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Wow. - 35%
I'm not a huge thrash metal fan by any means, I like some of the 80's Bay Area acts and a few bands from Europe but past that I much prefer death metal and death/thrash metal, as I find vanilla thrash extremely boring. However, I've always enjoyed Megadeth's early work from 1984 to 1990 and have always considered them strong points in the thrash metal genre (which has a sea of honest horseshit to its name), so hearing that there was going to be a new album after completely missing Dystopia and really every other Megadeth album after Countdown to Extinction and the hype around it, I was stoked.
Me and a buddy of mine listened to it today, and holy FUCK does it blow honest balls. To start, the production is INCREDIBLY flat and overdone, which is a disease that plagues a lot of modern metal today but ESPECIALLY thrash metal. Secondly, we found that the songwriting was INCREDIBLY weak, a lot of the album didn't sound like thrash metal but with riffs akin to alternative metal and a lot of wank solos that completely lacked the feel of a Mustaine classic from the first three. I get that he's old, but what a disaster.
The songs that CAN be considered thrash metal are also incredibly lackluster, plagued by the aforementioned flat production and need I mention a DOZEN recycled riff patterns from older Megadeth material? Ripping yourself off can work if you actually change something, but the self-plagiarization is honestly embarrassing and shows how bankrupt of ideas Dave Mustaine is at this point.
Speaking of Dave Mustaine, I need to mention the "vocals" on this album. I'm surprised he can still even talk by this point considering the man has been singing for 38 years and has battled throat cancer, but the amount of times he sounds out of key on this album is incredible. Mustaine has never been an AMAZING vocalist, but his old style was really charming and fit Megadeth extremely well. Nowadays they just flat out suck.
The only saving grace this album has to offer is the aesthetic is pretty cool and it has MAYBE two cool riffs, that's it. Unironically the Ice-T cameo was one of the only enjoyable parts of this dogshit record, which is heartwrenching when you go back in time and listen to the amazing thrash albums Dave Mustaine and his band have made.
