The $5.98 EP - Garage Days Re-Revisited (Remastered)

Album review

On the surface, this EP might seem anecdotal, between two imposing productions (Masters of Puppets and ...And Justice for All), but in fact, these few covers are essential to the band’s long career. Indeed, these are the first recordings without Cliff Burton, who passed away on September 27, 1986, in the Metallica tour bus accident in Sweden. In "resilience" mode, the three surviving members applied - in a brutal and transparent way - Lars Ulrich's statements following the tragedy: "We knew in our hearts that Cliff would be the first one to kick us in the ass and tell us to keep going, if he could see us mope. And so there was no moping; we just kept going the best we knew how to!" Not only did they not stop, but a few months later they were in a small studio in Los Angeles recording a handful of covers, questioning themselves as little as possible. The title evokes Lars’ famous garage, Metallica's cocoon, and even if the return was purely symbolic, the idea was to prove that by going back to basics, the band was more motivated and fearless than ever. This EP was also an ideal way to push Jason Newsted, the new bassist, in at the deep end.

A logical follow-up to Garage Days Revisited, which was the subtitle of the B-side of the 1984 EP Creeping Death, Re-Revisited opens with a cover of Diamond Head’s Helpless, one of Metallica greatest influences. Like always, the musicians completely appropriated the track, attacking it with a prodigious hardcore aggressiveness. More laid-back and gloomy, The Small Hours is a personal message from Lars, covering the unusual group Holocaust, who once rejected his offer to be their new drummer. You could argue that this "new wave of British heavy metal" band could have become Metallica if they had taken on Lars... Stranger still, Killing Joke's The Wait is the only clearly forward-looking track. At a time when they didn't mix subgenres, this cover sounded provocative both in the metal camp and in the post-punk gothic new wave audience that praised Killing Joke at the time. The message was clear, as Cliff was advocating when he joined Metallica: you shouldn't deny yourself any source of inspiration and not limit yourself to one specific genre. Later, James Hetfield would argue that the bassist would certainly have "been the first to set Metallica straight" when he got a little lost. Crash Course in Brain Surgery is a modern cover of Budgie, one of the little-known bands of the early days of British hard rock. But while Metallica stepped back in time to the origins of the genre, they approached the track in their own way rather than respecting the original version. As for Diamond Head, Holocaust or Blitzkrieg (on the previous EP), Metallica marked their territory to the point where we are still looking for someone who prefers the original versions.

You can feel Cliff's kicks on each track, and you'll feel them for a long time to come. And even more on the cheerful punk explosion of the Misfits' two-track medley, Last Caress/Green Hell, which has become a long-awaited moment on stage. After that, there was no need to add anything else for this respectful re-release of the original raw sound. For unreleased or alternative versions, we'll wait for a new release from Garage Inc, in which the EP had been integrated when it was released in 1998. © Jean-Pierre Sabouret/Qobuz