Review Summary: As the follow-up to 2013's less-than stellar Super Collider, Dystopia does a fantastic job at correcting its mistakes and expanding on what the album did right.
After the abysmal release of 2011's "Th1rt3en" and 2013's "Super Collider", the future of Megadeth was uncertain. Their next album would surely fail, and the band would forever sink into mediocrity. Flash forward a year to 2014 and two of their longest running members (Shawn Drover and Chris Broderick) announce their departure; citing creative and musical differences. It was a dark time for the two Daves that was only made worse by a personal tragedy that occured around Thanksgiving. Dave Mustaine's mother in law, who had gone missing over a month ago, had been found dead. Was there any hope for the band's future?
Sometime after this well into 2015 it was announced that Megadeth had seemingly risen from the grave. Chris Adler of Lamb of God Fame and Kiko Loureiro of Angra would be performing on the band's then-untitled fifteenth studio album. This was good news for metal, but fans hadn't forgotten the preceding album Mustaine had pushed so thoroughly into our skulls.
Needless to say, anticipation wasn't high for Dystopia when it was first announced. I'll admit I didn't think the album would amount to anything, but every now and then bands tend to rise up and surprise the best of us. That is exactly what Megadeth did with their new studio album, releasing January 22 of this year. As the follow-up to Super Collider, Dystopia didn't have to do much to surpass it. Dystopia however does a fantastic job at correcting that album's mistakes and expanding on what it did right.
The three singles "Fatal Illusion", "The Threat Is Real", and "Dystopia" each contain riffs and elements of Megadeth's past works, but it's done in a way that feels fresh yet very familiar. This is one of the album's greatest strengths. The other songs are a bit more focused on diversity in structure with straightforward solos that get the job done but aren't as frantic as what we would see in Fatal Illusion. "Poisonous Shadow" contains an melodic introduction that is very catchy and appealing, and the rest of the song is very diverse as well. "Conquer Or Die" is a nice instrumental piece that bridges the gap between the aforementioned track and "Lying In State", a more simplistic song with lots of meaty chugging riffs.
The production of the album also hits all the right notes; putting the guitars up front and dialing back the vocals just a tiny bit. The guitars are very crisp and pack a huge punch. This makes songs like "Bullet To The Brain" and Poisonous Shadow so fun to listen to. There are also some vocal effects present on Mustaine's vocal delivery reminiscent of "The System Has Failed", though not nearly as overpowering.
All in all this is an album worth buying, and a pleasant surprise to those who doubted Megadeth's ability to create a thrash album post-2009. No doubt the best album since Endgame, though that's not really an accomplishment in it's own right. Megadeth have stepped up their game tremendously, giving the fans what they want for the first time in nearly seven years.
