KMA998 Megadeth – Rust In Peace

So, this is post 1001. Hey Stephen, is this album in the 1001? That would be awesome coincidence.

I got this for $2, in pristine shape, in our local thrift shop. Seriously, who just tosses this disc into a donation bin? Anyway, their loss, my gain.

Up to this point, all I owned was the Hits set called Back To The Start. It’s pretty great (though my issue remains, see below). So of course, as soon as I plugged in this disc, I knew Holy Wars… The Punishment Due and Hangar 18 straight away. And holy fuck, those two songs are career-makers, right there. Absolute monsters.

The rest of the disc is, honestly, more of the same. You know what you’re getting when you buy Megadeth, right? If you don’t, it’s probably not your thing. Break-neck pacing, blistering guitars, nimbly punishing bass, pounding drums. Thrash! Think the first four Metallica albums only, well, not them. Still. Big 4. Hell yeah. But every track here fits that mould and rarely deviates, though Dawn Patrol is a slower departure.

I had this album on while I worked away here in the basement, and I have to be honest. It kicks all kinds of ass, musically. It really does. But all of the songs sort of blended together. If there were no breaks between the tracks, one could be forgiven for thinking it was all one big long, angry song. That’s not a bad thing. Musically, this is some really stellar metal. The guitars alone will melt your brain. Still, though, I have no idea what he was yelling about, for most of it. I wasn’t even trying to pay attention to the words at all.

And now we reach my one issue with Megadeth. I can’t stand Dave Mustaine’s vocals. For fuck sakes, everytime he comes in to yelp, I cringe. He’s so nasal, so whiny-sounding, the very last thing I think when I hear him “sing” is ‘evil’ or ‘menacing.’ At all. Frankly, it’s comical. Now, this is not to say I could do any better. I know for damn sure I couldn’t. But it does damage the listening experience.

And look, I’m sure this is some classic album of the genre and I just don’t ‘get it.’ I can live with that, I calls ’em as I hears ’em. And believe me, I get half of it completely – the music part.

So yeah. Megadeth. Fantastic music better left as instrumentals.