When it comes to Dave Mustaine and the revolving door of band members known as Megadeth, one can never say that his music was too happy.<\/p>\n
Following the firings of guitarist Chris Poland and drummer Gar Samuelson (and while continuing to battle his own personal demons), Mustaine regrouped his band with two new members and released what was, at the time, their angriest album, So Far, So Good\u2026 So What!<\/i> It also proved to be their best album to that point in their career.<\/p>\n
Opening with an instrumental seemed to be an odd choice, but \u201cInto The Lungs Of Hell\u201d proves to set the stage for the rest of the album perfectly. With the new pair of guitarist Jeff Young and drummer Chuck Behler joining returning bassist David Ellefson, Mustaine and crew release an onslaught of power that happens to be quite beautiful in its own way\u2026 and it paves the way for \u201cSet The World Afire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simply put, everything that Mustaine and Megadeth had been working towards to that point culminates in this one song. Featuring the strongest vocal from Mustaine to date, powerful guitar lines and strong songwriting, it is a nearly six-minute assault on all of your senses (and you end up wishing it lasted longer).<\/p>\n
So Far, So Good\u2026 So What!<\/i> is nearly derailed by the next three songs, however. \u201cAnarchy In The U.K.\u201d is another questionable choice of a cover track\u2014honestly, why Megadeth needed to do any<\/i> covers is a point of contention\u2014and even a guitar solo from ex-Sex Pistol Steve Jones can\u2019t fully save it. \u201cMary Jane\u201d is weakened by burying Mustaine\u2019s vocal too far in the mix, and \u201c502\u201d is just one weird choice of a track that concludes with a series of drum fills by Behler that stretch on ad infinitum.<\/i><\/p>\n
Fortunately, Mustaine and crew not only get the album back on track for the closing three songs, they save the powerful material for the end. \u201cIn My Darkest Hour\u201d remains one of the most introspective songs Mustaine has ever written that doesn\u2019t lose any of its power, while \u201cLiar\u201d and \u201cHook In Mouth\u201d all make the listener wish that these songs would never end.<\/p>\n
For all it gets right (and even what it gets wrong), So Far, So Good\u2026 So What!<\/i> somehow tends to get overlooked in Megadeth\u2019s discography\u2014quite possibly because it\u2019s sandwiched between Peace Sells\u2026 But Who\u2019s Buying<\/i> and Rust In Peace<\/i>, two albums that define Megadeth. But to write this album off not only does it a disservice, it would deprive the listener of the experience of the power that Megadeth had, and where their development as a band had taken them to this point in their career.<\/i><\/p>\n
Young and Behler would be gone before the next album, continuing the tradition of side musicians in Megadeth having a revolving seat. But So Far, So Good\u2026 So What! <\/i>definitely shows that Megadeth was growing as a band, and is a powerful effort that is begging to be rediscovered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5796],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46507","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-megadeth","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46507","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=46507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46507"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}