Megadeth - Arsenal of Megadeth (DVD) Review

Megadeth Arsenal of Megadeth (DVD)

dig it

full review

Tracklist:
Disc one
1.Peace Sells
2.Wake Ip Dead
3.In My Darkest Hour
4.Anarchy in the U.K
5.No More Mr. Nice Guy
6.Holy Wars...The Punishment Due
7.Hangar 18
8.Go to Hell
9Symphony of Destruction
10.Skin O'My Teeth
11.High Speed Dirt
12.Foreclosure of a Dream
13.Sweating Bullets

Disc Two.
1.Train of Consequences
2.A Tout Le Monde
3.Reckoning Day
4.Trust
5.Almost Honest
6.A Secret Place
7.Insomnia

Release Date: 2006

Ranking: #174 for 2006

user rating

3.7
great

Chart.

related

Rust In Peace

Countdown to Extinction

Youthanasia

members also liked

Pantera Cowboys From Hell
Iron Maiden The Number of the Beast
Iron Maiden Powerslave
Iron Maiden Piece of Mind
Slayer Reign in Blood
Iron Maiden Somewhere in Time
Pantera Vulgar Display Of Power
Iron Maiden Iron Maiden

3.5
great

ace_of_bass USER (1 Reviews)

2006-05-24 | 13 comments | 770 views

8 of 8 thought this review was well written

Megadeth. They’ve been kicking around for a fair few years, haven’t they? Roughly 23 years to be precise. And in that time, Dave Mustaine and friends have released 10 studio albums, and various other records ranging from awesome live albums to the fairly pointless “Still, Alive…..and Well?". So, in 23 years and 10 studio albums, you’d figure they would have plenty of music videos knocking around, right? Well, you’d be right, my friend. The smart thing to do would be to compile them all and bring out a new Megadeth DVD, which, in case you hadn’t already gathered, is exactly what Mr. Mustaine has done, enter Arsenal of Megadeth. But first things first people…

Megadeth are:
Dave Mustaine (Vocals and rhythm guitar)
Loads of other guys.

At the end of the DVD, they have a screen filled with all Megadeth members, past and present. To show them all here would take up too much space. So onto the DVD itself. I love the cover art, Vic Rattlehead holding a bomb, covered in flames presumably from another bomb dropped behind him.. It catches the eye, and continues a trend of brilliant album covers by Megadeth. The DVDs themselves are coloured yellow and black to resemble a nuclear sign, and are covered in harmless scratches that make them seem used and almost battle scarred, continuing the little war motif. Why you would want to bring two Megadeth DVDs to war is your business. But enough about the pretty box art, lets get down to the real business at hand, the content.

First impressions seem good. The track listing on the back, the extras, the two and a half hours of Megadeth excitement! So lets dive right in. And, once we’re in, my first complaint arises, which is a shame, so early on. In between each video or so are the aforementioned extras, whether they are interviews, behind the scenes footage or whatever, that relate to the same time as the videos were released. For example, once you select the “play all" option, the first thing you see is a short section from “Talk radio" that mentioned Peace Sells, then comes the video, and then comes an interview set in 1986. Its nice that in between each video is a little break, but surely they would have been better suited being split up into different sections, like Videos and Extras, as opposed to all being jammed together? It just seems a little unorthodox. On that note, let it be said that these DVDs are certainly filled with extras, but the track listing is a little uneven as well, as there are 13 videos on disc one and only 7 on disc two. Anyway, onto the videos themselves

The “Peace Sells…" era is represented by the videos of “Peace Sells" and “Wake Up Dead", both excellent songs, but with lacking music videos. There is nothing really spectacular about either of them, there are a lot of interesting camera angles in both, which I have noticed seems to be a staple in future Megadeth videos, but the Peace Sells video annoys people with the constant flashing images and colours, and the Wake Up Dead video is just them playing inside a WWE-style cage.(Who can spot Vic in this video…?) Musically both songs are excellent, but the videos don’t quite match that excellence. So Far, So Good….So What! is represented by In My Darkest hour and Anarchy in the UK. The video for In My Darkest hour , as we all know, was from SFSG…SW but here its listed as under the Peace Sells era, as the video is taken from a film called “The Decline of Modern Civilisation II: The Metal Years". Actually, that still doesn’t explain this mistake, because the film was released in 1988, as was SFSG…SW. Whoops, nice work there Dave. The video is just the band playing spliced with footage of them recording the song. Fascinating stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. The Anarchy in the UK video picks up a bit, as this has the band playing coupled with a man getting the electric chair, spliced with some interesting and gruesome animations. Apparently Dave could not understand some of Johnny Rotten’s lyrics, so he just made up his own. No More Mr Nice Guy is also stuck under SOSFSW cause there was no where else for it to go. This shows fake clips of Dave as a child, and how he’s grown up to be the dude he is now. They also splice in some footage of some movie I’ve never seen, I’m sorry I cant be of much use there, and a few shots of the man himself, Alice Cooper. This one ends with more guys on the electric chair, this time its old Dave himself. I personally don’t like the song, but the video isn’t bad. So far though, the best one has been Anarchy in the UK.

All that is about to change, however. We now move on to the Rust in Piece era, starting with Holy Wars…the Punishment Due. It starts off with the band playing the song, surprisingly, but already the picture quality seems better than the previous videos. There is some more flashing images, Megadeth style, including shots of the coolest flamethrower in history, that looks like Vic, and shots of the band with lights flashing on them guaranteed to give people headaches similar to Peace Sells. And what Megadeth video would be complete without footage of war? Its all here, and while it seems similar to other Megadeth videos, its better made and of a higher quality. Then comes Hangar 18, which has Megadeth playing the song inside what appears to be a government research lab, about the aliens supposedly found in the Roswell incident. Cue some hilarious looking alien costumes, and an interesting shot of the band frozen at the end. Rattlehead seems to be in charge at the beginning, but how can he talk? The outside set is excellent, as it is a model of a hangar and a toy truck that they have zoomed in on. Similar little props can be seen at the end of the video, taking away the frozen band. In my opinion, the video is a little lacking compared with the song, but its still good. Go To Hell is next, placed under the RIP era. Starting off with some brilliant camera work on Dave in a glass coffin, moving on to Ellefson being a minister at a funeral, inverted colours, Dave singing slightly submerged by water, which starts to distort between what is above the water and what is below the water, this is one kickass video. While it doesn’t quite make you think you are going to hell, it does a good job of trying. This is definatly the highlight of the RIP era videos.

Now onto the ever popular Countdown to Extinction, starting with Symphony of Destruction. Interestingly, one of the hidden treasures on the back of the DVD is that there are two versions of Symphony of Destruction, the album version and the remixed version, with two different videos for each. While the remixed one works well with the war motif (again) with the remixed beats working like machine gun bullets, I prefer the original version. The video is far better, splicing in a storyline involving some guys who assassinate the president with footage of the band playing. Next comes Skin O’My teeth, a pleasant song about attempted suicide. Another good video, filled with their now trademarked flashing images, combined with them playing live, some offstage footage and some shots of various ways to kill yourself around the house, such as tablets and razor blades. The song used for the video was the live version, and not the studio version, which is a little odd, but still good. Now, hands up who wants to see Dave Mustaine thrown out of an aeroplane? High Speed Dirt is a song about skydiving, so naturally the video should be of them playing live. Oh, and also involve skydiving. And Dave is quite a good diver of the sky, as included as one of the extras somewhere in this era. There are plenty of shots of skydivers, but if you replace the skydiving with war we’ve got ourselves another typical Megadeth video. Then we have Foreclosure of a Dream, a song, I think, about Ellefson’s parents being forced out of their farmhouse and having it set up for auction, which would explain the beginning of this video. The rest of the video involves other various people sitting outside where they live, and the band playing inside a studio which resembles the cover of the Countdown to Extinction album. Mustaine has a beard in the video, probably the highlight.

It’s a good video, quality wise, but its not spectacular, and that’s a small theme running so far in this DVD. Some of the videos have been ok, and some have been good, with good camera angles and a good storyline, but none of them have risen up to spectacular. The songs themselves are of the usual Megadeth standard, but the videos haven’t been able to match up to them, the most spectacular ones so far being Holy Wars…or maybe Go to Hell, and they are just capitalising on ideas expressed in the other videos and doing them better. But before DVD one ends, they have one last video to surprise us with, and as the saying goes, they have left the best till last. Sweating Bullets opens with a shot of Dave in the same layout as the band were in for the last video that resembles the cover of Countdown to Extinction. Nothing special so far, as the camera moves around Mustaine. It then cuts back to show Mustaine talking to himself, with himself in the background. And then a fourth Mustaine cuts in to sing as well. Looking at the video so far, multiple Dave’s, small enclosed space that resembles a prison, only 23 seconds into the video, it must be what its like getting inside Dave Mustaine’s head. That’s why it’s the best video on the DVD so far (ironic since it’s the end of the DVD), it lets us look into the mind of a troubled man, and its done in such a simple yet effective way. Of course, the band aren’t forgotten about inside Dave’s head, he has separate rooms for each member, seen during the instrumental bit. Probably the highlight of this video is watching Dave kicking himself in the face. That’s genius, really. If you ever see any of the videos off the first disc, make it Sweating Bullets.

Now we lead onto Disc two, and after watching that spectacle your probably wondering how they could ever top Sweating Bullets. Well let me tell you, they come pretty close with Train of Consequences. This video sees a man stuck on a train, most likely the one in the title. It’s a very well made video, and just like Sweating Bullets it references the album cover art, when he looks out the window and sees an old lady hanging babies on a washing line. The band are seen briefly in the video, but that doesn’t really take away from the effect of it. And it helps that the song is pretty good. The flashing lights make a welcome return, but just ignore them and focus on the little touches that make the video great, such as the old man taking out his eye to use in a game of cards. Then comes a tout le monde, which slows things way down. The video is shot in a fairly old time three colours (brown black and white) sort of style, and involved loads of people jumping into a grave. Fairly forgettable stuff after the last two videos.

Now we enter Cryptic Writings territory, with Trust. It has them playing in a nice little backdrop of a fallen city, spliced with footage of people doing….various things, but this isn’t anything spectacular either. Almost Honest harks back to their videos of old, mixing mainly footage of the band playing with different shots of something else, this time extreme sports such as skateboarding. Maybe its just me, but I cant see the link. Its almost as if Sweating Bullets and Train of Consequences didn’t happen, because so far the music videos have become uninspiring. They are decent, no question about that, well shot and edited, but it’s all rather similar. Secret Place starts off with a guy being hanged, which is always a good way to begin. Its shot in a desert, with some aircraft in the background. However, this video lost any credibility when I saw an ostridge beside the aircraft, for no real reason at all. What was the point?

After an overly long advert for Risk, the fans favourite album, involving the mice involved with the cover art, comes the video for Insomnia, also featuring the mice involved with the cover, which I thought was a bit of a mistake, as it does get a bit boring, considering the band aren’t seen in either. The video is very well shot, and is an attempt at something different, which is appreciated, but it is boring, watching a mouse run away from a hairless cat. No sir, I don’t like it.

There is one more problem I must address: this is the end of the videos. That’s it. There is no more videos from Risk, and more importantly, there is no 99 ways to die. Apparently, there are several legal reasons why some videos have been left off here, but that would explain the missing sanctuary videos. Not putting on the rest from Risk makes no sense.

So, lets wrap this up. The Arsenal of Megadeth is a brilliant DVD for existing fans, full of extra footage and things that interest us. But it won’t do anything to persuade non fans that Megadeth are any good, because some of the videos are a bit dodgy, and if you don’t like Mustaine’s voice, I fail to see how this will persuade you. Based on the content and the large collection of extras I’m giving this a 3.5, but Megadeth videos in the future are going to have to be a bit better, and missing videos hurts the score even more.

Pros: Sweating Bullets, Train of Consequences, Go To Hell, Holy Wars.
Loads of cool extras

Cons: No 99 ways to die?!? Shocking.
Some of the videos do seem very similar.

Share: Facebook Stumble Digg Twitter Del.icio.us