For Dave Mustaine, the past fourteen years have all been leading
\nup to this moment.<\/p>\n
Since his oft-talked about removal from Metallica in 1983,
\nMustaine has been leading Megadeth, the “other” name-band of the
\nearly thrash scene, through good times and bad. Fighting a public
\nbattle with drugs (and winning – he’s been mostly winning the
\nbattle since 1990) and seeing heavy metal fall out of public favor,
\nhe’s continued to push Megadeth into new, challenging territories
\nof its genre – often prompting the call of “sell-out” that was more
\nsuited for his former band.<\/p>\n
Now, after a three-year hiatus from the studio, Mustaine and
\ncrew return with their eighth album,
\nCryptic Writings<\/i> – and have put out what may just be the
\nbest music of their career.<\/p>\n
Working again with guitarist Marty Friedman, bassist (and only
\nother original member besides Mustaine) Dave Ellefson and drummer
\nNick Menza, Mustaine leads his crew through twelve cuts that not
\nonly challenge the listener to re-think what this band was all
\nabout, but also pushes the envelope and tries to make hard
\nrock\/heavy metal a viable force again. Their previous two
\nfull-length releases
\nCountdown To Extinction<\/i> and the underrated
\nYouthanasia<\/i> were just stepping stones on the journey. (Their
\nlast release, 1995’s
\nHidden Treasures<\/i>, was a compilation of non-album
\ntracks.)<\/p>\n
The first single “Trust” speaks volumes on how far Megadeth has
\ncome since their balls-out debut
\nKilling Is My Business… And Business Is Good!<\/i> in 1985. The
\npower is still there, but the guitar work has never sounded more
\nclear and musical ever. Mustaine’s songwriting has only grown
\nstronger – at age 35, he’s not afraid now to sing about
\nrelationships and the pain they can cause. One look at the opening
\nverse says it all: “Lost in a dream \/ Nothing is what it seems \/
\nSearching my head \/ For the words that you said \/ Tears filled my
\neyes \/ As we said our last goodbyes \/ This sad scene replays \/ Of
\nyou walking away.” Mustaine captures the pain that most of us have
\nfelt at one point or another in our lives and makes us feel as if
\nit’s happening to Mustaine at that moment.<\/p>\n
The following song, “Almost Honest,” continues in the dejected
\nlover vein, though both sides seem to be at fault in the lyrics.
\nThe guitar work by Mustaine and Friedman is absolutely incredible –
\nI’m sure some of the credit must go to producer Dann Huff, formerly
\nof Giant. Gone are the days where Mustaine and crew had the goal of
\nseeing how many notes they could play in one second. Here, both men
\nshow just how good they are on the six-string – even I was
\namazed.<\/p>\n
Mustaine has always been very open about his battle with drugs
\nand alcohol – “Use The Man” turns from the story of a man (another
\nmusician? a friend?) succumb to the demons by taking his own life
\nto his own survival of the same hell (“I’ve seen myself use the
\nneedle, seen the needle in my hand”).<\/p>\n
But just before the long-time fan gets worried about Megadeth
\nforgetting their past, Megadeth shows they still know how to make
\nthe aging headbanger give themselves a concussion. “FFF” is a
\ndouble-bass frenzy (though not as thrash as some of their earlier
\nworks) that maintains a level of musicianship throughout the cut,
\nwhile “She-Wolf” seems to be a return to the Megadeth of old
\n(Tipper Gore, relax – it’s not a song that’s overly
\ndescriptive).<\/p>\n
And while the telltale signs of long-term life in a band are
\noccasionally heard (Mustaine sounds extremely hoarse on “I’ll Get
\nEven”) and other songs drag a little bit (“Have Cool, Will
\nTravel”), these moments hardly weaken
\nCryptic Writings<\/i>. There’s even a slight tip of the hat to
\nthe Beatles – I swear one guitar track on “A Secret Place” sounds
\nlike a sitar.<\/p>\n
In fact, the only “disappointment” here is the disappearance of
\nthe band’s long-time mascot Vic Rattlehead – the cover art is quite
\nscarce. (Once inside the book for the CD, however, the artistry of
\nHugh Syme once again shows its magic.)<\/p>\n
Maybe the long-time fans will see the slower side of Megadeth to
\nbe a sell-out. Two words:
\n
\nshut up<\/b>
\n<\/i> . While there were times in Megadeth’s history that the band
\nabsolutely shredded while playing fast, it hardly showed off how
\ngood of musicians these four men were and are. (I personally would
\ntake Ellefson’s bass work over Jason Newsted’s any day.) And,
\nreally, you could see it coming –
\nYouthanasia<\/i> was a clear sign of things to come (I don’t
\nunderstand how people could call that album a disappointment).<\/p>\n
Metal may not be the commercial force it once was, but if
\nMegadeth has anything to say about it, it will never die – only
\nadapt with the times.
\nCryptic Writings<\/i> is proof of this, and is easily one of the
\nbest albums I’ve listened to all year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5796],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-35690","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-megadeth","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35690"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35690"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}