Tag: megadeth

Here’s the thing with Megadeth; since they gave up drugs and became all christian they’ve kinda gone a bit shit. I understand the reasons for coming off drugs, that makes loads of sense, I’m not sure I understand the christian part because doesn’t that mean that god made them an addict in the first place and he’s a fucking asshole? I do know that twelve step programmes might not work that well and one of the steps is to surrender yourself to a higher power. Fuck that shit. In Scandinavia they have a programme that doesn’t depend on abstinence and that works better I suspect. Anyway, it’s a complicated picture and not one that I’m going to do justice to in this here little blog.

This album is not on my iPhone. I think that says it all really. While it’s in my collection and on the NAS drive in the house I won’t listen to it anywhere else. To be perfectly honest if I want some Megadeth in the house I wouldn’t even put this album on. I think there’s only so much twiddly thrash metal you can have in your head at one time before all the songs start to sound the same [I will admit that typing that just made me sick]. The Megadeth albums on my phone are:

• Killing is my business . . . And business is good.
• Peace sells . . . But Who’s Buying.
• So Far So Good . . . So What.
• Rust In Peace.
• That One Night – Live In Buenos Aires.

So, there. You now know what I think of this album.

This is communication number 1989 and as has become a recent tradition these are some things, curated by me, that happened in that year.

• 47 died in the Kegworth air disaster.
• Union Carbide agree to pay the Indian government 470million for causing the deaths of 3,700 in the Bhopal disaster of 1984. [$127,000 per human life in case you wondered].
• 97 people die in the Hillsborough disaster.
• 51 people die in the Marchioness disaster.
• 11 die in bomb attack at Deal Barracks, Kent.

There are only eight songs on this album and two of those are arguably shit. But, this is still one of the greatest albums out there. It is stupendous. It goes to show what you can do with copious amounts of drugs and a creative bent.

Into The Lungs Of Hell – blasts you away with high speed melodic riffs, no voices, just upbeat metal forcing the blood from your ears.

Set The World Afire – A high speed riff leading into an amazing main riff with a “rolling” drum beat. Brilliant song.

Anarchy In The UK – shit. A shit version of a classic song. They even had Glen Matlock playing on the song, but it’s still rubbish. It doesn’t fit. I wasn’t aware that Megadave changed some of the lyrics until I came to sing this song on stage at a school event. Apparently the is a line about council tenancies, but this version has “cunt like tendencies”. Maybe the Pistols knew what they were doing with this just to get airtime.

Mary Jane – another shit song. At least the shit ones are next to each other so you can double skip. I don’t know why but I’ve never liked this one.

502 – Not sure there’s a better soundtrack for racing your car and driving like a twat. This is a great song.

In My Darkest Hour – I can’t count the number of times I listened to this laying on the floor in a darkened room. It’s a great song for any mood. If you are happy it will lift you. If you are sad it will fuck you over. This song was written after Mustaine heard about the death of Cliff and it shows. This is an absolute masterpiece of metal song writing and never fails to emote me. If you think you are bored of this song listen to the live version at the River Plate. You just laughed, ha ha, bitch.

Liar – if you want hateful and vindictive then this is great. Not only is it musically good but the lyrics in the middle [although slightly troublesome in this accepting age] are ingenious. I don’t have a problem if your brother is a gay singer in a stud leather band.

Start trouble, spread pain
Piss and venom in your veins
Talk nasty, breathe fire
Smell rotten, you’re a liar
Sweat liquor, breathe snot
Eat garbage, spit blood
Diseased, health hazard
Scum bag, filthy bastard
Greasy face, teeth decay
Hair matted, drunk all day
Absessed, sunken veins
Rot gut, scrambled brain
Steal money, crash cars
Rob jewelry, hock guitars
Rot in Hell, it’s time you know
To your master, off you go
You’re a liar, a fucking liar!

Dave Mustaine

Hook In Mouth – God this song is great. I’ve seen this live and I love it. Such an excellent chugging riff along with a decent drum pattern. It’s everything that is great about a metal or thrash song. You can bounce to this, or stand and sing, you can shout out, you can accept this song to blast your body in whatever way you want. It’s brilliant.

Well, what is there to say about an almost perfect album? This is an amazing collection of songs. Rust In Peace ends the current run of “R” albums and there have been some monsters here:

• Rammstein
• Randy Rhoads Tribute
• Reign In Blood
• Reise, Reise
• Resident Evil
• Ride The Lightning
• Rio Grande Blood

And so now to the last “R”.

This album starts with the magnum opus that is:

• Holy Wars . . . The Punishment Due – such an energetic song that will blow you away. It just keeps getting better and better. Mercy killings, mercy killings, killings, killings.
• Hangar 18 – a very good song with a hilarious video. I mean, it isn’t true but the song is good. As far as I know they even wrote a follow up song but at least this isn’t that terrible song by ‘tallica. The change of pace / riff / syncopation half way through the song really gives me the shivers.
• Take No Prisoners – power blasting through the bass bins. Amazing. High speed riffage. Lovely. Fast chord work. Cool. A fast bouncy verse that leads to speed changes. A pluckying bass line. This sound would pound you live.
• Five Magics – more head hitting openings with a lovely melody on the bass. The introduction is two minutes long and then you get the main part of the song. The riff in the last minute of this song will have you running into the rest of the pit.
• Poison Was The Cure – Another bass opening [good old Dave], then a high speed twisty verse with crazy riffs.
• Lucretia – For some reason I don’t like the opening of this song. But I will say that once the main riff starts this is bloody amazing. There’s something special in the bouncy quality of this whole album. It would be brilliant to attend a concert where they played this whole album. The middle section of this song is so lyrical without any lyrics. Love it.
• Tornado Of Souls – The way this song opens and just keeps the energy going means I get blown away every time I listen to it.
• Dawn Patrol – There’s always one song that’s quite left-field on MegaDave albums and this is that one. But, it’s amazing. Creepy and dark. Foreboding. Brilliant.
• Rust In Peace . . . . Polaris – Gosh how I wish that in the last thirty years since this album was released that our nukes had been destroyed and humankind had finally decided that having the power of fission/fusion bombs was beyond the responsibility of any single country or person. But that hasn’t happened. This song is the final flourish to an album that would still make a list of great ones. A lot of other albums I own are in the “I know it’s brilliant and was necessary to move music along but I no longer like it” category. This one is still in the real list.

This is a monster of an album.

A long time ago there was a documentary on BBC2 called “Heavy Metal”. In it they tried to explain heavy metal music. They had a clip of the comical Napalm Death along with some clips of Motorhead and, I seem to remember, a clip of Megadeth playing “Peace Sells But Who’s Buying” open air in Northern Ireland [at a time when there definitely wasn’t peace]. For a long while that opening riff stuck in my head and one day I bit the bullet and bought the vinyl album.

My initial reaction was one of disappointment. I loved the pop-like qualities of the title song but the opening made me think “oh, this is another thrash band”. How wrong I was.

After a few listens the genius of this album started to creep out and grab hold of me. It’s a gorgeous complete piece of art [although “I ain’t superstitious” is a bit shit].

If you know me then you know that I consider “Wake Up Dead” to be the best song ever. It contains THREE of the best metal riffs ever and they occur in the last half of the song. Being in the pit with this playing and the whole crowd bouncing in time with the riffs is an amazing memory.

This album was written while Mustaine was heavily into drugs and you can tell. It’s probably why it’s so good. He got cleaned up at some time later and found religion. Mind you, religion is a part of the 12 step process, and just to point out that AA or even NA is only ONE way of getting clean and the evidence shows it’s not the best way of doing it. Because one of the Daves found religion he refuses to play THE CONJURING live any more. Which is a fucking shame because it’s a great song.

The above video shows Nick Menza [just one of Megadeth’s many drummers] playing his part of The Conjuring during the same tour when I first saw Megadeth. It was the Clash Of The Titans tour. Amazing.

The title song of this album is amazing.

Devil’s Island rocks with its fast riffs and high paced beats.

Good Mourning/Black Friday – more classic Megadeth with proper fast complex riffs. Clearly showing why they are better than Metallica.

Bad Omens – sends shivers down my spine. These songs are so well crafted.

[I Ain’t Superstitious – terrible song] every band gets one free pass on every album as far as I’m concerned. With this album it’s this song. It’s shit.

My Last Words – weren’t the last words of the Daves and the next album is an almost complete and perfect selection but the raw power and speed of this album is amazing. You can feel the anger, the rage, the fighting. It speaks volumes, if you want to listen.