A double album of newly recorded covers and re-released B-sides is a very unusual product for the eighth full-length release from a wildly successful band, but Garage Inc. is exactly what Metallica needed to release to keep their long-time fans interested in 1998. Their are exceptions, but for the most part this is the music that inspired the band’s earliest works: loud, fast, aggressive punk and metal.

The covers of New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands such as Discharge, Diamond Head, Motorhead, and Mercyful Fate are most effective, but the band sounds great playing their spin on Misfits punk and the less thrashy metal of Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult as well. The only track that falls flat is “Tuesday’s Gone”; the band makes a nice attempt and John Popper’s harmonica is an excellent addition, but the result simply does not stand up against the original.

The recording of Garage Inc. reinvigorated a band that was losing its way and, in the process, introduced a new generation of fans to great bands they otherwise would have never heard.