The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead!

After such a strong, revitalizing album that was Dystopia, and a tough battle with throat cancer, which he won, Dave Mustaine and the boys from Megadeth have come back with an amazing album, which, and I can confidently say, is their best outing since Youthanasia.

The album overall sounds similar to Dystopia, but with a few improvements. Firstly, far better song style variation - I've always had a feeling Dystopia was a bit too much reliant on the fast and the thrashy, and even though there's quite a bit of that on this album, there are also some better made amazing slower, focused songs here. Secondly, the lyricism of this album is a clear highlight. From the incredible seriousness and emotions of Dogs of Chernobyl, to the intentionally (which is something that seems to have flown over most people's heads) tongue-in-cheek light-hearted funny stuff on Mission to Mars, it's obvious that Dave put in quite a bit of effort to hone his lyricism here. Also, the typical cringy Mustaine political lyrics are thankfully absent on this album, which is something that has to a minor extent bothered me on previous releases. Thirdly, Dave himself sounds way better here than on Dystopia. And having in mind he had throat cancer (which he beat) before this album, he sounds pretty damn good. And somehow better than on Dystopia. We also get some surprising and surprisingly good extreme metal-esque screams on Life in Hell, which, taking everything else into consideration, comes off as a Christmas gift.

The songs of SDD are top notch. The album starts off with the title track, which is very much akin to the title track of Dystopia, which I have for one reason or another always disliked and thought it really didn't fit with the album. But the title track of SDD fits perfectly, and overall sounds like how Dystopia should've sounded and fit within its album. We're then followed by three mostly fast-paced and thrashy Life in Hell, Nighstalkers and Dogs of Chernobyl, all of which are bangers. The latter is one of the highlights of the album for me personally - the amazing intro riff that slowly progresses into the first verse is simply massive, followed by a very solid middle section, and ending with one of Dave's finest moments, both lyrically and songwriting-wise. The album follows up with a couple of solid tracks such as Sacrifice, Soldier On! and Célebutante, ending with my two favorite tracks from the album, Mission to Mars and We'll Be Back. I've seen a number of people making fun of the former and taking the song way too seriously and giving Mustaine criticism for it, but I believe they just failed to see the point that the song was purposefully intended to be tongue-in-cheek and make fun of people that think they will go to Mars and live like legends (could be that this is a jab at Musk and Musk-stans). It's a huge plus to see Dave has the lyrical ability and the will to make a song like this, something most bands probably would never even attempt, and he pulls it off exceptionally well. The rockish lead guitar riff from 0:13 is really likable and extremely catchy; the lyrics are downright hilarious, and the thrash/speed metal ending with the voice com in the background is chilling - just a great song overall with nothing to hate about. We are then met with the final track, We'll Be Back, that sounds like classic 80s fast as hell Megadeth, with an enormously catchy chorus that I just can't get out of my head. This is the strongest track on the album by far, and works very well as the album's closing track. The whole album just works as one great cohesive unit from start to finish (a fine example of a good track order choice), better than most Megadeth albums. If I had to pick a top 3 from the album, it would be We'll Be Back, Mission to Mars, and Dogs of Chernobyl.

The downsides of the album are really minor, but it's definitely important to point them out. The most obvious one is the production: while 90% of the album is clean and well produced without sounding overproduced like the typical modern thrash metal album, there are some jarring moments I've noticed throughout - there are a few moments where there's some form of clipping/crackling present, like at the beginning of the album when the drums kick in in the title track and throughout Psychopathy, as well as in Nighstalkers, during the Ice-T section and, perhaps most noticeably, after the bass solo when the guitars kick in. There are also some odd transitions like from Psychopathy to Killing Time, and the odd compositional choice of the treble-heavy intro to Soldier On! which makes the guitars sound a bit too thin. I just can't figure out how no one seemed to notice the clipping when it is super obvious on every system that I have played it on. It isn't a constant problem, but it sure is annoying, especially knowing how much of a perfectionist Mustaine is and a lover of clean overproduction (as noticed from all of his remastering endeavors). The second thing I would mention are the vocals. Even though I stand with what I wrote above that Dave sounds pretty damn good given the circumstances, it comes off as a tantalizing what-if when I, and I'm sure most of us do, imagine how the record would sound like if we had lots of the old high pitch Mustaine vocals from the earliest of albums. Since that will not and cannot happen ever again, I think it would be disingenuous and a bit too much to ask for, which is why this doesn't affect me all that much. But these are, at the end of the day, just minor things that do not detract much from the greatness of the album.

The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead! (would also like to mention that I'm glad that the old school three dots and exclamation mark in the album name is back) is one of the best Megadeth albums of all time, and, if you ask me, their best since Youthanasia. To me, this is the strongest candidate for AOTY of 2022, and will 99.9% end up as such. I look very much forward to what the current lineup of the band has in store for us in the future.