Garage Days Re-Revisited

I’m going to start of by saying I think this is the peak of Metallica's recorded performances. Obviously it does not showcase their pure writing talents, but their ability to arrange songs to improve their pace and sound is on display here in addition to the overall themes of a killer guitar tone, the best sounding bass tone in their entire catalogue, some truly quality drumm patterns and fills and Kirk’s best written solos. There’s a certain raw quality that says “not overproduced” but obviously a super tight performance, not sloppy at all. Lets dig into each track. Helpless- A fine drum intro without Lars later years snare tone. The guitar tone here is exquisite. Kind of a typical old school tallica arrangement with power chords and some muted open strings. But some speed metal riffage during the chorus “helpless”. Something the Metallica of today is lacking. The Bass fill with 4:15 left is a nice showcase of Newsted and his bassline throughout the entire song is pretty slick, and we can actually hear it. Listen to it behind the twin guitar part that follows. With some more speed metal riff following that, it harkens back to a metallica of the KEA era. The song wraps up right after a Hammett solo that gives us a glimpse of a guitar player that is not resting on his laurels, but is out to impress guitar players. Unfortunately we would only ever get one more album with that Kirk playing on it. The Small Hours - We often think of Slayer as the thrash band that would give us the creepy, horror movie soundtrack intros, but here the Bay Area boys give us an intro right out of a cult horror classic. Lars’ drumming on this track is one of my favorites. The main track sounds slower than the original, but it adds an ominous overtone to the entire track. Again the speed with the great guitar tone delivers a fantastic groove that one can’t help but slowly headbang too. There’s some great basswork going on behind the guitar in the verses. Why this wasn’t the case for the rest of Metallica recording history is beyond me. With 2:35 left in the track, we hear some old school galloping speed riffs and then another one of those guitar solos that’s on fire. And not a trace of future bluesy bendy notes that Kirk is now known for. The Wait - This is a song I always thought Prong should cover, but Metallica diverts further from the original than I think Tommy and Co. would have. The opening vocals sound like something that Dave Mustaine would have done on So Far.. So Good... So What! Not typical for Hetfield at all, and I like it. Like the original by Killing Joke, there is some popping bass lines going on throughout the song. Pay attention when there is 2:15 left in the track Metallica had found a real jem with Newstead, it’s a shame that they buried him so much and so often during his tenure. James’ vocals also impress during the chorus “The Waaaaaaait” is done with precision that at that time I didn’t think he had. With 1:15 left we get another Kirk solo, but it’s part ripping and part bendy, feely with way too much wah pedal.Probably my least favorite solo on the EP Crash Course in Brain Surgery - Bass intro of coolness. And another track that they seemingly chose to showcase their new bassist. Pay attention to 0:37 left , that’s the perfect bass tone on a perfect bass lick. Another track that features a more standard old school power chord/palm muted open string section. But that’s a vast improvement over the original. With 1:05 left Kirk launches into a short solo that perfectly shows why he was in all guitar magazines as the hot shot guitar player from the thrash genre. Easily my favorite solo on the album and in the running for my favorite Kirk solo ever. Last Caress/ Green Hell - As a dude that like the Danzig era Misfits, the highlight of this cover was actually hearing the song. The old Misfits recordings suffer terribly from sound quality of a shoebox tape recorder...in a fishbowl….in a different room….of a different house...across the street from the band. On top of that, the misfits obviously couldn’t afford good amps, so their guitar tone from the start was lackluster at best. I always figured they wrapped their guitar strings loosely with aluminum foil to get their “distortion” because that’s how I replicated it when I was a kid. So here we have Metallica doing a pretty faithful rendition of the original(s) with a killer guitar tone and quite clear recordings, even if it was done in a garage. All in all, I’d rather listen to this EP than any of Metallica’s LPs. Even though I really like a lot of the writing that James has done, unfortunately the best written songs also happen to be the worst recorded songs. Had AJFA been recorded to sound like Garage Days, people would barely remember MOP. I don’t understand why they chose to sabotage themselves with what would have been their obvious masterpiece had they just stuck a good sounding recording that they had managed to achieve in 6 days in a garage.

After Cliff left us I think just about anyone who was into Metallica wasn't sure what was going to happen and then there was whispers of Flotsam and Jetsam's founder/bassist being considered as a replacement! I already enjoyed Doomsday For The Deceiver, so I was looking forward to what was going to happen and, what I thought was a great way to break the ice by putting out an EP of others' songs that way there was no impression that was going to determine Jason's fate because he didn't quite sound or play like Cliff, because believe me, filling Burton's shoes was not going to be an easy task, for he was probably thee best metal bassist at that point in time and he pretty much made Master Of Puppets!! If it wasn't for Cliff, Master Of Puppets never would have gotten done! But after a long awaited release of anything, the $5.98 EP came out... and me and my buddies were probably juniors in high school, because I actually got to see Cliff in ABQ opening for Ozzy's Ultimate Sin Tour and that was one of the best shows I've ever seen and then like a week later as I'm walking up to our smoking circle everyone was somber and upset and then they told me about Cliff and I was freaked out because I literally just saw the guy the previous week!! Anyway back to the $5.98... so when I first popped this in, I couldn't take it out of my car's tape deck, would try a different album..... AND NOPE, put $5.98 back in! And the bass playing and timbre on that EP is so friggin solid and he's tight as hell but yet there was just enough looseness to make everything flow perfectly and that EP, in my opinion, blows away anything they did after the Black Album! I couldn't believe that they basically shut Jason out on And Justice For All...! Couldn't even tell there was a bass on there and then, and I believe it had everything to do with Bob Rock, they finally got a real producer in the studio to show them what to do and what NOT to do, which was a long list, but finally Jason was justified and Bob brought him out of the dark and into the mix and everything sounded great, the way it is supposed to sound! And because James and Lars are a bunch of emotionally crippled little boys that sit around and cry all day until they get their ways, and because they are exactly the same A-hole all wrapped into one HUGE A-hole, nothing ever got done and I'm glad Jason left them high and dry, they treated him like complete shit when they should have been praising him and thanking him and shouting out to the crowd for him...!? But NOOOOOOO! the two biggest pussies to ever walk the Earth just had to keep digging and digging and digging until Jason just said that's enough and I'm done with you D-bags! That 'Some Kind Of Monster' rock-doc or whatever you want to call it.... is an absolute embarrassment to those 4 guys, or I should say 'boys' because they were far from men in that film! Absolutely pathetic and Cliff would have taken those two and knocked their heads together for trying to do some crap like that with him still around! That was it for me, I enjoyed the Black Album, it was done well and for the most part, all the songs were pretty decent and of course Bob Rock did a great production on that! But from the, 'Jump In The Fire' EP to the Black Album is about the only Metallica that I can even take seriously!

Excellent CD great songs they are on garage inc. I also have on cassette so I bought the CD for my collection

Awesome Metallica album I'm glad I own it.

The recording is top notch, crystal clear and strait as a arrow. It even comes with a nice mp3 download link so I won't have to rip it myself...nice touch. This sounds better than the CD I had back in the day. I was a little worried about ordering vinyl from Amazon for the first time but I'm glad I did. The only thing I can think of being done better is the packaging it shipped in. The record was in a media box but it was flopping around in a larger box witch could potentially cause easily avoidable damage. Other than that great job Amazon this completes my Metallica collection on vinyl.

One of the gems of my growing collection. Fantastic audio quality on that heavy 80grain. I don't care what people say about vinyl, its still AN EXPERIENCE. If you've got a decent speaker setup with relative eq controls, its the best sound format there is. This album, is from when 'Tallica was still aggressive and full of young energy and raw talent. Great cover versions of classic metal and hard rock tunes...but ALL Metallica. A MUST HAVE for ANY Metallica fan. Album came early, pristine condition, and even came packed with a voucher to download the e-album (.mp3 format) from the re-pressers web-site. GET THIS RE-VISITED RE-MASTER TODAY!

Kick-ass E.P., and no longer $5.98 like back in 1987 (but I've heard it always went for more, in some places)... Still "not very produced," but still sounds just as good as it ever has. The first album featuring Jason Newsted, and his bass is certainly present here, unlike ...And Justice For All, so no worries on that front. Though you'd already know this if you have a history with this album, like I do. Definitely permeates a warm, nostalgic feel, and probably would even if this E.P. is new to you. My one complaint, and the only thing preventing a 5-star rating, is that the CD comes in a slipcover, NOT a jewel case... This information wasn't listed anywhere either. Besides that, would recommend!

Is weird, but this album has probably the best production out of any 80s metallica album, this little ep was rushed, but is impressive how clear every instrument sounds and how tight the band was becoming. No band makes better covers than metallica, but this is an absolute classic, just make sure you are paying a fair price for this, don't pay over $10

Parfait

Es un gran disco que tenía pendiente adquirir, y con una muy buena remasterización. En la publicación no aclara que es Digipak, que en lo personal no me gustan tanto, pero eso no le quita calidad.

Tolle Musik Preis-Leistung super Qualität ist super Der Versand hat leider etwas lange gedauert aber sonst bin ich ganz zufrieden

E' talmente un album corto come durata che lo hanno registrato su entrambe le facciate della cassetta. Comunque mancava alla mia raccolta di materiale METALLICO(A).

Excelente disco!!!