It was unusual, but interesting for sure! The last track on the album is "The More I See" and the album ends as it began with a Discharge cover. Newsted plays a nice bass riff and the guitars sound pretty good as well, as does Hetfield's vocals which makes for a cool main riff! This pretty much covers the whole song, but after 15 seconds of silence there's a short bonus cover of "Bridge Of Sighs" by

Robin Trower. It's a pretty epic minute plus with some cool guitar by Hammett and it seems like a nice way to finish things off.

That is the end of "Garage Inc." and I thought it was a solid cover album. Metallica are pretty diverse with their choices, but they do everything pretty well. There's even some throwbacks to the great 80s stuff even though most of the album is still done in their modern style. "Mercyful Fate" was my favourite for sure and the really it's the fact that Kirk Hammett gets to really let loose like we know he can that makes this cover album easily better than their two most recent studio albums. It also is nowhere close to any of their other albums though so sixth place will have to do. This is also my final album of the year, and so begins the year-end wrap-up! 14 albums this year (and one EP) is a decent number and of course there was lots of great music, including a couple really awesome new bands!

Favourite song of the year: there are a lot of good options this year and it's quite difficult to pick just one of them. I could easily pick half a dozen songs by System of a Down, but I actually think the best song this year must be "Three Minute Warning" by Liquid Tension Experiment. It's such an amazing 28 minute ride and the fact that it was all improvised just astounds and amazes.

Top 10 Albums of the Year

1. System Of A Down by System Of A Down
2. Liquid Tension Experiment by Liquid Tension Experiment
3. Chaosphere by Meshuggah
4. My Arms, Your Hearse by Opeth
5. The Shape Of Punk To Come by Refused
6. Americana by The Offspring
7. Crystal Planet by Joe Satriani
8. Diabolus In Musica by Slayer
9. Follow The Leader by Korn
10. Garage Inc. by Metallica

The top 4 albums of 1998 were all pretty awesome, and the top two were both excellent! Liquid Tension Experiment would win a lot of other years, but System Of A Down's debut is just too good to deny the top spot. Only one year left to go this decade, onward to 1999!