10 Most Underrated Metal Albums
2. Garage Inc. - Metallica
Metallica were in dire need of some course correction at the end of the '90s. After their last two records Load and Reload were met with cries of "sellout" from the metal community, it was time to get down to business and return to the thrashier side of their sound. Though the course correction did get a little ugly in the form of St. Anger, Garage Inc. at least showed them starting in the right direction.
On the surface, this sounds like a great idea on paper, with Metallica taking their favorite metal tunes and recontextualizing them for a new audience. And that's pretty much what this is for the most part, with songs like Black Sabbath's Sabbra Cadabra and Blue Oyster Cult's Astronomy going over well when put through the Metallica lens. However, the real highlights of this album are when they pull something out of left field.
Though many were used to their punk covers of acts like the Misfits, the choice to cover Nick Cave's Loverman goes over surprisingly well, with James Hetfield inhabiting the dark poet role with no trouble at all. The standout on here is Mercyful Fate, where the band take various songs from the metal band of the same name and cram them into 11 minutes of amazing metal badassery. For a band that was on the verge of collapse just a few years later, this was just the kind of thing to refresh their batteries and rediscover their love for heavy metal.