Megadeth - Classic or Dud

I saw Megadeth open for Dio Sabbath at Holmdel, NJ last spring and they were totally on their game. Totally smoking set.

Do they still play plenty of 80s stuff?

A shitload. Vast majority of the show, plus the usual suspects from RIP.

Yea, I was very surprised at how varied the setlist was.

Granted I learned from the Rude Awakening live album that they don't have tunnel vision with their set list, but pretty much no Risk songs, only one Cryptic Writings tune, and the rest PURE UNBRIDLED METAL

His stage banter was D- though.

I saw Megadeth open for Dio Sabbath at Holmdel, NJ last spring and they were totally on their game. Totally smoking set.

-- Bill Magill, Wednesday, January 9, 2008 5:19 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

yeah i went to that tour as well and both me and my friend (neither one the biggest megadeth fans or anything) were kinda blown away...esp. suprised that mustaine barely talked at all..they tore through the set like the ramones...really blazing actually....it was nice to see, esp. in contrast to what metallica has become.

Metallica's shows would probably barely hit 2 hours if you cut out all of the excess banter and soloing.

is it true that the 'i want to watch the news' dad in the Peace Sells video is jello biafra???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

http://www.megadeth.com/popups/christmascard2012winners.html

they were awesome last night at Fort Rock. the best thing about Megadeth either being an opening act or playing festivals = Dave has no time for stage banter.

setlist was predictable, but Dystopia songs sounded much better live than on disc (mostly cuz the production is so bad on the new album). I will never not enjoy "Holy Wars" live.

sounded like they were detuning a half step. kinda lol cos nobody cares how well Dave sings.

this dumb woman kept turning around and doing the Gladiator "thumbs down" every time I cheered during "Hangar 18". swallowed her soul.

Megadeth is a band I listened to back in the late 80s and 90s, but they were never a favorite and as they got popular, I didn't listen to them for years. Saw them live once with Slayer, Anthrax and Alice In Chains and that was an impressive show.

Few months back I got that 5 classic albums collection at a pretty good price on Amazon and returned back to listening to them really for the first time since the early/mid 90s. Rust in Peace has kind of blown my mind. That has to be one of the most technical but still balls out rock and roll records made. It's pretty damn impressive, far beyond Metallica. The new mix I think does help as it's more in your face and not clouded in a ton of reverb and delay. What is hilarious right around this time I was getting obsessed with Rust in Peace, the Onion published this article which gave me a good chuckle.

http://www.theonion.com/article/humanity-still-producing-new-art-though-megadeths--50983

Going on. Back when they came out, I really didn't even like Countdown to Extinction or Youthanasia at all, but they also held up much better than I remembered. Mustaine's singing got pretty good too. That version of the Megadeth with Menza and Friedman is really good, better than I remembered.

Rust In Peace is probably my all-time favourite metal record.

Just got Dystopia today, and so far it's surprisingly good. It does nothing new, but I like how it kind of cherrypicks the different styles within the Megadeth sound. Could lose a couple of songs though, it does run out of steam towards the end.

As far as prog-thrash goes, then Rust In Peace > ...And Justice For All for me any day of the week... and I like ...And Justice For All a lot.

I don't get the love for Rust in Peace myself. I like Peace Sells... and Countdown to Extinction a lot, but the other albums from Megadeth's peak years always seem to fall short for me - a few good moments, and a bunch of half-baked dross.

I was that way about Rust for yeaaaaaaaaars, and I dunno what it was, one day it went from sounding like the overrated sterile tech-wankfest I thought it was to sounding like an eargasm. almost every note on that album rings true for me now, tho Peace SElls is not far behind it.

I loooooooooove "Killing is My Business" because it's the type of album that Dave's pretentious ass would never have the balls to make. I'm not saying his other albums are Liquid Tension Experiment type efforts, but the first album is so raw and unhinged, like a train about to derail, and sloppy as fuck, the type of shit he wouldn't tolerate on a record now. and while the tunes aren't necessarily all memorable, I love teh energy of the thing - plus "Last Rites/Loved You to Death" and the title track are amazing.

So Far So Good So What suffers from a few things - one, that the title makes it sound like a greatest hits album (for years I didn't buy it cos that's what I thought it was), and two, it doesn't really maintain the high bar that "Into the Lungs of Hell" and "Set the World Afire" sets. The pointless "Anarchy" cover derails things a bit, "Mary Jane" is....good, but not great, and "502" is aight. I mean I like it a lot but it isn't essential like the album before it. Kinda amazes me that Rust came out after it.

Countdown is indeed great and I get that some consider it a 'sellout' album but IMO Megadeth sold out correctly (if you believe they did at all, which I don't) - the songs are leaner, but no less heavy. "Skin 'o my teeth" rocks ass, I love "Architecture of Aggression"'s esoteric vocal, "Ashes In Your Mouth" is seriously dope, ok I do love the cheese of "Sweating Bullets", "High Speed dirt" is fun. where Megadeth went awry in the 90s was selling out the wrong way - Megadeth were never good at writing fucking pop hooks (to this day I have no fucking idea why "Trust" is still on setlists - is there *anybody* who is dying to hear this song anymore?). felt like Youthanasia was almost a hair metal album yet in a good way - catchy as fuck, tho guitar-wise barely scans.

I think Dystopia is a letdown for me because I hate the production. Mustaine's vocal is so processed he sounds like a reverb-drenched cyborg, and why? it isn't like he ever sounded like Rob Halford and needs to mask deficiencies - dude sounds like a cartoon weasel, if anything his decaying voice enhances things. and the guitars lack bite - too polished and clean.

but the songs just aren't there, to me. the first three tunes are good, and I'd say most of the material is pleasant for sure, but like there's a lot that doesn't land. I relistened to 2009's Endgame the other night to see if maybe I was being kind to its memory and...nope, that shit still holds up, and sounds so much better in comparison. Not just cos it's 'faster' or 'more technical', no, cos it actually sounds like material that Dave believes in, whereas to me Dystopia sounds like an album Dave felt like he had to make out of obligation. not to mention, the heavy-arching concept shit is eye-rolling.

Every Megadeth album has 2 or 3 great songs - I like Endgame a lot, and Thirteen was really surprisingly good (though I can't trust my own judgment of it, since I was working for the label at the time).

Holy Wars is like the end of surf guitar. You really can't take it any further out. Hanger 18, Lucricia and Holy Wars are also really great. Marty Friedman is pretty much a guy using his jedi powers for good instead of evil, which is admirable.

Dave was always a terrible lyricist, but the lyrics on "Holy Wars" are fucking sweet

i literally just bought a bus ticket and a show ticket to see these guys again tomorrow cos it's not a festival so I get a full set.

I was drinking when I did this.

At the Tabernacle ATL seeing them now. Srsly. They will be onstage before 8. I dig

It's pretty damn impressive, far beyond Metallica.

In terms of technical prowess, yes, but classic era Metallica were much better songwriters imo. RiP is where Mustaine got closest.

I wouldn't say that. Metallica could write very catchy choruses and killer riffs, but especially in their longer songs like MoP or the Justice songs they show a real lack of knowledge how to build epic songs beyond repeating the same 2-3 riffs ad nauseam. I mean, the riffs are so good that they do pull it off, but there's not much else.

I disagree with that.

Yea me too. Feel like that describes KEA or AJFA but not RTL or MOP.

Metallica peaked earlier than Megadeth, who really never had a stable band lineup till Rust In Peace.

Even before the Black Album, Metallica had more variety in their tunes as they liked to use all sorts of segues and intros at different tempos. Megadeth had more groove and the bright bass was like Maiden up front in the mix.

they were so good last night. we got "Poison was the Cure" and "Tornado of Souls". i got drunk to the point of running back and forth across teh back of the Tabernacle and doing air guitar-cum-martial arts.

idk - I was expecting Dave to be irritating as fuck as he usually is during full, non-festival sets. he barely said two words all night. and even though I'm lukewarm on Dystopia, he really seems to believe in his music, still. Unlike many of the born-again musicians, he hasn't disowned large portions of his back catalog from live sets (a la Blackie from WASP, who changes words/omits specific songs from sets now) cos he recognizes they're an important part of 'Deth.

but c'mon - Dave's a tool. it's just, I hear those riffs, and solos, and cotdamn. his new band, well....they can fuckin' play.

but Dave...."A Tout Le Monde"? quit playing that shit live. nobody else likes it.

Last time I saw Megadeth they were touring with Lacuna Coil, so he had Cristina Scabbia sing that song with them. It didn't get any better.

hahaha I was at that tour, and yes....agreed.

I loved it when I was 15 and metal power ballads were my thing, but yeesh, hardly a "Fade to Black" it is...

Christ - Nick Menza died: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/22/nick-menza-megadeth-drummer-dies-collapsing-stage-los-angeles

51 is no age.

Wow. That's pretty terrible.

damn, RIP. he was definitely my favorite & the most distinctive Megadeth drummer.

and wow, his dad (Don Menza, who i knew of from the Buddy Rich records that i was listening to in high school at the same time as Megadeth) is still around.

RIP :(

Listening to Killing and Peace Sells this morning, what a weird fucking band, like how did they put this shit together, Mustaine's leads take shredding into avant garde territory

The remasters are maybe the worst remaster job in the history of music, thankfully the originals are up

Killing is such a weird album because it's kind of sloppy and all over the place (though the latest remaster cleaned it up significantly). songs have less melodic sensibility, and Dave sings like he's in a cave. yeah, it fuckin rules. first three songs are a helluva 1-2-3.

Peace Sells is probably my second favorite, still love that the album opens up with an intense thrash song about not wanting his girlfriend to know someone else is balling him.

Different thread, but some of the same characters. Listening to Yngwie a bit of late (yeah, I know) and one thing I noticed listening to some of his tunes this time around was that he never really had a good rhythm section at least on the records. Part of that is I think like much 80s metal it was all tracked a piece at a time with the drums and bass put on afterwards instead of played together like a band. But one thought I had listening to them was, I wonder what it would have sounded like if Yngwie had a kickass rhythm section like David Ellefson and Mick Menza behind him. Yngwie's keyboard player or at least the dude that plays on that fun video from Russia in 91 is fun, so I would keep him and Joe Lynn Turner in the band with the Megadeth rhythm section.

Mary Jane all day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EQbAs3Y5oQ

Great rehearsal video with a surprise guest