The Batlord

I kind of just want to listen to and talk about Megadeth at the moment. I've listened to their first four albums enough times that I don't really have to rediscover them, and what's the point of agreeing with everyone on just how awesome a bunch of acknowledged classics are? So, let's go with Risk, an album that I feel gets a kinda sorta undeserved amount of hate. It's got some dumb songs, some crap songs, and is only a "risk" in that it's a thrash band who broke with thrash almost a decade ago finally dropping what little of that genre remained from their sound. I hear people say it's experimental, but how experimental really is a pop metal/rock album?

But the first half is fun as hell, "Insomnia" kicks more ass than any song they'd written in years, and it's always nice to see a bunch of mindless thrash purists sulking just cause a band isn't self-plagiarizing material from a musical eternity ago.

So...




1. Insomnia: Love the weird, Eastern guitar lines that kick this song off, and then it just explodes into some kind of mutant pop metal that might actually qualify as experimental. Lots of weird things going on, often almost buried under the dense, slick production which makes for a song that sounds unlike anything the band had done previously, and which should have been Mustaine's answer to the shallow arena metal of Metallica's '90s music.

It also kicks more ass than a fair amount of Megadeth's thrash material. It's not mosh metal, but it's got so much energy and oddball brutality that it still demands your head to bang. Definitely one of the best songs in the band's back catalog.

2. Prince of Darkness: In the great tradition of Megadeth songs with silly, cheesy lyrics, we have this ridiculous song about Satan... I think. Can never tell if Mustaine is being serious or if he's just really good at making metaphors look like dumb, literal nonsense.

Regardless, this isn't as amazing as the above song, but it's still a lot of fun. Kind of a "Symphony of Destruction"-style, mid-paced chugger, with a bitchin' main riff, but with a "spooky" atmosphere that I hope is tongue-in-cheek (can never tell with Mustaine). I loved this song as a teenager, disavowed it for years afterward, but now find myself loving anew its trashy cheese.

3./4. Enter the Arena/Crush 'Em: This was seriously Dave Mustaine's attempt at making a song that would get play in sports arenas. The man is nothing if not shameless, but at least he's hilarious about it, rather than suing the internet for sharing his music for free (). This song is the dumbest thing Dave ever wrote (maybe) and is another one that I loved as a teenager, loathed after I turned away from "false metal", and now find, to my delight, is such irredeemable garbage that I can only love it to bits.

The omnipresently slick and dense production of this album, along with the idiotic lyrics about... beating someone up I think, make this song too silly to really be credible to anyone over the age of 15, but if you can unhook your brain, the mindlessly simple, anthemic, disposable, quiet verse/loud chorus, arena metal stupidity of "Crush 'Em" is so awful it's brilliant.

I probably listened to this song roughly as many times as "Enter Sandman" in high school, and yet I still like this a hell of a lot more, so clearly there's something more going on here (like that sub-NIN electronic beat throbbing under the instrumentation, like a vein on Frownland's forehead as he listens to this) than that shit-turd. I think that might be the difference between the two bands at the time: one was perhaps more accomplished, but the other had a dubious, fun personality that made them a far less sterile listen.

5. Breadline: This doesn't even half qualify as metal. This is just unrepentant pop rock that I'm sure sent Megadeth's old fans into fits of frothing, denim-fueled rage, and it's catchier than a baseball with herpes.

Anyone with a love for AOR would probably *** in their pants at this kind of song that's really just an excuse for the infectious chorus.

6. The Doctor Is Calling: And here we have the first misstep. I think Dave was seriously going for unsettling with the atmosphere of this song, but just like everything else on this album, what you get is goofiness. Unfortunately, since the attempt is so obviously at odds with the result, the song is dragged down.

If you can ignore that though, you have a song that's not as good as the previous four, and more than a little disposable, but still entertaining enough to justify its existence. And that failed atmosphere actually makes this song far more memorable than it would be if it were on any other Megadeth album. The production is a double-edged sword I guess, but if you don't take the music too seriously it adds more than it takes away.

7. I'll Be There: Dave definitely front-loaded the album with the heavier tracks, as most of what's left barely even touches at metal, if it does at all. This starts with a bit of honest-to-god harsh noise, before going full pop rock. An odd way to introduce a song like this, but I guess that might be a little of the experimentation Dave was going for.

It's been a while since I got this far on this album, so I wasn't aware that this is apparently a bit of a lost gem. Power pop gold is what this is. Alright, maybe silver, but it's still pretty darn good.

I also never noticed just how dense the production was on this album, but with headphones, it's either overbearing in an annoying way, or immersive in a wonderfully oddball way. Thankfully, since I'm a cheeseball, I go with the latter. Gone is the metallic crunch of the previous two albums (Youthanasia and Cryptic Writings), to be replaced by an indefinable, thick layer of something or other that really brings songs to life that maybe wouldn't be quite as good otherwise.

8. Wanderlust: There's that massive, slick production again, making an otherwise thin guitar line into a melodic wall that is somehow just a tad sinister. Which then drops down into a delicious pop rock chorus that sounds somehow wide open, whereas the song had previously been more than a little claustrophobic.

In a live setting, this song would probably fall flat, but as an overproduced bit of studio trickery, it's actually kind of great. Terribly good at the very least. And nothing less than memorable in a way that much of the band's other '90s work failed to be.

9. Ecstasy: Some pop rock that borders on soft rock here. Dave's quiet vocal is mixed louder than usual over the music, so it feels like he's speaking directly into your ear, which makes what might otherwise feel limp into a strangely intimate experience, and of course there's a great chorus in there, made quietly massive by an engulfing wall of production.

I never thought much of this album being experimental, but the studio work that went into this must have been a massive departure for Dave, who'd previously approached his pop metal with the same production mentality as if he was making a metal record. I'm not comparing this to the Flaming Lips, but Risk uses that same idea of immersing you in the production, and it's working far better than I ever remember it. Let me give this a few spins and there's a chance I might be calling this the best Megadeth album not released between 1985 and 1992.

10. Seven: The closest to a metal track since "The Doctor Is Calling", but this is still basically power pop. Not nearly as production heavy as the last few tracks, this song is allowed to breath, capturing an infectious energy that drives it forward in a similar way to "Skin O' My Teeth" or "High Speed Dirt" from Countdown to Extinction, albeit in a more melodic fashion. Nice.

11. Time: The Beginning: A double suite of songs about time or some ****. I'm kind of worried that this album is about to jump the shark, which would totally bum me out. I'm hoping that it going out with a bang rather than a misfire, as that would put a sour note on a listening experience that I really wasn't expecting to enjoy as much as I currently am.

Okay, super melodic guitar, with vocals that might just be a bit overwrought (Dave really can't sing, and how he gets away with it so often is beyond me). This is just kind of dull right now. Two out of three minutes over and it's pretty much gone nowhere. Definitely a misfire, but maybe the second song will save whatever idea the band was going for...

12. Time: The End: Hey, a riff that might turn out to be kind of badass.

I see Cronos?

WTF?

Alright, nevermind, this song seems to be going all over the place. First a harder riff, then some kind of pseudo-epic thing, and then it devolves into a dissonant cacophony that's more head-scratching than interesting. And then it just kind of trails off into something or other.

Yup, these last two songs totally jumped the shark. The first could have been about two minutes shorter (i.e. been a short intro to the second), and the second could have been given longer than two-and-a-half minutes to go... somewhere that made sense. I'm not sure I want to give Dave more time with it, but it's not doing much more than sit at the end of the album like a turd right now, so nothing to lose, right?

Oh god, what if he was going for a prog epic but the record company stormed the studio and forcefully removed him? What if they left him be? That would be awful. Alright, I'm happy with three minutes of boredom and two-and-a-half of pointless weirdness.


Well, aside from those last two, and "The Doctor Is Calling" to an extent, I kind of loved all of that. ****in' A, I never thought I'd say that about Risk. I mean, it's not like I haven't given this record enough chances and been underwhelmed each time. I guess this is just a headphones album or something. Or at least half the album needs headphones to appreciate ("Crush 'Em" requires only a small portion of one's brain).

I've seen Mustaine comment that if this album hadn't been sold under the Megadeth name then it would have actually sold, and I now think he might have been right. There are plenty of songs on Risk that could have dominated the radio, from "Insomnia", to "Breadline", to "Crush 'Em", to "Ecstasy", to etc, this album is chock full of potential radio fodder and it's a ****ing shame that it wasn't given the chance. The poor douchebag just can't catch a break, can he?

I think this might actually be the pop metal quasi-masterpiece that we all thought Dave might have been capable of but never quite achieved. The songs might not all be quite brilliant, and some of the lyrics are truly cringe-worthy, but the production really elevates this album to a level I don't think anybody would really expect, given the massive bias against it. And this is easily the most diverse set of songs ol' Davey Dave ever put out, which makes this a highly interesting listen to boot (assuming cheesy, overproduced pop rock/metal interests you).

So, put all preconceived notions aside, listen to Risk, and you just might find one of your new favorite Megadeth albums. Either that or I'll be the lone voice defending it... anywhere.

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