Megadeth
Countdown To Extinction
The Band: Dave Mustaine- lead vocals, guitar
Marty Friedman- back up vocals, guitar
Nick Menza- back up vocals, drums
David Ellefson- back up vocals, bass
Megadeth, without a doubt one of the biggest thrash metal bands of all time. They’re right up there with all the greats Metallica, Iron Maiden etc, and this (Countdown To Extinction) is one of their greatest albums. The instrumentals were top notch throughout. Solid on all counts. The vocals however were another story. For lack of a better phrase I’ll say this. Dave Mustaine couldn’t sing his way out of a paper bag. Sometimes I actually wish he would’ve stayed with Metallica. Don’t get me wrong Kirk Hammet filled his shoes nicely, but if he was still in Metallica James would still be the lead vocalist and we wouldn’t have to here him sing. Although, recent events (St. Anger) have proved that James vocals are declining, as well.
What I’d like to do now is sort of dissect the instrumentals one instrument at a time. I’ll start with the guitar. Which by the way was nearly flawless. Plenty of nice thrashy riffs throughout the entire album. Mostly power chords but that didn’t bother me as much as it usually does. There was some nice acoustic work in here, also. I found this quite pleasing. It’s nice to see artists branch out a little bit. The acoustic riffs were also well written. Which I didn’t really expect because Dave is more accustomed to writing speedy metal distorted riffs. I don’t have much to say about bridges/ interludes as they were few and far between, but the ones that were there, were quite spectacular. Now to the solos, all of which were very well written. All the solos were of good length. Nice and long but didn’t drag on for too long. It would have been nice to see some slower solos in here. They weren’t really any. But there’s nothing particularly wrong with super-fast solos either. Some of the solos also had wah and other FX thrown in there. So to sum up the paragraph the guitar work was marvelous, stupendous, stunning you get the point.
Now moving along, we get to the bass. It’s difficult to describe. This is because during most parts of the album the bass was quite difficult to here. But if you listen closely enough to here it, it’s quite good. It’s not top quality but it’s adequate. In most songs the bass wasn’t really the stand out part of the song. But it did it’s job behind the proverbial curtains. It often lifted up tracks, giving them that extra something. I guess you could say it filled in the wholes. Not to say that the bass didn’t have it’s stand out moments. For example in the intro to “Countdown to Extinction” after a few brief power chords the bass had a nice little fill. So to some up the bass Ellefson is no Flea, but he’s got some skill. Kudos to the bass for being the man behind the curtain on this album.
One to the drums. Not a lot I can say about them really. They had there moments here and there. Never really did too much, with the exception of the little fill or solo that came along every once and a while. For example the intro track “Skin O’ My Teeth”, there was an excellent little solo to start things off. Like the bass the drums were over shadowed by the guitar. But they did their job. Kept very good timing and rhythm throughout. Although, some beats were a bit simple for my taste and I would have liked to see Menza throw in a few more fills here and there. To sum up the drums they were a bit above average and nothing more really.
The vocals. They don’t really qualify as part of the instrumentals (and it’s a good thing they don’t, because if they qualified as an instrument no one would want to play it) but oh well. As I previously mentioned they were sub par. Mustaine really shouldn’t be the lead singer. If Megadeth brought in some one else to sing they would be much better. Mustaine’s voice is just too horse for my taste. I know I shouldn’t be talking, as I’m a Hetfield fan. Tee-hee. But still his voice is just undeniably bad. I think part of it is at some parts he actually try’s to actually sing. If you feel me. Like choir sing. He lets some notes ring out for far too long like he’s trying to go up into an opera-esque pitch.
The overall sound of the album was spectacular. The only really noticeable flaw were the vocals. Other than that everything was simply outstanding and even the vocals weren’t bad at times. I guess the didn’t really bring the album that much. After all, how could they. The instrumentals are just so damn good. Although, it would have been nice for the bass and drums to have a tad more input. Although, this came out in a time where bands were often much more guitar oriented than they are today. So, it’s not like when I started listening to this I was expecting a lot of bass or drums. One word to describe the overall sound of the album I suppose would be remarkable.
Overall rating: 4.5/5
Pros: Instrumentation
The album was actually well produced
Cons: The vocals
Other instruments were in the shadow of the guitar
Recommended Tracks: Skin O’ My Teeth
Architecture Of Destruction
Countdown To Extinction
Captive Honour
And so concludes another one of my reviews. Hope you enjoyed it. This is well worth looking into. Especially if you’re a big thrash metal fan, like myself. Even if you’re not really into metal, you might want to look into this. Perhaps it will get you into metal? But if you actually are looking into this to try and get yourself into metal, remember most metal bands have better vocals. So, until next time keep your stick on the ice.
Metallicaman
