Tag: megadeth

This is Megadeth’s second album, released back in ’86, and the only surviving member is good ole’ Dave himself. He has fallen out with, or sacked nearly everyone who has ever been in the band so, if you were under any illusions that this was anything other than a dictatorship, then you must have missed the memo. The first three albums are the best, as the band had a sound and vibe that was all theirs and after So Far So What they were just another speed metal band. Of course, there were rumoured to be all sorts of chemical enhancements around the band at this time, and most of which were trying to kill them. Out of that environment though came the band’s best work, and this could just be their best.

Right from the opening crunch of Wake Up Dead Mr. Mustaine means business, angry words spat at the listener mixed with angry riffs crushing your brain, there is no let up. Devil’s Island has flashback moments to his previous outfit as he is taunting his ex-bandmates with the fact that he came up with most of their first two albums. There is even an old Willie Dixon blues cover with I Aint Superstitious, but it’s the riff and groove overload that is Bad Omens that is my favourite track. There are things going on in this track that took metal to places it hadn’t been at the time. Killer track and album.

9.5/10 from The Grooveman.

Now, quite understandably, Mustaine was quite pissed off when he put MEGADETH together and went into the studio to record this album. He was angry at Lars and James for kicking him out of Metallica without giving him a chance, and he was super angry with them for recording their first album with his songs. Well, that’s how he saw it anyway. The trouble with addiction and addicts is that they always blame everyone and everything else for their failings. It’s an absolute miracle that this album was recorded as all of them were out of there minds whilst recording and playing live. It was the same for the first three albums. I guess that’s why I love them so much – as they are on the edge of falling apart. It’s a fact that when Mustaine started to clean up, the music he made changed accordingly. He changed from a thrash innovator, to speed metal creator.

Anyway I digress, this album is the 2018 remaster complete with bonus disc with live tracks and demos. Last Rites/Loved To Death is such a groundbreaking track as no one had put anything like this twisted thrash down on record before. A ground zero track. The title track is another innovative piece with some serious speed double kick drumming and fast chugga chop riffing. I remember Rattlehaed being the fastest track I had ever heard at the time – and it’s still up there! Chosen Ones is just a monster of a riff to loosen up the dandruff. Looking Down The Cross is just pure evil, both lyrically and musically, and is a killer track. Now everyone knows that Mechanix is the Four Horseman, and I assume this is the vision that Mustaine originally had for this track, and as you’d expect, it’s sped up somewhat. A great twisted cover of Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots closes out the album proper.

The bonus disc is worthy of inclusion for the demo versions of Mechanix, Last Rites, and The Skull Beneath My Skin. I always think it’s cool to see how tracks evolved. I don’t particularly care for Mustaine as a human, but you cannot deny his hand in creating a genre or two, and I do love the first three Megadeth albums.

9/10 from The Grooveman.