Thrash Under Pressure: Megadeth

The stroll along the memory lane of thrash continues with Megadeth.

Megadeth were created by the temperamental axe-wielder, Dave Mustaine, after he was kicked out of Metallica right before they broke through.

Mustaine is no easy man to work with, as proven by the testimonies of some who have worked with him. In fact, according to Wikipedia, Megadeth have had a staggering 24 members since 1983.

Even Dave’s partner in crime, bassist David Ellefson, took a break from the band between 2002 and 2010.

Despite Mustaine’s revolving door band membership policy, the Deth have managed to produce some great moments within the genre. The general consensus though is that all of these moments came prior to 1992 when Mustaine was in, shall we say, a “different place”.

We at All About The Rock in no way condone the excessive use of alcohol or the use of illegal drugs, but it has to be said that Mustaine’s best work was all done while he was a regular subscriber to both.

1992’s Countdown to Extinction was the last album the band released which contained any elements of thrash metal, and even then it was like a more sinister, diet version of the musical form.

This means that there are a shocking ten albums released after Megadeth’s good period.

For true Megadeth, you must return to the beginning.

Killing Is My Business…and Business Is Good might not be well produced (it was 1983 and the studio budget had possibly been exchanged for narcotics) and some of the songs might have misogynistic undertones, but the album showed what a riffmeister Dave Mustaine could be. Think that Mechanix sounds a bit familiar? It should because it’s Metallica’s The Four Horseman (the music for which Mustaine wrote) played a bit faster, but with incredibly embarrassing lyrics.

Peace Sells…but Who’s Buying? was the follow-up and Megadeth were really hitting their stride. The album generally shows up on “best of metal” lists and that is praise indeed for something which was released around the same time as Master of Puppets. The production is way better than their debut and the song quality was really improving, both musically and lyrically. The title track is still a firm fan-favourite and contains one of the most iconic basslines in all of thrash metal – so iconic that it was allegedly stolen and used as the MTV News jingle.

They were certainly giving Mustaine’s old chums, Metallica, a run for their money. He was involved with a feud with his former band for many years, a feud which is now said to be over, but there’s probably still a lot of pent up “what if?” anger rattling around in his head.

So Far, So Good…So What! at least continued the on-running theme of using an ellipsis in the title of every album the band had released, but this was widely considered to be their worst offering when it was released (if only people could have seen the future!).

It was rumoured to be Mustaine’s worst drugs phase and the record had a feeling that it had been phoned in. There are actually some great moments on So Far: the cover of the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK (renamed Anarchy in the USA – clever!) and the legendary In My Darkest Hour – written about the death of Metallica’s Cliff Burton – are notable highlights.

1991 saw the release of Rust In Peace, which was possibly the zenith of the band’s career. Everyone already knew that Mustaine was an excellent lead and rhythm guitarist (and an average vocalist), but he really pulled out all the stops, riff-wise, with this masterpiece.

Joining the two Daves on this album were Marty Friedman, a practical guitar virtuoso who had already shredded all over Cacophony’s Speed Metal Symphony, and Nick Menza, a fantastic drummer whose father had played saxophone on the Pink Panther theme many years previously.

Of Megadeth’s many line-ups, this was by far the greatest.

Dave Mustaine has been drug-free and clean for a number of years. He even came through an injury which saw him lose the use of his left arm for a while and had to more or less teach himself to play guitar again from scratch. If he is capable of all that, surely he’s capable of penning an album in the future that’s worthy of standing alongside Megadeth’s first four offerings?

 

Put them on your playlist: Holy Wars…The Punishment Due, Tornado of Souls