Metallica released Garage Inc. on November 24, 1998. The two-disc covers collection paired 11 selections on its first disc with 16 earlier recordings on its second, reaching back to 1984. Among the newer material was “Whiskey in the Jar,” the traditional song Metallica approached through Thin Lizzy’s version. It shared space with a Bob Seger cover and an 11-minute Mercyful Fate medley.
After Metallica, Load and Reload, drummer Lars Ulrich wanted a change in how the band worked. Speaking to Billboard in 1998, he described recording original material as a painstaking process. Covers gave them a chance to make decisions more quickly and reshape songs without the same pressure. “Metallica still needs to have fun,” he said. The idea also had a practical side: gather recordings spread across earlier releases into a collection fans could readily buy.
Most of the first disc came from sessions at The Plant in Sausalito, California, during September and October 1998, with production credited to Bob Rock, James Hetfield and Ulrich. “Tuesday’s Gone” had a different history. Metallica’s version of the Lynyrd Skynyrd song came from a radio session in 1997, so even the disc devoted to newer material drew on more than one recording period.
For bassist Jason Newsted, the song choices made sense beyond the names on the original records. He told Steffan Chirazi in a November 1998 interview published by SFGATE that the words of Seger’s “Turn the Page” fit Metallica. He also singled out the abrasive chorus of “Loverman.” Working with songs they already enjoyed let the musicians concentrate on playing; Newsted described it as an easier experience than building an album of originals from scratch.
The “Mercyful Fate” medley took that freedom in another direction. Across 11 minutes and 10 seconds, Metallica assembled passages from five songs, including “A Corpse Without Soul” and “Evil.” The material came from Mercyful Fate’s 1982 self-titled EP and the 1983 album Melissa. A single track could therefore introduce listeners to several pieces of that band’s early catalog, with the source material connected inside one extended arrangement.
The second disc gave Metallica’s own recording history similar room. It included the complete The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited, recorded in 1987 early in Newsted’s tenure after he joined the previous year. That EP had been out of print since 1989. A retailer interviewed for the same Billboard report had heard of fans paying $30 or more for bootlegs. Its return gave the collection a purpose beyond the new sessions, making those five tracks available together again. The archive also reached further back to the 1984 recordings of “Am I Evil?” and “Blitzkrieg,” then forward through other B-sides and four Motörhead covers recorded in 1995.
One of the new selections earned recognition beyond the rarities market. “Whiskey in the Jar” won Best Hard Rock Performance at the 2000 Grammy Awards.
