Garage Inc. is a part-studio, part-compilation album by the American heavy metal band Metallica, composed entirely of cover songs. Released as a double album on November 24, 1998, the first disc features new studio recordings, while the second includes previously released covers, such as B-sides and the entire Garage Days Re-Revisited EP (1987). Some of the material had been heavily bootlegged since their original releases, so the band decided to compile them in one package for accessibility. Sessions for the new covers took place over three weeks from September to October 1998 with producer Bob Rock.
Disc one features songs by artists that have influenced Metallica, including bands from the 1970s, such as Black Sabbath and Blue Öyster Cult; the new wave of British heavy metal, such as Diamond Head and Sweet Savage; and hardcore punk acts, such as Discharge. The project was named after the song "Damage, Inc.", from Master of Puppets (1986), while the cover artwork features the band as greasy mechanics.
The album was supported by three singles: covers of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page", Thin Lizzy's "Whiskey in the Jar", and Misfits' "Die, Die My Darling"; the first two featured music videos. Metallica promoted the album on a short five-show club tour in November 1998, with a Metallica tribute act as the opener. The album received positive reviews from critics. Several believed the band made the covers stand on their own through their own style, while others criticized the song choices as too obscure.
Background and production The day after Metallica finished the Poor Re-Touring Me Tour in San Diego, California, they hit the studio to start recording a new album of cover versions. As the band's drummer, Lars Ulrich, explained, the band wanted to do something different after "three pretty serious albums in a row, starting with [Metallica] and then Load and Reload", and the process would be easier by working with covers, especially as the band had a tradition of taking other people's songs and "[turning] them into something very Metallica, different from what the original artist did". The band had recorded many covers since their 1981 formation that were spread across various releases, such as B-sides of their singles and the 1987 EP The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited. Some of these covers, including Diamond Head's "Am I Evil?" and the Anti-Nowhere League's "So What", had become live favorites. Conceived in part to combat bootlegs of the previously released material, the project would "put [all of the covers] in a nice little packaging for easy listening" along with the newly recorded cover versions, chosen through a group decision. Ulrich said:
Garage Inc. would be the first time many fans gained access to the previously released material. Potential album titles included In Garage We Trust, Garage Up Your Ass, Dark Side of the Garage, Use Your Garage I & II, and Gives Good Garage. Ultimately, they named the album after their song "Damage, Inc.", from Master of Puppets (1986). According to the author Mick Wall, the project was an attempt to gain back credibility within the metal community following the band's mid-1990s "reinvention", while also "retaining the extra dimension of the band's image Lars and Kirk had worked so hard to stimulate".
The new recordings were taped over three weeks during sessions at The Plant Studios in Sausalito, California, from September to October 1998. Bob Rock returned from Metallica, Load, and Reload as producer, with assistance from Hetfield and Ulrich. Only one of the eleven songs on disc one was not done during these sessions, which was a version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Tuesday's Gone" the band recorded for a radio broadcast at KSJO Studios in San Jose, California on December 17, 1997. The recording featured an array of guest appearances, including Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney (guitarist and drummer of Alice in Chains), Les Claypool (bassist of Primus), Pepper Keenan (guitarist and vocalist of Corrosion of Conformity), Jim Martin (former guitarist of Faith No More), John Popper (frontman of Blues Traveler), and Gary Rossington (guitarist and founder of Lynyrd Skynyrd).
The band debuted two new covers during a show at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles on October 18, unveiling the Misfits' "Die, Die My Darling" and Bob Seger's "Turn the Page".
Songs Disc one According to Wall, the song choices on disc one "reflect the desire to keep faith with the past while retaining [Metallica's] newly á la mode edge". Ulrich said, "We like to turn [the songs] into something very Metallica, different from how the original artist did them." Several tracks are an homage to artists from the new wave of British heavy metal, such as Diamond Head and Sweet Savage. Ulrich was an avid fan of Diamond Head. After hearing "It's Electric", he later admitted: "If there was ever a song that made me want to be in a band, that was it. I wasn't in a band at the time [...]. That song was like, 'Holy hell, if I could just play that song or be in some sort of setup where I could live my life playing a song like that, that's what I want to do." Lead singer James Hetfield was also a fan, saying that Diamond Head's songs "kind of took you on journeys". A medley of Mercyful Fate songs, consisting of "Satan's Fall", "Curse of the Pharaohs", "A Corpse Without Soul", "Into the Coven", and "Evil", and titled "Mercyful Fate", acknowledges the impact of the 1980s hardcore metal scene. Metallica and Mercyful Fate grew close during the recording of the former's Master of Puppets. The influence of modern 1990s artists is heard through a cover of "Loverman" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, who had influenced Hetfield during the writing of Load and Reload.
Garage Inc. features five songs by 1970s bands that influenced Metallica: Black Sabbath's "Sabbra Cadabra", Blue Öyster Cult's "Astronomy", Thin Lizzy's 1973 rendition of "Whiskey in the Jar", and Bob Seger's "Turn the Page". The band chose "Sabbra Cadabra" for its main riff, which Ulrich described as "the fucking riff from hell". The band had played the song live while on tour with original Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne in 1986. Bassist Jason Newsted recalled feeling pressure living up to Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler, saying that "I tried the hardest to pay the most attention to be ultra respectful on". After recording "Astronomy", the band sent a cassette tape of the track to Blue Öyster Cult's bassist Joe Bouchard, who loved their rendition. Hetfield first heard "Turn the Page" during the sessions for Load, later admitting that he was not a fan of Seger but appreciated his music. He wanted to cover the song for Garage Inc. because he said it "sums up the whole road experience really, really well". Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett recreated the original song's saxophone part with a bottleneck slide guitar. He later said, "It pushed me to go other places with the slide that I didn't think I could pull off."
The band's original bassist Cliff Burton's influence is acknowledged with the presence of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Tuesday's Gone", the first record Hetfield ever bought, and Misfits' "Die, Die My Darling". Burton had also introduced the other band members to Discharge and Thin Lizzy, leading Metallica to cover the former's "Free Speech for the Dumb" and "The More I See", and the latter's 1973 rendition of "Whiskey in the Jar". Ulrich admired Discharge's "frenzied, anarchistic, and politically committed tracks" on their first album Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing (1982). For "Whiskey in the Jar", the band attempted the track multiple ways before settling on playing it like the punk rock band Social Distortion, who Hetfield was a fan of. For his guitar parts, Hammett paid tribute to Thin Lizzy's original guitarist Brian Robertson, who was one of his primary influences.
Other songs the band considered but rejected for the project included covers of Iron Maiden's "Prowler", Diamond Head's "Streets of Gold", Sweet Savage's "Eye of the Storm", Jaguar's "Backstreet Woman", and Witchfynde's "Leaving Nadir". They also considered other Misfits songs such as "Ghouls Nights Out", "Astro Zombies", and "London Dungeon", but settled on "Die, Die My Darling" as it fit Metallica's style better. Newsted was disappointed they did not cover Bill Withers's "Who Is He (And What Is He to You)?", or songs by Tom Waits, particularly "16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought-Six".
Disc two The second disc features 16 previously released covers separated by their original releases. Most of these songs are metal or punk-oriented. The first of these is The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited, which features covers of Diamond Head's "Helpless", Holocaust's "The Small Hours", Killing Joke's "The Wait", Budgie's "Crash Course in Brain Surgery", and Misfits' "Last Caress"/"Green Hell". The second set is the two covers of Diamond Head's "Am I Evil?" and Blitzkrieg's "Blitzkrieg", both originally released as the B-sides for the "Creeping Death" maxi-single in 1984.
The third set is subtitled B-sides and one-offs (1988–1993), which features the "Harvester of Sorrow" B-sides (Budgie's "Breadfan" and Diamond Head's "The Prince"), and covers of Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy" (originally appearing on the Rubáiyát: Elektra's 40th Anniversary compilation in 1990), Anti-Nowhere League's "So What" (a B-side of "The Unforgiven" maxi-single in 1991), and Sweet Savage's "Killing Time" (a B-side of "The Unforgiven" in 1991). The fourth and final set, subtitled Motörheadache, consists of the four Motörhead covers Metallica performed at its lead singer Lemmy's 50th birthday party in 1995. These are "Overkill", "Damage Case", "Stone Dead Forever", and "Too Late Too Late". They had first appeared on the "Hero of the Day" limited edition CD single in 1996.
Packaging The cover for Garage Inc. features an Anton Corbijn photograph of Metallica dressed as greasy mechanics. The cover art also reinstates the band's original logo, after the band had used a modernized design for Load and Reload. The accompanying 32-page CD booklet, designed by Andie Airfix, contained detailed explanations over the song choices, reproductions of the original artworks for the Garage Days EP and "Creeping Death" 12" single sleeve, and chronological photographs and memorabilia dating back to the band's early days.
Release and promotion
Garage Inc. was released on November 24, 1998, through Elektra Records. In the U.S., the compilation sold 426,500 units in the first week of release, making Metallica's fourth straight debut surpassing 400,000 copies. The album peaked at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200, kept off the top spot by Garth Brooks' Double Live. In 2000, it was certified 5x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Three singles were released from the project: "Turn the Page" on November 16, 1998; "Whiskey in the Jar" on February 1, 1999; and "Die, Die My Darling" on June 7 the same year. On the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, "Turn the Page" reached number 1, "Whiskey in the Jar" reached number 4, and "Die, Die My Darling" reached number 26. The band filmed a music video for "Turn the Page", which depicts a single mother, played by the pornographic actress Ginger Lynn, supporting her child through prostitution while living in motels. Another video was made for "Whiskey in the Jar", which is set in a lesbian sorority house. Both videos were directed by Jonas Åkerlund. At the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2000, "Whiskey in the Jar" won the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance.