THE $5.98 GARAGE DAYS RE-REVISITED

5/5 star thrash album, essential Metallica

But wait didn't I rate this 3 stars?

Well, it's a compromise rating. Seeing this EP unrated was very strange because during Metallica's peak run (RTL through Justice) this product was just as popular and essential listening as any of full length LPs. The energy here is so good, the band is at their most powerful, the song choices are perfect.

But......it's a cover album. And it's about as non-prog as any of their albums worth listening to get. And all of it is available in Garage, Inc.

I don't know if this thing is even available anymore, because it got absorbed. But Garage, Inc. is so hit and miss that one would easily lose the fact that this EP was a monster. Metallica did in fact have some other good covers during their peak, but Garage, Inc spans too wide and includes some true schlock.

Not so Garage Days Re-revisited. Everything here is perfect. The songs range from breakneck fast (Green Hell) to thunderhead heavy doom drag (The Small Hours). James Hetfield actually sings and it sounds like metal not some coached failed crooning which appears first on the Black Album and is still evident even on Death Magnetic. Hammett's solos are aggressive and fast, frenetic and he's yet to have his foot permanetly glued to the wah, never to play a good guitar solo again (also Black album onward). Newcomer Jason Newstead is loud and rockin' here, unlike the following LP where he's inaudible. The bass breaks in Crash Course in Brain Surgery are perfect, energetic, the new guy more than just holding down the bottom. Lars is in the pocket, recorded right in your face.

But most of all the riffs are so friggin great. It's as if Hetfield picked the best riffs of all time, applied his sold-his-soul-to-Satan right wrist and immense tone and you get heaviness that is still rarely matched and probably never bested 20+ years later. Helpless, the Wait, well every single song, are just so HEAVY. The guitars just pummel. Not with sixteenths but syncopation, attack, and pure dangerous attitude. Hetfield's vocal delivery is similarly as scary as it's ever been. You cannot touch me. You would not dare, he sings in perhaps his lowest notes on the album. He sings the infamous Last Caress with both punk disdain for all humanity but metal's love of evil, and for a short time Metallica was indeed the most dangerous band on the planet.

"The $5.98 Garage Days Re-Revisited" is an EP released in 1987 by US thrash metal act Metallica. The tracks on the EP were rehearsed in drummer Lars Ulrich's garage, but recorded at the A & M and Conway Studios in Los Angeles, California in July 1987. This is the first release by the band to feature the then new bassist Jason Newsted after the death of original bassist Cliff Burton in a tragic tour bus accident on the 27th of September 1986 near Dörarp, Sweden. So the EP served as a kind of welcome to the new kid (Jason Newsted is referred to as Jason Newkid in the liner notes) but also to mourn the loss of Cliff Burton and then move on. The CD re-release of the EP was re-titled "The $9.98 Garage Days Re-Revisited" to reflect the changed price for the CD version. The original intention with putting the price on the front cover and in the title of the EP was trying to ensure that the fans didn´t pay overprice. Both the Vinyl and the CD releases have been out of print for years. "The $5.98 Garage Days Re-Revisited" was also included in the "The Good, the Bad and the Live (1990)" boxset and it´s also available as part of the "Garage Inc. (1998)" cover tunes compilation album.

The EP features five cover tunes of Diamond Head, Holocaust, Killing Joke, Budgie and Misfits (or actually six songs, as "Last Caress / Green Hell" by Misfits are actully two short songs that segue into each other). NWoBHM and hardcore/ punk from the late seventies and early eighties were always Metallica´s biggest influence and it´s showcased on "The $5.98 Garage Days Re-Revisited" EP more than anywhere else in Metallica´s discography. These five songs are excellent examples of how Metallica have always been able to make cover songs their own. From the fast-paced hardcore/ punk of Misfits to the almost doomy heavy metal of Holocaust this is a great release.

The production is very good. Clean, sharp and powerful. It´s excellent but not over- produced. Remember this was about having fun.

"The $5.98 Garage Days Re-Revisited" is a great release by Metallica. An EP I always enjoy when I give it a spin. It´s lost none of its magic in the twenty years that has past since I purchased it the first time. A 3.5 - 4 star rating is well deserved.

Garage days indeed

This EP brings back a flood of memories, having covered some of these songs in our own garage band. Having played this thing to death one summer. Knowing even then that Metallica should have hung it up when Cliff passed. Yeah, I'm one of those purists who believe the band peaked with Master of Puppets and should have retired then, or at the latest with Justice. After Cliff's death the band took some time and regrouped with Jason Newsted. This was their first official release. The five tracks here are covers that were rehearsed in Ulrich's garage and then recorded in LA in the summer of 1987. While they lack the gravitas of the Puppets material the intent here was to have some fun, break in the new guy, and thrash. The version of Holocaust's "The Small Hours" was worth the $6 bucks to me, with its clean intro and slow, lumbering crunch. Very heavy stuff. "Last Caress" is a short, punkish, simple song that is all energy. They do a good job of making these tracks their own, delivering interpretations that will please their fans and perhaps stoke some interest in the original artists. A nice introduction piece for Newsted but completely unessential for prog fans, this is for Metallica (and metal) fans to hunt down.