Garage Inc. is a compilation album of cover songs by American heavy metal band, Metallica. It was released on November 24, 1998, through Elektra Records. It includes cover songs, B-side covers, and The $5.98 E.P. - Garage Days Re-Revisited, which had gone out of print since its original release in 1987. The title is a combination of Garage Days Revisited and Metallica's song "Damage, Inc.", from Master of Puppets. The album's graphical cover draws heavily from the 1987 EP. The album features songs by artists that have influenced Metallica, including many bands from new wave of British heavy metal, hardcore punk bands and popular songs.

Production

The day after Metallica finished the North American leg of the Poor Re-Touring Me Tour in San Diego's Coors Amphitheatre, they hit the studio to start recording a new album of cover versions. As Lars Ulrich explained, the band wanted to do something different after "three pretty serious albums in a row, starting with the Black album 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". Given that the band had recorded many covers 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, the band would "put them all in a nice little packaging for easy listening" along with the newly recorded cover versions, chosen through a group decision. Only one of the eleven songs in the "New Recordings '98" disk was not done in the three-week sessions, a version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Tuesday's Gone" the band recorded for a radio broadcast along with friends such as Les Claypool, John Popper and Gary Rossington.

Garage Barrage Tour

Metallica played five shows in November 1998 to support the album's release. Embracing the cover song concept, the band's setlist consisted entirely of cover songs from throughout their career. Metallica's own music was presented by the opening band, Battery, a Metallica tribute band.

Packaging

The cover for Garage Inc. had an Anton Corbijn photograph of Metallica dressed as mechanics. The band wanted the booklet to hold a detailed account of the contents of the project, and designer Andy Airfix was allowed to search through Ulrich's catalogue of Metallica memorabilia in San Francisco to create a 32-page booklet. Airfix also did the back cover, where the front of Garage Days Re-Revisited was modified with headshots of Metallica in 1998 and the track list written on tracing paper.

Reception

Track listing

Disc one

These tracks (except "Tuesday's Gone"; see below) were recorded in September–October 1998 for the Garage Inc. album.

Disc two

These tracks are a collection of B-sides from artists Metallica were inspired by, throughout the early years of the band.

Personnel

Metallica Guest musicians on "Tuesday's Gone" Technical personnel Disc I Disc II

Charts

Album

Year-end charts

Singles

Sales and certifications

In the U.S., Garage Inc. sold 426,500 units in the first week of release, making Metallica's fourth straight debut surpassing 400,000 copies. Still, the million-plus record breaking debut of Garth Brooks' Double Live made Garage Inc. land only at second on the Billboard 200.

Awards

Grammy Awards