Here we go with one of the most fun-est albums (Well, mini-albums) ever released, Metallica’s Garage Days Re-Revisted the $5.98 EP. Put into perspective Metallica had just lost their dear friend / bandmate / bass player Cliff Burton in a tragic accident (Read about that here) and I guess the band either had to pull up stumps on Metallica or continue with another bass player. That Bass player was Jason Newstead.
Jason had already learned the Metallica Material to be functional in the live gig sense to it was time to get his feet wet in the studio with the band. The Studio dynamic is much different to playing live and this was a great way to ease him into the band and the band into him.
The album opens up with “Helpless” a crunchy little number originally written by NwOBHM band “Diamond Head”. Everything sounds great and Jason gets a great bass sound straight out the gates. I’ll have to re-listen to the originals from this EP but it feels like Jason is given great scope to explore on the bass on the “Small Hours” (By Holocaust). Everything on this is instantly likeable.
“The Wait” (originally by Killing Joke) is up next and given a similar metallizing by Metallica. I still remember the first time I heard this. I was young when “…And Justice for All” came out but upon purchase I immediately went back and bought this one (which was still freely available at the time) this is just soooo much fun! “Crash course In Brain Surgery” is just glorious. This is Metallica in fully flight, I wonder if the greif over Cliff actualy contributed to the way they assualted these songs but nothing really compares to the two Misfits covers “Last Caress” and “Green Hell” and completely blew the Misfits out of the water with their versions. In my youth I was in a Metallica cover band and played this according to the metallica version but later played guest in a Misfits tribute band but couldn’t get my head around how out time and sloppy the Misfits version was… Yes I get it, the Misfits wrote it, but Metallica made it great.
Metallica’s version of these songs were not only a great excuse to get int the studio and break in Jason Newstead but they they introduced a whole generation of then young metalhed’s (including me) to the generation of metal before them. They also provided some much needed royalty cheques to those bands who in some cases had been relegated to working fast food jobs to stay alive. The machine that was Metallica not only payed homage to the bands that went before them, but provided a financial vehicle for those bands to be able to take another shot at the title. From this record alone the stars of all bands covered rose, but the Misfits, Diamond Head and Budgie were really able financially start touring again in no small way due to this release.
Metallica’s “Garage Days Re-revisted” is a fun record for those already following the band at the time but also resurrected the careers of the Misfits (Whom Cliff had pushed at every available opportunity) and given Diamond Head and Budgie a reasonable platform to resurrect their careers.
Others may disagree as these were highly regarded underground bands at the time, but I think Metallica did great versions of these songs and brought them forward to a late 1980’s crowd which these bands generally wouldn’t have reached.
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