Welcome to another “Album by Album Challenge.” For those that are new here, the “Album by Album Challenge” is where I take a band’s entire discography and listen to every album in order of release from front to back. With my unforgiving and well-aged ear, I call it how I hear it. In some cases, I find that what I once thought was good is actually pretty crappy and sometimes crap manages to age into something pretty kick ass. And in some cases, face melting is still just good ol’ face melting.
This time around I found myself visiting the Megadeth discography. This had to have been without a doubt the biggest rollercoaster ride I have taken doing one of these challenges. At times I found myself in awe and being completely surprised by some undiscovered greatness. Other times I found myself cringing and having it take all that I had just to make it through an album. All in all, I’m pretty proud to say that I had made it through the entire Megadeth catalog. I learned a lot about Megadeth and Dave Mustaine with the biggest lesson being that Megadeth is one of the least consistent bands I have ever listened to.
Because of the large number of studio releases, this challenge has been split up into two parts. Part I will tackle from Killing is My Business to Cryptic Writings. All that said, read on and I’d love to hear what you all think about my take on these album.
Megadeth – Killing Is My Business… and Business is Good
Release Date: June 1985
The Good: Last Rites/Loved to Death, Killing is My Business, The Skull Beneath the Skin, The Skull Beneath the Skin, Rattlehead, Chosen Ones, Looking Down the Cross,
The Bad:
The Indifferent: Mechanix
It’s been years since I sat down and really listened to this album straight through and what a fucking powerhouse album. Right out the gates, you can hear the anger, frustration, and aggression of Dave Mustaine. It’s like he just balled it up into a big ass meatball, ate it, and then spewed it out onto the world. Every song on this album is fucking awesome except for Mechanix. I never did dig that song but as for everything else, it’s literally like hearing thrash being birthed right before your eyes. There is a certain level of looseness to it yet intense focus as well. While all the songs are pretty much in your face thrash metal, “These Boots” really showcases Mustaine’s punk influence. Hearing this album you just know that you’re hearing a band that is destined for absolutely greatness.
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Megadeth – Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?
Release Date: October, 1986
The Good: Wake Up Dead, The Conjuring,, Peace Sells, Devil’s Island, Good Mourning / Black Friday, Bad Omen, I Ain’t Superstitious, My Last Words
The Bad:
The Indifferent:
It’s albums like this that make doing these challenges so much fucking fun. Good fucking God what an amazing album. It’s hard to believe that this album was made barely a year after Killing is My Business. Megadeth is playing with so much refinement and gusto on this album. For this one they managed to fine tune their sound and really shape and mold it into an unstoppable force. Every song on this album is as great as the last one. “Wake Up Dead” has to be one of the greatest album openers of all time. The title track still reigns as one of the greatest metal songs of all time and songs like, “Good Mourning/Black Friday” and “Devil’s Island” are songs that I wish the band would resurrect in their live sets. There isn’t one single bad point about this album whatsoever. Matter of fact, it’s so fucking good that I listened to it again.
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Megadeth – So Far, So Good… So What!
Release Date: January, 1988
The Good: Into the Lungs of Hell, Set the World Afire, Anarchy in the U.K., Mary Jane, 502, In My Darkest Hour, Liar, Hook in Mouth
The Bad:
The Indifferent:
For this album, Megadeth experienced their first in what would be uncountable line-up changes. This time around they had lead guitarist Jeff Young and drummer Chuck Behler. In all honesty, this shake up didn’t really seem to change the overall sound or vibe of Megadeth. The drums do sound a bit more on the “metal” side as Behler was pretty much a metal drummer while Gar Samuelson was a jazz drummer playing metal. Everyone always bitches about the production on these first three Megadeth albums but I find the production on this one and Peace Sells to be pretty good but the standard for this kind of music in that time. The songs on So Far, So Good… So What feel like they have more groove to them than speed. I still find their cover of “Anarchy in the UK” to be really fun to listen to but this time around found myself really digging songs like “502”, and “Mary Jane” which I seem to remember not liking. “In My Darkest Hour” still proves to be one of Megadeth’s greatest moments and “Hook In Mouth” just always kills. I wouldn’t say that it’s as strong as Peace Sells but it’s a strong album and has some great songs. I really enjoyed this album a lot more than I did when it first came out.
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Megadeth – Rust In Peace
Release Date: September 24, 1990
The Good: Holy Wars…The Punishment Due, Hangar 18, Take No Prisoners, Five Magics, Poison Was The Cure, Lucretia, Tornado of Souls, Dawn Patrol, Rust In Peace…Polaris,
The Bad:
The Indifferent:
Every band has their iconic, masterpiece of an album and Rust In Peace is without a doubt Megadeth’s greatest moment. This is the first album to feature the juggernaut lineup that was capped off by Shrapnel shredder Marty Friedman on guitar and Nick Menza on drums. First off, Rust In Peace sounds fucking bombastic. The production is so heavy and crisp and Mustaine is on fire. Lyrically and vocally Mustaine delivers these songs with so much grit, anger and attitude. It’s no wonder Megadeth chose to revisit this album on its 20th Anniversary to play it live in its entirety. The first four songs alone back to back is one of the greatest starts to a metal album but instead of letting up it just continues on in its greatness. From the opening riff of “Holy Wars” to the last grinding vocal of “Polaris”, Rust in Peace is an album that is impossible to top and is a prime example of lightening captured in a bottle.
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Megadeth – Countdown to Extinction
Release Date: July 6, 1992
The Good: Skin O’ My Teeth, Symphony of Destruction, Architecture of Aggression, Foreclosure of a Dream, Sweating Bullets, Ashes in Your Mouth
The Bad:
The Indifferent: This Was My Life, Countdown to Extinction, High Speed Dirt, Psychotron, Captive Honor,
I know this album gets hated on a bunch and I can totally see why. First off, I have to defend that first handful of songs. Songs like “Skin O’ My Teeth”, “Symphony…” and “Sweating Bullets” totally get hated on but I like them a lot. They’re great songs but here’s the problem, as a whole, the album just falls completely flat on the heels of Rust In Peace. This is how I would’ve expected the first album with this line up to sound in all honesty. If this album had come out before Rust In Peace, it would’ve been a progression from So far, So Good, So What and a progression into Rust In Peace. Being that this album came after Rust In Peace, it just sounds to me like Megadave burned up all his fuel and used up all his awesomesauce on Rust In Peace. The album even sounds flat. I’m not sure what’s up with the production but it just sounds so flat and just unlively. There are some great moments on this album and even the songs that I was indifferent about don’t suck. It’s just that they’re not that great and I could live without them. I saw them perform this album in its entirety this year on tour and it still did little to change the fact that these songs are just completely subpar compared to the album that came before it. Rust In Peace set the bar so high that I’m curious to see if any album from here on will even come close to touching the bar.
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Megadeth – Youthenasia
Release Date: November 1, 1994
The Good: Reckoning Day, Addicted to Chaos, A Tout Le Monde, Elysian Fields, Family Tree, Youthanasia, I Thought I Knew it All, Black Curtains, Victory
The Bad: Train of Consequences,
The Indifferent: The Killing Road, Blood of Heroes
So revisiting this album was a really interesting experience. I remember getting this album the day it came out and I also clearly remember absolutely hating this album. Then again, I also remember absolutely loving Countdown to Extinction and we saw how that played out 20 years later. First off, the production is so much better on this album. Gone is the poppy sounding drums and now it seems they went back to a more full, thicker sound. As for the songs, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how many of these songs I found myself liking. “Reckoning Day” totally crushes. What an awesome song and “Elysian Fields” and “Family Tree” proved to be two of my favorite songs but it’s the title track that blew my mind. I can’t believe I never liked this one before. This is Megadave totally dipping his toes into the murky waters of his Black Sabbath influences and in all honesty, this just may be one of my favorite Megadave songs to date. I also have to say that “Victory” is a cool fucking song. Did you catch all those Megadeth song titles in those lyrics? I loved that. All in all, Youthenasia was a pretty pleasant surprise. It was probably the most different of all the Megadeth albums in that it didn’t sound like a typical Megadeth album. It sounds mature and almost outside of the box but not so much that it was unlistenable. Not a bad album at all, just not a great one.
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Megadeth – Cryptic Writings
Release Date: June 17, 1997
The Good: Trust, Use the Man , The Disintegrators (thrash), A Secret Place , Have Cool Will Travel, She Wolf, Vortex, FFF
The Bad: I’ll Get Even,
The Indifferent: Almost Honest, Mastermind,
I was really surprised that this album didn’t’ really suck nearly as bad as I thought it would. Don’t get me wrong though. It wasn’t a great album by any means but it surely was better than I thought. You might look above and be like, “But Brainfart, you have so many songs in “The Good” list. Well, here’s why. As I listened to this album, I had to try and put aside any bias about how I feel a Megadeth song should be. After all, these are Dave Mustaine’s creations so he can steer the ship as he wishes. I don’t feel that these songs are necessarily good Megadeth songs but they are actually really good songs. Of them all, the only ones that really seemed to have the Megadeth imprint were “The Disintegrators”, “She Wolf” and “FFF.” “Use the Man” seemed more like he was attempting to channel Alice In Chains while “A Secret Place” actually reminded me of something I could hear Alice Cooper doing. It was actually really cool to hear Megadave going outside of his normal comfort zone and trying something different. Again, I feel that while they aren’t necessarily good Megadeth songs, they are still good songs. As a whole, this album has Megadeth sounding totally underutilized with guitarist Marty Friedman and drummer Nick Menza only playing at what feels like ¼ of their actual ability.
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