TORONTO -- Metallica fans out to hear their favourites must've felt lost at the Warehouse.

But fans out to hear Metallica's current favourites locked into the L.A. metal kings' groove. Tuesday night, the group pummelled their way through tunes from their upcoming Garage Inc., a double album compiled entirely of cover versions.

Metallica put such a firm stamp on the selections that only the most dedicated followers would win at a name-that-tune contest.

It all sounded like, well, like Metallica. Not a bad thing for the sold-out crowd of 1,800, who went berserk over the 90-minute set.

Considering the band's last visit here saw them playing for 16,000 at the Molson Amphitheatre a few months ago, the more intimate show was obviously a smallish-club treat. It basically meant a faction of Metallica's notoriously hard-partying crowd celebrated even more than usual.

Good thing singer-guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, and bassist Jason Newsted didn't bother with the typical "intimate-setting" angle, which would have been lost in the echoes of the Warehouse, and lost on the shifting sea of black leather-jacket clad fans.

Instead, Metallica cranked up the amps, making the Warehouse play the part of Garage Inc.'s symbolic garage: The kind of hole-in-the-wall where, 18 years ago, the Metallica guys learned their chops.

"I'm still telling myself I'm still in the garage," Hetfield said. "Don't touch my tools."

Ba-dum-bump.

Hetfield wasn't fooling anyone. This was no sloppy garage-metal party, but a purely 'Metallican' exercise in pulverizing rock riffs.

As usual, the band looked playfully menacing, except for Hammett, who soldiered on in a chair, recovering after having an emergency appendectomy last week.

Metallica's finesse was buried under a screaming layer of guitar distortion, but it was fun to pick out traces of Black Sabbath's Sabbra Cadabra, Killing Joke's The Wait, and even a cover of Thin Lizzy's version of the Celtic traditional ditty, Whiskey In The Jar.

Hey, I fancy myself as an expert when it comes to spotting covers. But I had to use a Garage Inc. cheat sheet while the band covered vintage songs by Diamond Head, The Misfits, and The Anti-Nowhere League, not to mention an over-long, misplaced Bob Seger oldie, Turn The Page.

Still, it was a stunt that no other metal band could have gotten away with.