About time I got around to listening to this classic
Artiste: Megadeth
Nationality: American
Album: Rust in peace
Year: 1990
Label:
Genre: Thrash Metal
Tracks:
Holy wars ... the punishment due
Hangar 18
Take no prisoners
Five magics
Poison was the cure
Lucretia
Tornado of souls
Dawn patrol
Rust in peace ... Polaris
Chronological position: Fourth album
Familiarity: Zero
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: Nowhere near as fast or overwhelming as I thought it might be.
Best track(s): Hangar 18, Tornado of souls, Dawn patrol, Rust in peace ... Polaris
Worst track(s): Five magics, Poison was the cure
Comments: Thrash metal is not something I generally have much truck with --- I'm not crazy about Metallica --- and this will probably end up being a bad idea, but you know, I want to see what all the fuss is about. This is, after all, essentially the bastard half-brother of the giants of thrash, with Dave Mustaine having formed Megadeth after being asked politely to leave Metallica, and there's a lot of history there. But what about the music? Is there any? Let's check it out.
Well it rocks out fast enough, as you would expect, but hey, I'm not hearing anything I haven't heard on an Iron Maiden or Scorpions album to be honest, not yet anyway. Good screaming guitar intro, great steamhammer drumming: nothing to complain about, even when Mustaine comes in on the vocal. I can understand him, in fact he's a decent enough vocalist, which I hadn't really expected. It also helps that the opener references "The Troubles" in my native land. Nice bit of acoustic thrown in there, along with a lot of fine shredding. But it's
Hangar 18 that really gets my attention, with a real melodic line and some very ominous sounds. This is apparently one of Megadeth's standards, and I can understand why. Smokin' guitar work on this!
There's a certain sense of humour at work too (at least, I hope it's a sense of humour!) as they paraphrase JFK's famous speech in
Take no prisoners, and then
Five magics is one of two tracks composed along the theme of fantasy, a genre usually reserved for progressive rock or metal and normally sneered at by thrash metal I believe. It sounds something akin to their arch-rivals' huge hit
Enter Sandman if I'm honest, but it soon shakes off those comparisons as it gets going and becomes entirely its own animal.
Much of this album though sounds pretty much the same, and I'm aware it's seen as one of their best, which would make me concerned about how the rest of their material fares. It's not that it's bad, or poor, because I am enjoying it: I'm just not seeing a massive distinction between the various tracks, to the effect I could identify one from the other. That said,
Tornado of souls is a pretty damn fine track, with a great guitar solo, and
Dawn patrol grinds along so slowly and moodily it's almost a shock: nearly sludge metal here. The vocal is as deep and dark as the music, and it's another good one.
But it's very short, less than two minutes, and the album ends on the rollin' rollickin' title track, getting back to basics. Great rockin' boogie rhythm brings the album to a fine close, and despite the uniformity of some of the tracks I still reckon I liked this.
Overall impression: A little faster than the metal I'm used to, but not bad. Not bad at all.
Intention: Not sure. I'm not suffficiently impressed to go seeking another of their albums, but if I happened across one I wouldn't ignore it.