Metal Riot

Being a life long MEGADETH fan, I admit that I was devastated in 2002 when it was announced that the band was disbanding due to Mustaine’s nerve issues in his arm. Shortly after, issues between the Daves [Mustaine and Ellefson] surfaced, giving me that feeling that the final nail was in the coffin of MEGADETH, and I’d never get to see my favorite band ever again. Sure, their last two albums had been Risk and The World Needs A Hero, both of which I had liked, but weren’t nearly as strong as their prior releases. It seemed like this was truly the end.

You can only imagine the sheer ecstasy I had when I learned that Mustaine had relearned to play, and was coming back with a new MEGADETH album (2004’s excellent The System Has Failed) with a returning Chris Poland [guitarist from Killing Is My Business…And Business Is Good! and the groundbreaking Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?). Little did I know that album would mark the start of an amazing “Decade Of Deth”. (Yes, I actually air-quoted that as I typed it. What, you wanna fight about it?) The lineup changed a million times over, but the tunes were all killer during that decade.

2004 gave us The System Has Failed, paired up with the incredibly cool Gigantour in the summer of 2005. 2007 gave us United Abominations, with the amazingly good “Washington Is Next” single. Endgame came in 2009, and 2011 gave us a returning David Ellefson and the album Thirteen. (For the record, the song “13” is one of my top favorite recent MEGADETH tracks). The band was on fire, so it can only be expected that 2013’s Supercollider would be fucking incredible. Am I right?

Ok, so Supercollider was anything but “super”. Definitely the most lackluster of any MEGADETH record to date, but seeing as their first album hit in 1985, their track record so far has been pretty good. I mean, the album wasn’t so horrible that half the band felt they needed to quit shortly after its release, was it? (2 side notes here: First off, if you haven’t already heard Supercollider, it is worth a shot. “Kingmaker”, “Dance In The Rain” featuring DISTURBED’s David Draiman, and THIN LIZZY cover “Cold Sweat” are worth listening to. Secondly, Chris Broderick and Shawn Drover both formed ACT OF DEFIANCE after leaving MEGADETH, and their album kicks serious ass. I suggest buying that one now. Well, not “now”. Finish reading my babbling here, and then go purchase it.)

Read more BELOW.

“One of the columns I was excited to have you involved in is our Metal Riot ‘Deep Cuts’ series. I’d like you to do MEGADETH!”

That was the line that stood out to me when I got my welcome to the Metal Riot world. I was on my lunch break from my day job inside a Stewart’s station when I got this message and in my joy, let out a very loud “OH FUCK YEAH!!”, much to the displeasure of a woman and young child sitting at the table next to me. I can only assume her displeasure was because I get to listen to a lot of MEGADETH and call it ‘work’, and she can’t. Really, there is no other logical explaination I can come up with. MEGADETH has been one of my top favorites for as long as I can remember, so I really was excited to be asked to write about them. I got into the band while collecting movie soundtracks as a kid. “Go To Hell” from the Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey soundtrack was my introduction to the band, but “Angry Again” from Last Action Hero is what really snagged my attention.

So now, I’ve got the impossible task of narrowing down the band’s 30 year career of killer tunes down to only 3 cuts. We all know the mega-classics. “Trust”, “Holy Wars…The Punishment Due”, “Symphony Of Destruction”, “Peace Sells”, etc. have all been staples in the band’s setlist for years. I wanted to pick out some tunes that don’t seem to get as much love. Obviously, I had to leave out a ton, so gems like “44 Minutes”, “The Disintegrators” and “Die Dead Enough” will have to wait until we do another write up.

For what 3 songs made the “Cuts” snarl and sneer HERE.