Dave’s fire seems to have gone out, and Megadeth needs a serious kick in the pants to get the sort of results we known Dave and co can produce. The strings and slide guitar on the western-tinged The Blackest Crow are undermined by a turgid centre section, and Dave’s female counterpart on Forget to Remember (in full-on 1000 Times Goodbye awfulness) is awkwardly voiced by his daughter. None would be highlights on a better ‘Deth album, though, and it’s a shame that elsewhere we get the average at best – the likes of Burn! and the title track are plain boring, the choruses seemingly stolen from cheesy radio-friendly rock. Built for War is a decent-if-repetitive tuff-guy cruncher, and Thin Lizzy cover Cold Sweat is solid, too, and ends the album on a deceptive high point. Don’t Turn Your Back… is probably the best track present, a half-thrashing chugger that locks into the sort of catchy groove we know Dave is actually quite good at when he wants to be, complete with lots of soloing. It speeds up, there’s a decent solo… and then there’s an old-school thrash break with David Draiman from Disturbed taking over on vocals – a complete mess that somehow is an album highlight for being actually interesting, something you can’t say for the utterly average likes of Off the Edge.Ī few high points somehow manage to slip in, thankfully. Take Dancing in the Rain as an example, starting with stock riffage and Dave hardly even bothering to sing. The production is solid, the guitar tone great… but the songs just aren’t, and it becomes more apparent on multiple listens just how not-great the songs are. Dave’s backing band, for example (Ellefson, Drover, and Broderick again) are hard to fault – some of the lead guitar is excellent and the rhythm section are never less than professional. It’s hard to pin the blame on anything but the songwriting. It’s clearly a follow-up to Th1rt3en, but it seems like a collection of B-sides and offcuts from that album at best. Only a couple of tracks have any genuine thrashiness to them, the rest sticking to a sort of post- World Needs a Hero vague heavy metal-ness that is not dreadful, but it’s neither inspired nor especially fun to listen to. After a new millennial run of albums that have mostly ranged from good ( Th1rt3en, The System Has Failed) to excellent ( Endgame) it’s easily a fly in the ointment for those of us who have been used to good new ‘ Deth metal, even if it’s nowhere near the Rust in Peaces of old. And once you’ve actually heard Super Collider, it’s hard not to agree, as this is the laziest and least inspired the band has sounded in years. Yet, my favorite track on the record was a Thin Lizzy cover and I’m pretty sure that’s not a good thing.Those following the internet response to this, full length number fourteen from the thrash legend that is Megadeth, will not exactly be going into their first listens with high expectations – it’s been fairly vicious. It has some fantastic moments with killer riffs and inspired solos that harken back to the early, thrashier days of Megadeth and a few interesting surprises. Then again, who the heck listens to Megadeth for deep lyrical content anyway? Lyrically, things are a bit out there with Dave’s interesting political ideas and world views. After 13 albums I wouldn’t expect him to have all that much new to say so I’d rather have then pump out songs with cheesy lyrics that sound kick ass than slow down putting out albums esp because I like cheese lyrics more than lyrics about killing people and such. I’m also glad to see the return of David Ellefson on bass in recent years, who helps round things out along with the solid drums of Shawn Drover. Megadeth is all about the instrumentals to me and lyrics are second. With Mustaine and Chris Broderick, you just know the guitar work will be ridiculously good. Closing it out is the super funky groove and outstanding guitar jams of the Thin Lizzy song, “Cold Sweat.” The record closes on a positive note with “Don’t Turn Your Back” which starts out with a bluesy laidback guitar intro before cranking it up into a full blitzkrieg attack. Again, not something you would expect from Dave and certainly not a direction I hope they continue with, but for one track it was pretty cool. But then, the guitars kick in and I actually really liked the track. It opens with a very country feel and banjos which made me question if this was a Megadeth track or if my iTunes switched to some alternate shuffle mode that I did not know existed. The next song, “The Blackest Crow,” totally caught me off guard. This is followed by a few rather bland tracks with the exception of the opening guitar solo on “Burn.” Then come the spoken lyrics of “Dance In the Rain” which I really dig and always thought suited Dave’s voice very well. The album starts out strong with “Kingmaker,” featuring pounding drums and bass and the lightning speed attack that Megadeth does best and leaves me eager for more. Dave Mustaine and company are back with their fourteenth album, “Super Collider.” What do you get when you mix a rock solid rhythm section, blazing guitars, and a larger than life frontman? Megadeth, of course.
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