Released: 2001
Tracks: Sgt. Hetfield’s Motorbreath Pub Band; A Garage Dayz Nite; For Horsemen; No Remorseful Reply; The Thing That Should Not Let It Be; Everybody’s Got a Ticket to Ride Except For Me and My Lightning; …And Justice For All My Loving
Best track: probably A Garage Dayz Nite, but you could really pick any of them
Track to skip: none
Oh my goodness. This stuff is just insane. OK, for anyone who doesn’t know, Beatallica is a sort of ‘comedy band’. The music they do sounds like what Metallica would sound like playing Beatles songs. It sounds simple, and sounds like it really wouldn’t work, but once you listen to what they do, it’s obvious that these guys make it work. They clearly love both Metallica and the Beatles, and the depth that they know these two bands is impressive. I love how they get every nuance of Metallica: from James Hetfield’s vocals to Lars Ulrich’s drumming to Kirk Hammett’s wah-drenched guitar solos. These guys really know Metallica; so well, in fact, that many people honestly thought this *was* Metallica just taking the piss. That’s how authentic they sound.
The formula of the songs is pretty simple: they take a Beatles song, thrash it up, and throw in Metallica lyrics (not to mention many references to beer and poser metal bands). It’s more complex than that, because these guys do such a tremendous job with the lyrics, but that’s the basic idea. All of these songs work really well, but some of my favorites are still The Thing That Should Not Let It Be, obviously a wonderful combination of The Thing That Should Not Be and Let it Be. I just LOVE the guitar solo on here – perfect Hammett imitation, and then we get to the bass solo which is a super-multi-tracked bass extravaganza. They really captured the essence of Cliff Burton and it’s actually quite cool. Everybody’s Got a Ticket to Ride Except For Me and My Lightning is kind of two songs put together – the first half is Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey, with the second half being Ticket to Ride, with lyrics to Ride the Lightning over the whole thing. Very creative.
The main reason I love this stuff is because it’s funny. The lyrics are really good and the James Hetfield impersonations are just spot on. What I get from this is that, more or less, even if you play them like Metallica, the Beatles still wrote some great songs. And you can actually thrash up Beatles tunes and they still sound good. AND they still rock. And that’s why these guys, just goofing around initially, really did this perfectly. It’s humorous in so many ways, but also it’s still musically *good*. Maybe most people wouldn’t get all the jokes here, but since I’m a big fan of both Metallica and the Beatles it’s quite perfect for me.
Here’s the deal: Originally this album (as well as the “Beatallica” album) were only available as free downloads. They legally couldn’t sell them. In 2007 the band worked out a deal with Sony (owners of the Beatles catalog) where they could officially release *new* material. Once the new “for sale” CD was released, the band removed both free albums from their website. Maybe they had to; I don’t know. However, you can still find these two classics out there on the web. Here’s a site where you can download Garage Dayz Nite. It’s free, it’s not illegal, so go for it!
Rating: 93
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