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Not an official album, but definitely something to be looked at more than once. This is a compilation of all cover-songs dOne by Metallica. Disc 1 features all new recordings, whereas Disc 2 features B-sides from as far back as the days of Cliff Burton to the release of the Load album.

Track One is pretty raw and in-your-face, and to some, James' shouted vocals are a shocking indicator of things to come (St. Anger). Track two has a good feel to it, a nice beat and rhythm and good lyrics. Track number three is a medley of two Black Sabbath songs, both of them from Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Obviously James is no Ozzy Osbourne and Kirk is no Tony Iommi, nor is Lars a Bill Ward, but they play through both songs rather well, even with the lack of a guitar solo.

Oh yeah, I should mention that those of you who hate Metallica's softer material should skip tracks four, six, eight and ten. Track four is a cover of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page", six of Nick Cave's "Loverman", eight of Blue Oyster Cult's "Astronomy" and ten is a semi-Live jam of Skynyrd's "Tuesday's GOne" featuring Pepper Keenan from Corrosion of Conformity, Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, "Fatso" Jim Martin from Faith No More, Blues Traveler's John Popper, Les Claypool of Primus and Gary Rossington from Skynyrd itself.

Personally, track four is a good track, despite James' limited vocal range compared to that of Bob Seger, and Kirk's slide is a decent replacement for the sax. Track six crawls on for seven minutes of Lars tapping the cymbals, James singing the lyrics and Jason chanting "How much longer?" interspersed by heavy choruses. Track eight is a testament to the skill of Metallica: if they can play decently what it took BOC four guitarists to make, what does that have to say about the Cult? Track ten is tough for "die-hard" metal-fans who hate anything that isn't Master of Puppets, South of Heaven or Rust In Peace to like, but its still fun to listen to while on the road alOne (as are the other tracks).

Track five is a Misfits covers and track seven is an 11-minute epic medley of Mercyful Fate songs. Yes, James can't wail shrieking highs like King Diamond and Kirk is no Hank Shermann, but they pull off the medleys rather well: the "Curse of the Pharaohs" and "Evil" portions stood out as a bit heavier and darker than the originals (only by a bit). Track nine breaks into a heavy rock tale straight from the Highlands of Ireland, because it is in fact an old Irish folk song, which Thin Lizzy brought to public attention on their album Vagabonds Of The Western World. This version, however, is harder and heavier than Lizzy's "blues" version, and shows that even James can play a kick-ass guitar solo (you know its not Kirk because 1. in the video, Kirk is playing rhythm and 2. there's no wah). The last track is a medley; part One is another Discharge song, but deLivered a bit better than "Free Speech For the Dumb" and the last bit is a jam to Robin Trower's "Bridge of Sighs".

Now we go to disc 2: and we can clearly see that Metallica LOVES Diamond Head. We may have had only One track by them on disc 1, but we have three more here: One of which will always remain in the fans memories after the Big Four concert in Sofia Bulgaria. Tracks 1 through 5 are from Jason's first collaboration with Metallica: "Garage Days Re-Revisited". Tracks 6 and 7 are from the "Creeping Death" EP featuring Cliff Burton on bass, 8 and 9 are from singles off the "...And Justice for All" album, 10 and 11 from "Black Album" singles and the last four are all Motörhead covers from the single of "Hero of the Day."

For those who hate Metallica for covering old NWOBHM music, I would like to know how many of you actually would have ever heard of Diamond Head, Holocaust, Killing Joke, The Law and Blitzkrieg if it weren't for Metallica. The covers might not be perfect, and to many they seem to make Disc 2 lag on forever, but the good Ones stand out and grab the attention. One such attention-getter is a Misfits medley: "Last Caress/Green Hell". At the end, the band makes a joke-cover of Iron Maiden's "Run To The Hills".

The Sweet Savage cover is much like the other covers and just makes the album seem to lag on as well. But there is something worthy of note: the Queen cover actually isn't half-bad, and the Anti-Nowhere League cover, despite being so profane that it becomes hilarious, has a guitar solo (something punk rock apparently despises...but, hey, they, like Judas Priest's "Breaking The Law" and black metal, seem to get away with it whereas nu metal can't).

Now on to the Motörhead covers. The first thing you notice is Jason Newsted's bass! And he's rather good at these songs. Lars' drumming is tight, as usual, and if we can remember that Phil Campbell and Eddie Clarke have also used wah on their guitar solos, then Kirk's versions aren't that bad. The greatest failing of these songs is James' voice, which is apparently too weak to carry over the booming bass-line, as that of Lemmy Kilmister.