Back in the 90s, industrial music was a cool thing. After Nine Inch Nails and their followers brought industrial into the public consciousness, every bald dude with a sampler and a drum machine was making industrial music. While some bands cashed in during the 90s, there were bands like Germany's Die Krupps who were grinding out industrial in the early 80s, long before it was cool.
The band wasn't well known outside of Europe (save for die hard rivetheads), but they suddenly became relatively well known after their album called A Tribute to Metallica was released in 1993. Back in the 90s, it was quite common to see industrial bands covering rock or pop tunes and "industrializing" them up. Cleopatra Records probably made more from this concept than from anything else they released, and I'm sad/proud to say I have quite a few of their industrial tribute comps in my own collection. Some of these, like KFMDM's cover of U2's "Mysterious Ways", were brilliant in their own way. Most, however, feel flat as fads do.
As an album, A Tribute to Metallica has it's own unique charms. Hearing Metallica's usual grinding, shredding guitars replaced by angular, pulsing electronics had a novel effect at one point. Sadly, this EP hasn't weathered the years well, but will remain as a neat touchstone when industrial music was being paid attention to.
http://youtu.be/FeoLnwM98aE
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