Review Summary: Megadeth is.... fine.
Megadeth are a legendary thrash institution, the brainchild of the snarling riffmeister general himself Dave Mustaine. A man who was fired from Metallica, walked home angry for roughly 600 miles, formed Megadeth out of spite, and then spent the next forty years influencing every thrash band who ever tried to play faster than their fingers would allow. Across their 4 decades long career they gave us classics like Peace Sells, Rust In Peace, Countdown to Extinction, Youthanasia, and… also some albums that certainly exist. But their legacy on the metal landscape and guitar culture is undeniable. At their best, their master of riffs and solos is as good as any metal band, and have no doubt inspired countless of budding guitarists to pick up an axe and start shredding. On top of this, they’re a band who’s career has been punctuated with drama that seems to follow Dave Mustaine every where he goes, making him one of the most polarizing figures in metal, who people still hold
very strong opinions about to this day.
The band are officially embarking on a two-year retirement tour, and this new self-titled album is being billed as their final offering to coincide with that, though apparently it wasn’t decided that this would be the final album until about halfway through the making of it. And with Dave being in his 60s now and having survived a bout with throat cancer, who could blame them. Certainly no shame in hanging it up and calling it a career. And while I will get more into my thoughts on the album itself, I will say this feels like an album Dave wanted to make, and an album he found entertaining, and he didn’t care what the reception would be, which is commendable and on brand. And in fairness, Megadeth have always been a polarizing band, from their initial rivalry with Metallica being a metal equivalent of a Beatles vs Stones or Blur vs Oasis, and their ups and downs in quality since the 90s. They’re a band that people tend to feel very strongly about. Already from the initial reactions, there are widly divergent takes from those who feel this is a great finale to those who are poo pooing it and reveling in its flaws.
I land somewhere in the middle here - this is a pretty neutral review. I was expecting worse actually, but there’s enough enjoyable elements that I thought it was solid in spite of its very obvious, glaring flaws. Instrumentally, its very listenable. This is the first, and last, album to feature new guitarist Teemu Mantysari, previously of Wintersun, and he’s low key the MVP here. He makes an immediate impression with lots of slick solos, tight riffing, guitar hero moments throughout, particularly on tracks like
'Tipping Point' and
'Let There Be Shred', which has a pretty high solos-per-minute rate, and one of the catchier choruses here – the track is pure fan service and a love letter to thrash metal and guitar culture. The guitar nerds will be satisfied with this one. The rhythm sections hold their ground: with strong drumming, solid bass work, and plenty of tempo changes across the record (
'Obey The Call' coming to mind particularly).
As far as Dave’s performance goes – on the guitar? Still sharp .Not in his prime of course but he can still shred. His vocals though? Woof. Let’s just say he sounds like a man in his 60s who once had throat cancer and a vendetta against the alphabet. He sounds old and weathered - and
he is. While many rock vocalists are able to maintain their voice long into their twilight years, if your neighbor started singing like Dave Mustaine on this record, you’d call the police on them. When he stays with the typical thrash metal snarled delivery, he’s pretty fine, but the moment he tries actually singing, like on
'Puppet Parade' for example? He’s like the audio equivalent of the Joe Biden forgetting where the door is meme.
The other big knock here is, of course, the song writing.While there are tasty riffs and fun solos the actual songs rarely rise above 'fine'. Some tracks lean into that scrappy '80s punk influence Megadeth had early on their first few albums, like
'I Don’t Care',
'Hey God' and
'I Am War', which would normally give a rebellious, youthful attitude, but coming from 60 year old Dave Mustaine, just comes off juvenile, hammy, cheesy, etc Its giving "How do you do fellow kids". The closer,
'The Last Note' actually has the most fitting songwriting here, as it tries to be this emotional ballad-ish track with an acoustic section, but its probably the least interesting track instrumentally. Personally I think it’d have been more fitting and more
exciting to go out on a proper thrash banger.
The production on this album is clean, slick, very polished. Its very listenable, and similar to what I said about the new Kreator album, I personally don’t have any issue with that cleaner sound here on this occasion, but those wanting that grittier, raw, more authentic production style will be disappointed. The one track where the production really feels like it's nerfing a track is the
'Ride The Lightning' cover, as it just compresses the *** out of any dynamic range it has. Also – speaking of the
'Ride The Lightning' cover, Dave’s vocals on it? *** me. Easily the worse vocals on the entire album, and its on a track where the original actually showcased James Hetfield’s vocal power at the time. It’s like hearing Abe Simpson attempt Sweet Child O Mine. It’s a neat bit of fan service to include it but cant say it offers much than pale comparison to the Metallica version.
Megadeth is a solid final album, not able to stand with the band’s best work, not a flaming dumpster fire. It’s instrumentally very rock solid, plagued with Dave’s often cringe-y songwriting and haggard ass vocals. You can boil it down to simply:
if you’re a Megadeth fan and have been with the band on their journey, you’ll probably enjoy this a fair bit, if you aren’t then you probably won’t get much out of it. Ultimately, the bands legacy is not going to be defined by this album, it’s defined by their classic run through the '80s and '90s, their incredible influence over thrash metal, their best-in-class virtuosity and skill, and Dave’s love-him-or-hate-him personality.
Whilest I largely enjoyed my time listening to this record despite its obvious flaws, I can’t see myself wanting to revisit much of it. A respectable enough send-off, albeit one I don’t think will have much staying power for those outside the diehard fanbase.
Full video review - https://youtu.be/PlIexLnkKIs
