After more than 40 guitar-shredding years, Megadeth is going out on their own thunderous terms.
The Grammy-winning thrash metal pioneers’ self-titled 17th and final studio album, out Friday, quickly establishes that this is no sappy farewell.
“Today, I may bleed, but tonight you will die,” frontman Dave Mustaine snarls in “Tipping Point,” the album’s furious opener that oozes classic Megadeth with blistering guitar solos, crunchy riffs and some mile-a-second double-bass.
That is, until Mustaine abruptly changes the pace with an ominous warning. The music slows with each line, as if whoever he’s angry at — could be personal, political or both, which has been Megadeth’s agenda for decades — is meeting an untimely end.
“You try to stop the footsteps / And stop the heart that beats,” Mustaine growls. “You will beg for silence / You will pray for peace.”
Mustaine, the band’s founder and only constant member, announced in August that it was the “perfect time” — still at the top of the game and on their own terms — for Megadeth to release a final album.
Mustaine and Chris Rakestraw teamed as co-producers for a third straight album. It’s the Megadeth debut for guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari and the first studio release with bassist James LoMenzo since “Endgame” in 2009. Dirk Verbeuren is back on drums for his second album.
Megadeth stays true to its aggressive, fast-tempo roots while also sprinkling in midtempo grooves. And there’s a bonus track that’ll have fans of the genre fired up: a reimagined, sped-up version of Metallica’s “Ride The Lightning.” Mustaine, who co-wrote the metal classic before he was fired by the band in 1983 in his pre-Megadeth days, added it to “pay my respects to where my career first started,” he said in a press statement.
Mustaine, 64, takes listeners inside his angst-filled thoughts on “Hey, God?!” He apologizes for being “missing lately,” but adds: “I’ve had a lot of things on my mind.”
No kidding. Megadeth fans have rocked out to it all for four decades.
“Let There Be Shred” is an upbeat, fast-paced anthemic track that summarizes Mustaine’s mission in music: “On the day I was born, a guitar in my hands / The earth started rumbling a thunderous command / To bash and to thrash, to bang my head / To smash my guitar and ‘Let There Be Shred!’”
“Puppet Parade” opens with a syrupy solo by Mäntysaari and flows into a thrasher that would fit in on any previous Megadeth album. Same for “Made To Kill,” which starts with a rumbling drum intro, and the menacing “Obey The Call.”
“The Last Note,” the final original track, is a 5 1/2-minute guitar-driven but poignant goodbye from Mustaine capped by a haunting spoken-word sign-off.
“So, here’s my last will, my final testament, my sneer,” Mustaine says with one more snarl before softly finishing. “I came, I ruled, now I disappear.”
But not before “Megadeth” sends Mustaine and Co. out with one of their lengthy catalog’s best all-around releases.
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“Megadeth,” by Megadeth
Four stars out of five.
On repeat: “Tipping Point,” “Puppet Parade,” “Made To Kill”
Skip it: “Another Bad Day”
For fans of: headbanging, face-melting guitar solos, angst