Music Reviews The Tattoo

Metallica’s ‘Garage Inc.’ runs, but needs a tune up

BRISTOL, Connecticut, U.S.A. — Metallica has done it again.

They’ve put out another album to rock the charts and seize back the love from their moshing fans since their last two releases, ReLoad and Load disappointed many. So this was going to be their huge comeback. They made appearances, they did interviews, all to bulk up Garage Inc. All to get back their prior hard metal reputations.

It didn’t work.

If anything, it drove them into the perpetual hole that they have been digging since 1996.

At first glance Garage Inc. looks promising. Its two-CD cover pictures Metallica looking, well, grungy. Plus any hard rock fan recognizes at least some of the songs they are covering on this CD.

Back to the songs. Some artists featured are Black Sabbath, the innovators of rock as we know it; Bob Seeger;  and some others who obviously caught Metallica’s interest in one form or another.

On the second disc there are songs from some of Metallica’s earliest albums, Garage Days Re-Revisited from 1984 to 1987, B Sides and One-Offs from 1988 to 1991 — three albums that are hard to find items or simply no longer available.

My first reaction is that this could have promise, especially with songs like “Blitzkrieg” that are considered to be in the list of greatest Metallica hits.

I was wrong.

The second CD was good — VERY good actually — but the first CD took away what little faith I still had in Metallica as a “heavy” band.

The only good songs were “Turn the Page,” “Die Die my Darling,” and “Loverman.”

I couldn’t even sit through “Whiskey in the Jar,” and, yes, there was another country song that brought back memories of Load.

If you have 20 bucks and want to listen to the second CD off of Garage Days Inc. then I recommend that you buy this. However if you are still aching over Reload then take a break from Garage Inc. until you can muster the strength to listen with an open mind.

Jessica Norton is a Reporter for Youth Journalism International.

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