Almost 43 years have passed since then Dave Mustaine was thrown out with a bang Metallica just before they recorded their debut “Kill ‘Em All”. However, he left the musicians a few riffs, which became a bone of contention due to their persistent use on the next album.
For four decades, the musician has been competing with his former colleagues – sometimes in a less, sometimes more healthy way – under the banner of his own group, Megadeth. Interestingly, musicians from both groups had blunders at the turn of the century that were considered the worst moments of their careers. And it cannot be denied that the last two Megadeth albums, “Dystopia” and “The Sick, The Dying… and the Dead!”, proved that Dave currently has a little more to say artistically than his former colleagues.
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If Mustaine is to be believed, the album simply titled “Megadeth” is the culmination of his musical career. I think you can hear it. Not at all because Dave decided to make an exaggerated farewell and the most ambitious album of his career. On the contrary. It’s so correct in every aspect, so solid in what could be expected of it, that I don’t really have anything to criticize it for – and I don’t really have anything to praise it for either.
Yes, I am impressed by the pace of riffs that a guy my parents’ age can maintain in “Let There Be Shred” or “The Tipping Point”. It’s hard to smile when I hear the drums picking up speed in “Made to Kill.” I’m glad to hear that Megadeth didn’t fall victim to stripping the sound of dirt and you can still hear a sincere love for weight here, and not just declarations about it muffled by the aggressive operation of dynamics equalizers. The sound is really solid. The drums kick the listener as they should, and the guitar parts tear the kidneys straight from the bodies.
Do most of the songs merge into one thrash metal mass? Well done, but bulky? Yes, yes. Is Dave, with his fatalistic predictions, eternal pessimism, and emphasis on the hopelessness of human life, able to convey something new? Well, if these songs had been released in the early 1980s, they would have had a chance to be classics, but today they seem only pleasant duplicating patterns that have been well known for years.
Therefore, despite the joy of listening, it’s hard for me not to feel a little disappointed that this is enough to close this discography full of studio items. And then I remember that Megadeth’s departure from formula was nothing but tooth-gnashing. To this day, it’s hard for me to believe that such monsters as “Risk” or “Super Collider” appeared among the albums. So maybe the cover of Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning” thrown at the end of the album is the biggest form of surprise we should expect? Or maybe there’s a message behind it like “hey Metallica, remember I wrote this? I miss you all the time and I’ve always wanted to play with you again”? It would be funny if history came full circle at this point.
Megadeth, “Megadeth”, Mystic Production