Metallica - Hero Of the Day (Featuring The Whole Motorheadache Mess)

When Metallica started releasing singles for the ...And Justice For All album they did something awesome that most bands didn't do. They released songs you wanted to hear that weren't on the album as just b-sides. They were collectable, and oh yeah, they were also covers, not just studio out takes.

Breadfan by Budgie was the first song to start this awesome craze. This continued on with every single from the Black Album. By the time Load and Reload came out the band had shifted to releasing live versions of all those covers, for those like me that couldn't get them the first time around. However, we still got four new covers as well.

Overkill, Damage Case, Stone Dead Forever and Too Late Too Late, all ended up on a special Strictly Limited Edition version of Hero Of The Day. This was the only way to get all four songs together at the same time, and I made sure I had it.

The only reason I'm covering this album, and I won't cover any of the other singles, is due to the reason I will cover Garage Days Re-Visited. The Original Garage was only five songs, a Maxi EP, of covers. This album is the same, except it has one studio track and four covers recorded in a way that sounds like the original Garage. So, this review feels justified.

Let me start with Hero Of The Day. The Metal side of me goes, "What's this Alternative shit!?" The Hard Rock side of me goes, "This is a bit to mellow for me." The Classic Rock side of me goes, "This isn't too bad. Not great, but okay." The side of me that listens to everyhting else goes, "Ummm, hmmmm."

Eventually I'll write more on that song when I cover the Load album. Now on to the good stuff.

I would like to start by thanking Metallica for introducing me to Motorhead. I'd only ever heard Ace Of Spades prior to this, and a friend we shall call Varg, over played the shit out of the one song. However, thanks to this album I later ventured into Motorhead all on my own, and the first thing I picked up was the album Overkill.

The song that leads of this four song collection is the title track from that album. It's one of the heaviest, hardest, thundering songs I have ever heard. It is the perfect mix of Hard/Metal/Punk. This song makes Thrash Metal it's bitch, after snorting a line of coke and sodomizing anything that musically resembles Deathklok, has to offer. Oh yeah, the song doesn't have just one fake ending. It comes back to skull fuck you twice with bone rattling fury.

Also, the only differnce between the Metallica version and the Motorhead version is no one sounds like Lemmy.

At this point I would like to just say go out and buy the original versions because these sound just like those, but with James singing and James is not Lemmy. However, these songs are just fucking awesome. These covers rock hard.

As much as i love Overkill I think Damage Case is the best Metallica-like performance of the four covers. By which I mean that it's the only song I think James isn't chasing the ghost of Lemmy's voice. It sounds like it could easily be a Metallica song all on it's own.

Stone Dead Forever is a good song, but you can hear this is not really a produced track. It's awesome for the value that is this song, and the way it was released. It may be the weakest song on the collection.

I don't care for Too Late Too Late, including the Motorhead version. It's just the song. This version is just as good as all the other covers, and much like Damage Case sounds like it could even be a Metallica track. Just a track I don't care for. At the time I was uber happy I picked up this collection when I did, even if it was on the Hero Of the Day single. In retrospect I could have waited the extra two years to get them all together on Garage Inc., without the actually single.

7/10 - content

8/10 - production

9/10 - personal bias

Bonus Track: Kill/Ride Medley (live). I decided at the last minute just to mention that the other H.O.T.D. single I have includes a medley (not the same as a mash up, for today's musically retarded). The songs thrown into the mix, and in order, are Ride The Lightning, No Remorse, Hit The Lights, The Four Horsemen, Phantom Lord and Fight Fire With Fire. I love this medley, it's 10:17 of fast paced fury, that covers a great collection of songs from two different albums. When I saw them perform it live my only complaint was, that Horsemen was in there and not played as the full song. However, this track rocks my Mp3 player often.