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

When Megadeth released Dystopia, it was seen as a relief after the hard rock-oriented Super Collider. Fans had been holding their breath, dreading another foray into commercial dredge, as Megadeth had a bad habit of doing. Luckily, Dystopia introduced a reinvigorated lineup and the band had one thing on their mind: thrash metal. On The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!, Megadeth assures us that this philosophy is here to stay.

This is a heavy album. Fast and catchy in some areas, melodic and brooding in others, but always heavy as hell. After the atmospheric Dystopia telling the story of a doomed world, this album is more content with pummeling the listener with vicious riffs and ballistics-level drumming. This brute force is best heard on tracks like "Life in Hell" and "Night Stalkers", but is present throughout. What the band loses in a consistent sonic landscape, they make up for with pure aggression.

The album is also a reflection of the band's prior works, with inspirations from various Megadeth albums present on the different tracks. The speedy, progressive "Night Stalkers" and "We'll be back" would sound right at home on Peace Sells or Rust in Peace, and the melodic runaround of "Killing Time" sounds like it came straight out of the Youthanasia era. Catchy and straight forward thrashers like "Celebutante" and "Sacrifice" call to mind the bands earliest work, Killing Is My Business, and even their commercial era is touched upon with the seminal "Mission to Mars", the biggest surprise on the album.

Considering his age and his battle with throat cancer, I thought Dave would sound much more coarse on this album. Contrarily, by some miracle, he sounds almost better than he did on Dystopia, delivering excellent vocals on "Night Stalkers" and "Soldier On!". Meanwhile, Kiko continues to prove why he can consistently stand alongside Dave with fast shredding and thrilling solos, and Dirk Verbeuren brings some much needed oomph to Megadeth's recordings. Its nice to hear the drum fills that start or end the tracks, as too often with this band, the drums only serve as a bedrock to the guitarwork. Steve DiGiorgio gets some time to shine on "Night Stalkers", but unfortunately its business as usual as the bass is mostly indistinguishable from the guitar.

At nearly an hour long, however, the album tends to drag a bit. The six minute "Dogs of Chernobyl" takes too long to get to the point, and both "Junkie" and "Celebutante" are fine, but inessential. Ideally, they could have been cut to get the run time down to a more manageable 40 minutes. I listen to thrash metal for a short sharp shock of adrenaline, and a more mid paced album at this length tends to get a bit boring. Endgame, a similarly styled album, had no such problem thanks to its more concise track list.

Overall, this is a solid output from Megadeth, and a worthy follow-up to Dystopia. Its a little longer than it needs to be, but when it hits, it hits hard. I've been listening to it regularly since it came out, and the songwriting speaks for itself. Megadeth is at their very best when they write music that's fast, loud and rude, and if they really do come back, I have a feeling that they'll keep bringing the heat.

Best Songs:
Night Stalkers
We'll Be Back
Mission to Mars

Worst Songs:
Dogs of Chernobyl
Celebutante