Metallica
The $ 9,98 C.D. (Garage Days Re-Revisited)

I want to pay tribute to "The $9.98 C.D. (Garage Days Re-Revisited)"—a truly unique album to find in its original version but recently released in a box set produced by the Four Horsemen, containing their first four masterpieces that made them the absolute and unwavering kings of ’80s Thrash Metal.

More than Metallica, it would be right to call them Garage Days. In fact, with this collection, the Californian group wants to pay homage to the bands that most influenced their songwriting and recall the days when four kids, like many others, gathered in an almost embryonic band, played their idols' songs in a garage and dreamed of one day conveying emotions to the world through their music.
The album, released shortly after "Master Of Puppets," also served to try to integrate the talented bassist Jason Newsted into the band, hired to undertake the daunting task of replacing the great Cliff Burton, tragically lost in a car accident on September 27, 1986, during the promotional tour for the album.

It's an album containing five covers played in true MetallicA style; in other words, with the grit that accompanied James Hetfield's band in its first decade of formation, while trying to remain faithful to the original songs.
It starts with the beautiful "Helpless" by those Diamond Head so beloved by Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett, which kicks off in grand style with the drums and continues almost without dips for all its six and a half minutes.
Then it's the turn of the granite riffs of "The Small Hours" and "The Wait," the first by Holocaust and the second by Killing Joke.
The journey back in time in the garage continues... a solo bass part lets us know it's time for "Crash Course In Brain Surgery" by Budgie, also remarkable.
Now comes the turn of the highlight of the package: as a tribute to the Misfits, one of Cliff's favorite bands (who, among other things, had the grinning skull, the band's symbol, tattooed on his left arm), the four combined two songs to bring to life the punkish "Last Caress-Green Hell,” ending with the quite stylized intro of "Run To The Hills" by Iron Maiden, in my opinion their best cover alongside "Am I Evil?" (found together in the second cd of "Garage, Inc.").

For the staunchest collectors of this great group that made music history, I recommend buying this CD, if you can find it, in its original version. For those who just want to listen to it, I suggest picking up "Garage, Inc." as it also contains this disc, so you get two birds with one stone.

The right tribute to those who, in their small way, made Metallica great.