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To bring the house down Megadeth cover of Metallica’s ‘Ride The Lightning’, an olive branch for so long inconceivable to metal’s keepers of ye ancient grudges.
Once upon a time, in a universe far, far away, it looked thrash metal could do anything.
A snotty bastard son of Californian hardcore and the work of British outfits like Iron Maiden and Diamond Head, as the eighties reached their end this upstart saw off the primped-up rock mainstream and seemingly got harder, faster and more extreme with every new landmark release.
As it always does, a stratum emerged at its peak, a grouping widely labelled as the ‘Big Four’ which consisted of Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth.
The twist was that the latter’s motor mouthed singer had been Metallica’s guitarist before being sacked in 1983; for decades the blood was bad, but time and distance heal a lot of things, and anyway life’s too short.
For Dave Mustaine there’s been the significant consolation of a career during which Megadeth have shaped the genre via his breakneck, precision riffing whilst at the same time, via the likes of benchmark albums Countdown To Extinction and Rust In Peace, the band have shifted 50 million records.
All things must come to an end however, and this self-titled twelfth outing is, Mustaine says, his last.
Having survived throat cancer in 2019, he also has a metal plate in his spine and is now also severely hampered by a condition known as Dupuytren’s contracture, one that impedes guitar playing so much the decision to retire has almost been made for him.
You wonder how the less empathetic and tactful Dave of the old days might’ve reacted to that sort of announcement, but there was at least never any chance of he and fellow bandmates – Teemu Mäntysaari (lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars), James LoMenzo (bass guitar) and Dirk Verbeuren (drums) – making this Megadeth farewell an easy ride for anyone.
As if still having a point to prove, the early part’s ferocity and rage are very much more than just echoes.
Opener Tipping Point is riotously simple, from its lead in solo and strutting build, before then familiarly rocketing into overload.
A song about never letting the bastards grind you down, it offers up only an earful and a middle finger for them by way of introduction.
Equally, it’s a simpler defence mechanism to not give a fuck, which is precisely the message the punk inspired I Don’t Care offers up.
Amongst some of the less predictable past choices Megadeth’s singer made was to renounce some of his erm…hellraising early beliefs and adopt Christianity; given his circumstances now this makes the conversational Hey God of interest whatever the meaning. In form not a prayer but a conversation, it’s an oddly poignant moment.
This opening salvo finishes with Let There Be Shred, a soundtrack to do whatever makes sweat and hair fly which is energized just enough to avoid any accusations of cliché.
The mid-section that comes next feels like a conscious drawing up of breath, although the nightmarish Obey The Call still punches hard.
With context it’s difficult not to be affected by the spoken word introduction to closer The Last Note, the theatrical incantation, ‘It’s time for me to say the long goodbye, exposing a softer underbelly, as perhaps was the point.
To bring the house down there’s a cover of Metallica’s Ride The Lightning, an olive branch for so long inconceivable to metal’s keepers of ye ancient grudges.
There was an era when it looked like thrash metal could do anything, but its pioneers have proven to be far from immortal.
Megadeth and its driving force bow out here, their last chapter and one with a predictable lack of regrets.
