The World Needs a Hero

This album isn’t exactly what one could call good. This is essentially just Risk 2. I'm not a big fan of Megadeth past Rust in Peace, but yeah, this is definitely at the bottom of my ranking alongside the 1999 pop rock blunder that was Risk.

Dave Mustaine decided to try to take his band back to their thrash roots... by not doing so. Everything here is mid-tempo nothingness with a catchy chorus here and there, with very brief occasional signs of the band that managed to release four fantastic metal records. Hell, I'd say the only song on here that actually sounds like Megadeth is 1000 Times Goodbye, which would be a half decent track if not for the annoying and cheesy phone call segments. Other than that, it sounds like a cut track from the Countdown to Extinction sessions which is cool, I guess.

The mix is awful, dry and compressed. I wouldn't expect much else from a metal album released in 2002, but it's especially bad on here for some reason. The kick gives me a headache and the snare is way too dry for its own good. I can also hear the guitars clipping here and there which is not acceptable at all. Dave's vocals also have way too treble and are mixed way too loudly. They also sound tired and don't fit the songs, but that is also an issue with Risk, so I'm not going to get into that too much.

The songs on here are virtually unlistenable. MotoPsycho genuinely made me question if this was Megadeth. Promises is quite clearly just trying to copy the whole orchestra thing with Metallica's No Leaf Clover, because Dave during this era (1992 to 2004) couldn't help himself from copying what Metallica does and make it worse. Dread & the Fugitive Mind is the radio hit for this album, and while I can say it is one of the more listenable songs on here, it's still nothing special. Recipe for Hate...Warhorse is praised a ton, and I don't get it. It starts off fine for a few seconds, and then it becomes just like the rest of the album. Return to Hangar is just a pointless copy of Hangar 18. When is a 9 minute epic that drags on for way too long.

This album is always noted as Megadeth's comeback album when it really isn't. At best it's forgettable. At worst it's just a slightly heavier Risk with a worse mix. I might just not get this album's "pure brilliance", but I do not care for it. I give The World Needs a Hero a 10%, with 1.5/10 stars.

The World Needs a Hero is certainly not among the stronger albums Megadeth have released these last 40 years, but it's at least a step back towards a more decidedly metal direction, and kicks the shit out of its predecessor. To me, the production and songwriting here seems like a shift towards Countdown to Extinction, with perhaps a bit of the more accessible flourishes of Youthanasia, but at the same time there are riffs and structures here that feel fresher for the canon, grooves and ideas that were relatively well-developed. Jimmy DeGrasso had joined on drums for the previous album, but this was Al Pitrelli's debut in the lineup, and though I'm not ever going to be sure of the level of his input here, he brings a slightly different feel playing alongside Dave. It's also his only studio full-length in the fold, the rest of his tenure was live albums and compilations, so it's not like you're going to get a chance to settle in with his contributions.

This one is mixed slickly, reminding me a of a mix of Cryptic Writings and Countdown to Extinction, very mainstream and poppy but also a little digitized in the crunch of the rhythm guitars. There are also a few tracks which I found embarrassing, like the acoustic country/folk track "Coming Home" which goes all in on its rustic persuasions, and is honestly probably not bad for that style, but I'm just not into it, whether it's Bon Jovi or Dave Mustaine crossing genres. "Promises" is likewise akward, this is just not a ballad band, I'm sorry. "Moto Psycho" might be the real nadir here, though, an extremely goofy tune driven by mediocre riffs and really lame chorus; I remember this was one of the singles off the album, the first I heard and couldn't even believe how dumb it was, even just the title. The other acoustic stuff here is a mixed bag, like the setup in "Recipe for Hate...Warhorse", and his spoken word vocals made me cringe a little, but at least it has some good bass lines. The rest of the tracks are passable if not terribly exciting, slightly stronger than Cryptic Writings on a one-for-one basis, realizing that is not saying much. The truly blazing and unforgettable speed/thrash riffs are still evading this material, though there is clearly a sense that the band wants to ramp back up to that.

This even comes through on their own self-nostalgia so we get a "Return to Hangar", which is not even a fraction as memorable as the original off Rust in Peace, but thematically and stylistically it at least consistent, though it does sink so low as to ape lyrics and such, a pretty shallow way to handle a sequel, like trying to sell us an Expendables movie in which Arnold Schwarzenegger just rehashes his old one liners instead of coming up with new ones. That could never happen, could it? Well yeah, and it doesn't really come off any better here than it does on those songs where veteran bands just list previous song titles in the lyrics. On the flipside, the opening duo of "Disconnect" and the title track were at least solid enough to reassert my relationship to their style, and the lengthy closer "When" is probably my favorite with the acoustics, an atmospheric mid-pacer which might sound eerily familiar to "Am I Evil?", sans being a proper cover like Dave's alma mater put out in their early years.

Ultimately, this one suffers from the inconsistent quality of the tracks, and still has a few lingering olive branches it's trying to make with a more mainstream realm, which are totally unnecessary as they always have been, but in some cases aren't executed too poorly. There's a chunk of material I could live without, but still around 30-40 of passable mid-tier Megadeth which if nothing else shows a slight determination to get back on the bull, just a mechanical bull at the bar, on a low setting, with one or two friends raising a beer bottle to you, rather than a bucking wild animal in front of a crazed live audience. The cover art is also real shitty, Vic the Chestburster must have looked better on paper than in execution.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

The World Needs A Hero is the 9th studio album by Megadeth and the last one before the temporary split up. It's also the first album for over 10 years without their legendary guitarist Marty Friedman, who saved the albums after Rust in Peace from being complete shit. That being said, with Friedman's departure, Mustaine and Ellefson were on their own again to fabricate something slightly listenable. And as we saw with Anthrax after their reunion in 2011, writing shitty music for at least about a decade is severely dangerous for your creativity and songwriting skills. And while Anthrax still can't write anything Anthrax worthy after 11 years of junk, Megadeth too struggled severely to write anything good and worthy after 10 years of shitting on their legacy. I will show you what I mean with it.

The album begins with Disconnect, a song about isolation and frustration. The intro riff is sad and depressing. Immediately songs like Addicted to Chaos or Countdown to Extinction come to your mind and you are curious, if there will be maybe a difference, or if they will just repeat the slow melodic shit again. After 30 seconds you will be disappointed even more, because you notice they will do neither of them, instead they will just play this riff on and on again and have the worst drums you will ever have listened on any record you have owned so far. 1 kick, 1 snare, over and over again. In addition, Dave has let down his vocals. He doesn't even try to sing any good notes. While he has put effort just until Cryptic Writings to have a melodic or sometimes angry singing voice, to, no matter what, make himself a good frontman, where he has proven himself to be a good soft rock, country, whatever singer on Risk! by being sometimes emotional, sometimes eccentric, he just keeps it down with it voice here. That he doesn't hit the notes on this album is even more annoying than usual, since you could forgive a singer for being bad while he's busy with his difficult guitar work, but there is simply no reason to sound shitty while your hands have less to do than usual. I'm talking about this so long, since I'm referring to the whole album with this, not only Disconnect. In case of Disconnect, Dave's vocals are so bad here, that even the edit in the chorus can't save it and doesn't improve anything here. You have a 5 minute long monotonous song with no variety at all, no climax, no tempo switches and nothing exciting at all. It took me several tries to have the patience to even listen through this song without skipping after the first minute.

The 2nd song is the title track and Megadeth are notorious to play Russian Roulette on these tracks. Either they're extemely good like on Killing is my Business and Rust in Peace, Endgame and Countdown to Extinction, or they're the worst song on this album like on Peace Sells, 13, Super Collider and Youthanasia. Here it's neither of them. The song sucks, but it's not the worst song on this album. To not condemn it, the does go into the right direction. I like the spoken vocals in the verses, how it all gets built up, but as with Disconnect, they don't do anything with the work they put up to that point. Even that thing, where thes samples with the secretary are somehow funny, you might find them embarrassing, but it's at least something new. However, what are good ideas if they only stay in the draft phase? And instead of putting any effort, any climax in this, they go the laziest way possible and add more filler rock passages in it. Pass it through with expendable, forgettable passages you could hear from any local garage rock band. The chorus is even dumber than on Disconnect, there they at least added more than just the title of the song. And I just told you that the title track isn't the worst song on this album, so Megadeth didn't hesitate and put the even worse songs directly after it. Moto Psycho is slightly faster but at least twice as silly as The World Needs A Hero. I can't even go into the song itself, because the title is already stupid and the moment you hear another one of these forgettable intro riffs you skip it out of reflex. And then there is the worst song on this album and maybe in Megadeth's entire career: 1000 times goodbye. Megadeth wrote a sequel to Tornado of Souls. Wow! Another heartbreak song, but this time Dave cries that his girlfriend left him. You miss a good solo? You miss crushing riffs? Don't worry! Dave found a substitute: he edited his ex-gf's phone calls in where she tells him that it's over. And since you love stuff like this so much, this song goes 6 and a half minutes long, just so you can enjoy the maximum out of it! You got 4 failures and embarrassing songs in a row and if you haven't puked until there, then congratulations, you have a strong stomach and good stamina!

After the worst song in Megadeth's career, they couldn't get any worse, so Burning Bridges is the first bright look on this album. The intro gives a threatening and dark mood and for the first time they actually managed to create something good with these mid-tempo and low melody rhythms. Also, the song is consistent and the riffs, while still relatively simple for Megadeth standards, still work overall. Dave's vocals are bulky and as we are used to them and appreciate them. In the end, the solos rip everything, so congratulations, you had to be tormented from 4 horrible songs to get to the first and to a degree only decent song. The only other good song is Return to Hangar, but since Dave wanted to make it a sequel to Hangar 18, it gets completely stomped and disavowed because of the compulsory comparison between this one and the original. The riffs are typical The World Needs A Hero trash, the solos in the end - yes, Dave thought it was a good idea to rip the original off like this - are in no way on the level from Hangar 18. Dave's vocals? Again The World Needs A Hero trash, but somehow also enjoyable, since you have a direct comparison between the brighter vitale yet still messy singing from the ambitious Dave from over a decade ago and the now lower and powerless singing from this work. Direct as in Dave uses the same notes here as in Hangar 18.

The last good song and maybe the best song here is Recipe for Hate... Warhorse. It is definitely the fastest song on this album, what isn't meaning much, but at least this song as a form of direction and composition that you can call versatile or at least interesting. It ends again with a solo duet at the aforementioned two songs. And next to these 3 tracks, the only thing that is worth mentioning, and that is clearly an embarassment, is the ballad Promises. If a song that gets dominated by violins and is supposed to be just a little pause from a somewhat rocky album is one of few songs worth mentioning on an album, especially when you have Al Pitrelly from Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra as session musician, and can still only bring this up in the end as one of the best songs on your album, then you really suck. The song is great, it is a huge change for Megadeth terms and could have easily been on Youthanasia or Risk! But let me tell you here, in the arrangements of Risk! and even Youthanasia, Promises would still have just been a nice addition, and not one of the peaks of these albums. This is how bad The World Needs a Hero is, sadly.

There are 2 other songs on this album which aren't even worth mentioning. The 5 minutes long boredom - worse than Disconnect - Losing my Senses with at least philosophical lyrics, but they are unlistenable thanks to the ears drilling music, and then there is When. It's over 9 minutes and the only interesting thing about it is the trivia about it. Back in the 80s nobody would have expected that Megadeth would suck on a 9 minutes long song.

With this pathetic excuse of an album, the experimental era of Megadeth has - thankfully - ended and boy, the rating is just shit. Of the 5 album they have released after Rust in Peace, they have only nailed it twice. After this one Megadeth split up for a year and if you listen to The System has Failed you will notice that that break was really necessary for them.

The World Needs a Hero is supposedly a return to form for Megadeth. Vic is back on the cover, and there's even a Hangar 18 sequel on here, surely they outdid Risk, right? Well, Risk is not a bright spot in their career, but at least it seemed like some effort went into making it stand out. This album on the other hand just doesn't seem to have a lot of love put into it. It's not as experimental as Risk, but the band does attempt a little bit of that. It's not a grab bag of different styles like Cryptic Writings, but it isn't very cohesive like Youthanasia either. This isn't their worst album, but it's pretty damn close. It's rife with sing-talking, bad choruses, and pretty unmemorable riffs. Generally, if something on here is "good" by this album's standards, that just means it sucks less than the other tracks.

Disconnect and Burning Bridges are probably the two best cuts from the first half. They remind me of Cryptic Writings or even Youthanasia. The first half also contains the title track and 1000 Times Goodbye, which both downright suck. The latter half has 2 worthwhile songs just like the first half (Dread and Return to Hangar). Both of these feature annoying sing-talking though, which makes them worse than they could have been, especially in Return to Hangar's case. When has about 4 minutes of buildup which leads to a bad imitation of Diamond Head, so I don't count it as one of the good ones. Kill the King could have really spruced this album up, because 4 "good" songs out of 12 is a pretty bad batting average!

The production isn't very good, and at this point in their career there's not really a good excuse for that. It sounds like Cryptic Writings but bigger. Everything is noticeably compressed, so there is not much breathing room in the mix and it definitely clips at points. The drums and bass are well played enough, but it's clear that there's not much of a musical focus on them. Despite this, they are mixed louder than the other instruments. The guitars sound similar to the Cryptic Writings tone, which is more of a rock-oriented type of sound, and what happens sometimes is that when the band starts to play riffs that are on the metal side, it kind of makes them sound weaker. This is the opposite of what happened with Youthanasia, which had its more accesible moments improved by giving them that deeper, heavier guitar tone.

This album was supposed to be a return to form, why else would Vic be back on the cover? It's like they baited people into buying it by putting Vic on it. The fact that he's on there implies that there is thrash to be heard, but it's all an illusion. The only thrashy song on here is Return to Hangar, and even that is a reprise of a much better song for the most part. Dave's sing-talking, bad lyrics, and not so great songwriting cripple this album. It's pretty uninspired, doesn't really know what it wants to be, and doesn't really do much I could see fans of thrash or even the Youthanasia/Countdown sound liking either. What's laughable is that while Risk and Super Collider are terrible, at least they're bad enough to have a reputation. I have not once heard any fans of Megadeth mention this album by name, it's like everyone forgets it even exists. The best track of this era, Kill the King, which most fans do know, isn't even on here! I would say it's worse than Risk, because at least that release had an identity and Marty Friedman. This was a low point in their career for a very long time, only eclipsed by the even lower low known as Super Collider.

Their ninth album overall, The World Needs A Hero represents the final stage of Megadeth's 10 year neutering following the untouchable Rust In Peace, surpassing Risk as the most embarrassing album in the band's catalogue. Their push for a "hit" release at any cost started out rather well with the neatly-packaged Countdown to Extinction and Youthanasia, but the quality of Mustaine's ideas and his self-awareness went into freefall from Cryptic Writings onwards. If Risk was a cynical, corny and often irritating coda to the band's initial breakup, The World... was Deth's bland, unconvincing and desperate death rattle.

Apparently marketed as a response to the "alternative" stylings of Risk, this album nevertheless continues to dick around with different genres, thrash metal again an afterthought to radio-readiness. Elements of heavy metal, groove, grunge, hard rock and prog rock are all called upon in this dire experiment, as the band continued to lose coherence. When the band does incorporate thrash metal, it's usually unsubtly jammed in as a bridge to resuscitate an otherwise flatlining song. Tragic then, that the solitary thrash song on offer is the soul-destroying, completely unnecessary "Return to Hangar" - a sequel to the godly "Hangar 18". It's watered-down and sluggish, pathetically mimicking the original's structure for nostalgia's sake. As far as unwarranted sequels go, "The Unforgiven II" had some value, but "Return to Hangar" is a futile attempt at appeasing long-suffering fans. Creatively, Megadeth were dead in the water, and there was no Marty Friedman to blame this time around.

At what point is the band supposed to have regained any dignity here? Not on the cheaply programmed, orchestral ballad "Promises", which sounds more and more like an outro for Rozen Maiden, even with Mustaine's distracting, strained bleating. It won't be found on the banal answerphone messages of "1000 Times Goodbye", yet another angsty break-up song that tramples all over "In My Darkest Hour". And it certainly isn't present on the needlessly lengthy closer "When", a heavy metal track with zero urgency or direction, which laughably transitions to a thrash break for a brief minute towards the end. Realistically, it's not any heavier than Cryptic Writings, and features a dull production job that supresses any potential of redemption when the band finally does decide to showcase their skills. Like Risk, it is overproduced, but this time the songwriting feels phoned-in rather than unconventional. The one track I can stomach out of the twelve is the gormless but catchy "Moto Psycho". Unlike the others it isn't laced in pretension or melodrama; it feels as though someone had fun recording it. Mercifully, it is also the shortest track on the album by almost a minute.

Nobody comes out of this album smelling of roses, but Mustaine's vocal performance absolutely stinks. Obviously, the man was never blessed with the most natural singing voice, but his ear for raw melody had saved him up to this point, with Youthanasia being my favourite example, and the quirky So Far, So Good... So What! a close second. After threatening it on Risk with "Prince of Darkness" and "Wanderlust", Mustaine now commits to his spoken-word vocal style for a large portion of the album, rather than actually singing. He deflates any energy a song could have, and can too often sound like he's reading deranged, paranoid entries plucked from his diary. When he does sing, he does so in an awkward lower register, in part due to age no doubt, which most people have now become accustomed to, though it sounds as ugly as the man's heart.

It is almost impossible to believe that this album was released in the same year as God Hates Us All. The bashing Slayer get for that one seems mightily unfair whilst The World... sneaks in under the radar. If Slayer gave fans their worst album in 2001, then Megadeth released the worst album of the combined catalogues of The Big Four; an album that makes St Anger, Volume 8 and even Risk look appealing. Revisiting these post-Youthanasia albums all but confirm what I've always suspected: Megadeth and Mustaine are dead to me after 1994, especially since fraudulently resurrecting the band as a mouthpiece for Dave's misguided, shameful and thoroughly rotten beliefs. Mustaine should have gone solo; the band should never have returned, and this part of their career could have remained forgotten in favour of those first five or six incomparable albums.

Spin To Win:
"Moto Psycho"

"I try, and I try, and I try, and I try, I can't get no, satisfaction". That famous Rolling Stones line typically describes someone who can't find love, but to be honest, it describes my feelings towards The World Needs A Hero. Many spins and revisits of the first new millennium Megadeth record, and I just can't get into it. The previous album is widely looked at as their worst effort, but contrary to popular opinion, this is where Dave and co. dropped the bomb. Not only is it extremely boring with few redeemable qualities, it's also overly long, as well as containing some very stupid lyrics, and tackling emotional concepts the incorrect way. What's mostly astounding is that Megadeth have pulled this off very well in the past, churning out banger after banger in the '90s, losing all of the luster here. As easy as it is to blame the lineup change, the issues aren't in the music itself, but in the writing.

That all said, the first track "Disconnect" is a solid track with an eerie intro and a darkened heavy metal feel supported by a great rhythm section and a memorable chorus. "Return To Hangar" is also very fun, but it doesn't hold much weight seeing that it's essentially a reprise of an old classic, so it's kinda like that free bingo space in the middle. Aside from this, everything else is at best average, at worst horrible. "1000 Times Goodbye" is the biggest ear sore, as well as the easiest to pin the emotional concept tag to, done very poorly. The woman's voice with Dave's responses are beyond annoying, and the only reason it's almost worth the listen is because of the "you know what, you suck" part making me laugh. It's cringy, and frankly the rest of it is six minutes of filler, no killer. The closer track "When" is more than nine minutes of guitar doodling that hardly goes anywhere, and leaves me very disappointed. Actually, that's the issue that most of the songs have, this one just happens to be twice as long. Don't get me wrong, the guitars and drumming aren't poorly executed, it's just that they don't fit into anything worthy of being a redeemable track besides the songs mentioned earlier, and the blandness is what drives this into the dirt. So really, there's not much else that can be said about them, because the majority of them were summed up in one sentence.

In my eyes, this is the start of where Megadeth began to overproduce their albums, and even though it's somewhat hit or miss here on out, it doesn't save World at all. If anything, this only further spreads the songs together even more, making it even harder for them to stand apart. So really, removing the standout bad moments, as well as the few good ones, we're left with a super generic, average record that overstays its welcome, and resembles a meal consisting entirely of bread. Is it the worst thing in the world? Nah, but it gets old very fast, doesn't vary at all, and falls below average. It's worth giving this disc a spin in the event of a discography binge, or for the sake of completing a collection (that'd be me). Otherwise, it's nothing more than background music.

It was the turn of the century and Megadeth released The World Needs a Hero.  And, after their last effort, Risk, the world indeed needed a hero.  I mean, it was bad.  Like, really bad.  But this album came out of nowhere and is actually pretty good.

Megadeth sort of do that, don't they?  They released So Far, So Good, a mediocre mid-paced thrash album with little excitement.  Then they released Rust in Peace, one of the best albums of their career.  They released Countdown after that and it was a complete dud only to have their following album, Youthanasia, be a large success (in my opinion, anyway).  Now, after the abomination called Risk, they've redeemed themselves to some extent.  There are a few errors on this album, however, and I will be covering them shortly.

This album is composed of mid-paced thrash metal songs that are like those seen on So Far, So Good, but this time around, the riffs are not the driving force; the leads are.  The World Needs a Hero took me by surprise because not once did I hear a harmonica or a twang on this album.  There were awkward moments like the entirety of "1000 Times Goodbye" and the symphony of "Promises," but no devastating errors... sort of.

Speaking of "1000 Times Goodbye," why the hell is this on here?  Six minutes of breakup garbage on a thrash metal album?  Wow, that's what I want to hear.  Guitar solos overlapping phone call soundbytes that are too loudly produced for six minutes sounds like a treat.  Even the riffs are bad.  The opening riff is the least impressive opening riff ever written by Megadeth to this point.  There is no hook, no direction, and no inspiration.

"Promises" sounds like the band discovered that they could use Pro-Tools to make their own symphonies.  Well isn't that cute.  The entire song is placed awkwardly on the album, ending with an acoustic guitar that was cut too short, making the ending abrupt, and leading into a heavy riff right away.

The biggest problem with the album is this: "Return to Hangar."  It is clear that what Megadeth is attempting is another Rust in Peace and this becomes certain when this song plays.  It's basically a remake of "Hangar 18," the classic song from their 1990 album that so many love.  "Return to Hangar" is not a sequel, at least I don't think it is.  It's a remake of the classic, using the same chorus and the lyrics are based off the originals.  You can't just take a song from a previous album and slap it on your new record.  That should be a law.  Because it's so lame when bands attempt to relive their glory days, not by making new music (which would seem like the probably solution), but by remaking old music.  I am aware that they wrote new riffs, but really?  I don't find it that easily redeemable.

Other problems that are quite minor are the grunge song and the long one.  The grunge song is "Losing My Senses," sounding like a shreddier Pearl Jam than Megadeth.  The long song is the very last track, "When."  Clocking at nine minutes, this song is a snooze.  Maybe it's called "When" because no one knows when the hell it will end.  The first four minutes are Dave Mustaine talking about some dumb stuff and it goes by very slowly.  It isn't until this is over when the good riffs come in.  The riffs aren't amazing, but they're okay.  But with the four-minute intro, it's not even worth listening to.

Other than a few flaws on the record, it's not all that bad.  Well, compared to the previous two albums, that is.  This album has some good songs on it like "Burning Bridges" and "Recipe for Hate."  Both of these songs show that Megadeth is still able to do what they do best: make fast and relentless songs with shredding riffs and solos.  Despite some large hiccups like tracks four, six, and 11, this album isn't terrible.  It's a good start after hitting rock bottom with Risk, so kudos to you, Megadeth, for pulling your stuff together.

Overall Rating: 68%

Originally written for themetalvoid.wordpress.com

Liking Megadeth and liking this album are not necessarily the same thing. If you ask 100 metalheads whether they know Megadeth, most will say that they do, though when asked which songs they know by the band it's odds on that 90% of the songs mentioned will be from the first 10 years of the band and possibly the most recent 10, leaving quite a chunk of a 34 year career in the mental ditch at the side of the mind's highway. This album is buried pretty deep at the bottom of that ditch, not because it's the worst Megadeth album (chances are that accolade will go to Risk, but there are plenty of contenders), just for the fact that it came at about the lowest point in Dave Mustaine's career and doesn't outright suck, meaning that most people will probably forget it rather than ladle shit onto it. Therefore, liking Megadeth and liking The World Needs a Hero are not the same thing: you're more likely to like this if you like Mustaine, since there's a lot more words on the songs here than on most of his other releases, some of which are fairly silly and makes me dub this "the verbal diarrhoea Megadeth album".

In case you hadn't gathered from my moniker for The World Needs a Hero, the emphasis has moved away from guitars and onto vocals, which is accompanied by the same kind of rockier style as the previous two albums with a dose of the catchy metal riffing that made Youthanasia at least a passable excuse for no longer playing thrash. Explaining the sound for people who haven't listened to Megadeth is a little awkward, since Mustaine's voice is distinctive and incomparable - a kind of snotty snarl that practically talks its way through some songs - and the music jumbles together influences like Diamond Head ('When' uses several of the band's riffs in a kind of collage), Alice Cooper (I can sort of imagine him singing a few of these cuts), White Zombie (it's odd, but the guitar grooves and heavy sampling makes me think of them), and the period of Metallica when everything was going wrong, since this is rather a confused album in the same vein as Load. There are some songs that play out as catchy singalongs ('Moto Psycho' and 'Dread and the Fugitive Mind'), some that attempt to go deeper into metal spheres with some heavier riffing ('Burning Bridges' and 'Disconnect'), and others that experiment more wilfully ('1000 Times Goodbye' and the title track), sometimes successfully, sometimes less so.

There are quite a few things to dislike about this approach, the first of which is the redundancy of two of the same string players who brought us songs like 'Hangar 18', who are certainly not used to their full potential. Al Pitrelli, though not quite Megadeth's best guitarist, was surely capable of much more than the lame medium that is required of him on songs like 'Burning Bridges' and the title track, where a couple of average riffs and a perfunctory solo are enough to earn him his bread, Mustaine never letting rip with anything more special either. It's not really a matter of pace either, because Megadeth hadn't played fast for several years and sounded decent enough on Countdown for Extinction, but the nasty rhythms used when 'Recipe for Hate...Warhorse' decides to hot up neuter any potential excitement by stumbling on a childishly simple guitar riff, made all the more distasteful due to the production, which brings me to my second complaint. Never exactly fortunate in the studio, the rather weak, under-distorted guitar tone couples up to a flimsy lead tone, David Ellefson's vague sleepwalking bass, and the dull thud of Jimmy DeGrasso's drums. Those mediocre sounds mean that all the more focus falls onto Mustaine's vocals, so that a song like 'Losing My Senses' practically falls apart from the combination of his uninterested delivery and his bandmate's uninspiring efforts. On this song, the lack of effort is especially obvious, since there's a grammar mistake left in the lyrics - "Yesterday's answers has nothing to do / With today's answers". Are answers not plural, Dave?!

Trying to appreciate all of the songs on The World Needs a Hero is going to do your head in, so here's a guide about what's alright and what smells. First of all, the heavier tracks are not necessarily better, a point evidenced by the amazingly well-formed 'Promises', which begins as an acoustic ballad that includes atmosphere, emotion, and an insistent chorus. 'Moto Psycho' is the best of the heavy numbers, keeping things simple and efficient with a decent riff and more hooks than a fisherman, while 'Dread and the Fugitive Mind' is a treat for anyone who liked 'Sweating Bullets', and 'Return to Hangar' makes a modest effort to pay homage to 'Hangar 18' in a punkier style. Just don't expect too much shredding at the end. If you like listening to phone conversations, '1000 Times Goodbye' will suit you down to a tee, fitting several long excerpts of a break-up call into the chorus and latter verses, which should be cheesy but I actually sort of like. Sadly, the title track also does a line in phone calls ("The White House is calling / Tell them I'll call them back"), but fucks up just about everything and takes the title of "shittiest thing available on this album".

Therefore, it's not easy to recommend that Megadeth fans check out The World Needs a Hero, nor is it obvious which other demographic could be enticed to willingly participate. What saves this from being actively poor for me is that, even though some of it is pretty bad, it's rarely boring or totally annoying, my face settling more for a permanent surprised expression as things just sort of happen for the best part of an hour. As such, you probably won't want to listen to this but it won't do you any harm.

Let me tell you something: if you were told this was Megadeth's comeback after Risk's -not so big- failure (I kind of liked it), you were lied to your face. This was nothing but a desperate attempt to regain fans' trust after their major commercial disaster. Believe me: Megadeth's old school sound in this album is nowhere in sight. This could be just me putting my expectations too high (I was told it was a good album, and it may be), but you can be sure that there is no reason for you to think that "Megadeth has gone back to the roots".

Now, for those looking for thrashy elements on the album, you won't find any; tempo is too slow, guitars aren't as distorted as they should be, and the only strong feeling you get after listening to it is the burning desire of throwing it away and killing the son of a bitch that recommended it to you. WARNING: you may be misled by some of the riffs and drumming at the beginning of some songs like Disconnect or Recipe for Hate, in which you might find some Set the World Afire "leftovers" during the solo, but the overall impression is that thrash has been long forgotten by the band.

Moreover, most songs in the record are too pretentious and boring (they aren't as fast and angry as they should be), and some others like 1000 Times Goodbye or Promises are deliberately meant to make you want to kill yourself. But the worst part is having to listen to Megadeth's "The Unforgiven II", Return to Hangar (seriously guys, what were you thinking?), which is the biggest joke of all, so you could easily say there's not one serious track on the entire thing.

But don't worry: Megadeth will never go back to their original sound; we know that for sure. So from now on, try to keep your expectations low, so you don't go through the same disappointment I went through.

Megadeth really fell off of the wagon for a lot of people with their 1999 full-length album "Risk". Hell, even I often question why the band thought this was a good idea at the time and I actually enjoy the album to an extent. It became quite clear to the band that fans were very upset by this album and even today, it's still regarded as one of the most failed experiments to come out of a legendary heavy metal band. Dave Mustaine made the decision that Megadeth would not venture further down the road of alternative rock, although this caused a bit of chagrin for fellow guitarist Marty Friedman, who left the band before this album came out. He wanted to expand the alternative style Megadeth had embraced and because no one else agreed, he went off on his own. This was probably for the best, anyway.

"The World Needs a Hero" was released in 2001, two years after the aforementioned "Risk". It showcased Megadeth moving back to a heavy metal style heard on albums such as "Countdown to Extinction" and "Youthanasia", with a dose of the band's thrash metal style here and there. This is seen as a "return to form" by some fans but for myself, it's only a step back in the right direction. It is very inconsistent and can't seem to make up its mind. Is it a heavy metal album? Or a hard rock album? Or a thrash metal album? Truthfully, it takes all of these styles and scatters them sporadically around the album's nearly 1 hour runtime. The track "Disconnect" opens the album and seems to be more along the lines of heavy metal and rock, with a slow, melodic guitar solo and some chuggy yet watered-down riffs. This is unfortunate because I feel Mustaine really halfassed a lot of this. Songs like "When" and the heavy/hard rock song "1000 Time Goodbye", which is one of my favorites here, work this style very well with ultra-melodic riffs and kickass solos. However, while it's not a terrible song, I feel "Disconnect" didn't allow the album to take off at full potential.

So, like I said, "1000 Times Goodbye" and "When" (also Megadeth's longest song) are great cuts and show how good the album can be. They aren't thrashers but very good melodic metal tracks. "Return to Hanger" is the album's thrashiest song and serves as a sequel to the legendary "Hanger 18" from "Rust In Peace". It follows in "Hanger 18's" footsteps and while it doesn't outdo it, it certainly does it justice. Especially the outro with its multiple solos! Unfortunately, for every great song here, there are duds. Take the album's single "Moto Psycho". What the fuck, Dave? This song is awful. The lyrics are childish and the riffs are bland. This also is one of the album's thrashier tracks which makes it even more disappointing, because it's very watered-down thrash metal. "Losing My Senses" also fails to please with just an overall boring structure. This album is pretty much 65-70 stuff that sounds decent to very good, and the rest of it, well...disappoints. Hence my rating of the album. It's not as low as "Risk" but due to inconsistency, it ain't much better.

I don't really have much to say about this album, because for me, 1999-2004 Megadeth was the band at its worst, not counting 2013's abomination that was "Super Collider", proving to be Megadeth's worst album overall. So none of the albums from 1999-2004 are horrible, as I have said before. They just fail to captivate me the way any of the other albums Dave and co. have put out. This one just seems like an awkward attempt to transition back to thrash metal, only succeeding in a few areas.

So it turns out after Risk (and possibly Cryptic Writings) Mr. Carrothead and crew realized that while they were taking an admittedly unique and fairly experimental path that their career would be far more secure if they retreated back to familiar ground. So now we get The World Needs a Hero which can be summed up as sounding as if they couldn't decide whether to return to the melodic thrash of Countdown to Extinction or the melodic hard rock of Youthanasia.

Luckily the two sounds mix fairly well as they both share the previously mentioned melodic roots. Much of the band's good ole early and mid 90s sound is back, but this is still a far cry from a complete return to form. Still lacks the anger, the aggression, the edge and the overall heaviness of Countdown to Extinction (and in most of those aspects Countdown pales in comparison to their 80s work). However you can tell the band are still trying to appease the fanbase and redeem themselves to the metal crowds, unfortunately they still clearly had the mainstream in mind as well during the writing process.

Dave has lots of energy but focuses it into more of a fun sound then an angry sound. He still swings away from the aggressive side of things as much as he can get away with. His singing is alright, very limited in range but very charismatic in performance. Pretty solid for the most part but he forgets to pack energy on some songs (1000 Times Goodbye). His lyrics now pander to a more radio oriented crowd with lyrics dealing with things like breakup (1000 Times Goodbye) or how desperately the world needs saving (the title track).

The guitars once again go for catchy hooks on the chorus but aren't quite as chorus centric now, with them attempting to sprinkle most every song with as many melodic riffs as they deem reasonable (an average of 2 or 3 to be exact). Its all midpaced and very simplistic as to offend as little as possible and to make sure it can still get decent marketing (another example being 1000 Times Goodbye, which by the way may be the most bland thing they've ever made). The soloing is all melody and is usually pretty predictable in placement, certainly nothing as shredding as Hangar 18 or Into the Lungs of Hell but admirable all the same.

The bass is reduced to the mere position of rounding it all out, on certain occasions the production pushes him up in the mix revealing some nice little bass grooves (opening of the title track). The drummer returns to his AC/DCish bass snare pattern drumming and mostly keeps time, he lays down some nice beats here and there but nothing too special about it. All in all its a decent laid back melodic album from a band that once released high speed balls of intensity and aggressive classics.

Stand out tracks: The World Needs a Hero, Dread and the Fugitive mind and Moto Psycho. Return to Hangar is also somewhat of a nostalgic blast, but doesn't hold a candle to Hangar 18.

With nearly thirty years worth of material to their name, I think this may be the most overlooked Megadeth album in the group's long-running history. It is not as actively hated as "Risk," but its borderline thrash leanings have officially been rendered obsolete by the more recent additions to the Megadeth discography. On the other hand, it is fairly significant for being the only album to feature Savatage guitarist Al Pitrelli and the last album to feature drummer Jim DeGrasso and longtime bassist Dave Ellefson.

Musically, you could describe this album as sounding like a more modern cross between “Cryptic Writings” and “Countdown To Extinction.” The guitar playing is definitely “metal” but rarely reaches true levels of technicality or intensity, the songs are fairly accessible but don’t have any signs of blatant commercialism or memorable hooks that command your attention, and the production’s somewhat bland coating makes it sound like no other Megadeth album to date. On the other hand, Dave Mustaine manages to put on a pretty good vocal performance in spite of the material he has come up with and even carries songs like “Disconnect” and “1000 Times Goodbye” with his solid singing voice. The bass presence is also quite strong and really stands out on tracks like “Disconnect” and “Recipe For Hate.” There are also a few moments that attempt a darker direction, but they’re relatively few and far between…

While the title track seems to promise a return to more political themes, most of this album’s lyrics seem to deal with more introspective ideas. “Burning Bridges” and “Losing My Senses” seem to deal with regret in one’s life, “Recipe For Hate/Warhorse” and “When” focus more of anger, and I always like to think of “Dread And The Fugitive Mind” as being an Agnostic anthem of sorts. Other topics covered on the album include relationships (“1000 Times Goodbye,” “Promises”), modern society (“Disconnect,” “Moto Psycho”), and a return to an old fan favorite (“Return To Hangar”). While there are a few goofy lines that come up, there are an equal number of filler songs that are actually made interesting by some intriguing lines…

Like so many other thrash veterans attempting to reclaim their places in the Pantheon, this album’s biggest flaw is a lingering feeling of desperation. A number of songs sound like mere imitations in their attempts to pay homage and a few manage to go into borderline plagiarism. “Return To Hangar” doesn’t quite reach the standards of the original tune and the structure of “Dread And The Fugitive Mind” is eerily similar to that of “Sweating Bullets.” Hell, they even manage to channel Diamond Head in the “Sucking My Love” inspired bass solo of “Disconnect” and the entire song structure of the infamous “When”…

And I’ve really got to ask why no one thought it’d be a good idea to put “Kill the King” on here. I know that fact has nothing to do with this album itself, but that song is one of the best that Megadeth has ever recorded and doesn’t deserve its association with the horribly lacking “Capitol Punishment” compilation…

I think Mustaine himself put it best when he described this album in hindsight as a step in the right direction rather than an all-out return to form. It has plenty of decent songs, but there’s little worth noting for anyone that isn’t a fanboy/completist. It’s certainly not in the same realm of disappointment as “St. Anger,” that’s for sure…

Pros:
1) Fairly accessible songs
2) Great vocals and bass playing
3) Often intriguing lyrics

Cons:
1) Somewhat desperate songwriting
2) The riffs often lack the signature Megadeth intensity and technicality
3) Bland production

My Current Favorites:
“Disconnect,” “Moto Psycho,” “1000 Times Goodbye,” “Dread And The Fugitive Mind,” and “When”

Starting things over at square one rarely results in a masterpiece being put together, and that is precisely what went on when this album was thrown together and released to the public. Mustaine had essentially lost his longest running axe partner and half of his rhythm section, not to mention that it had been going on 7 years since he’d put together an album that was 100% metal, let alone thrash metal. In keeping with all of this, one shouldn’t approach “The World Needs A Hero” with high expectations. But even when canceling out the unrealistic hope of a return to “Rust In Peace”, especially considering that Marty Friedman is out of the picture, this album does leave a bit to be desired.

First to get the obvious out of the way, this is basically a metal album, though there is some retention of rock oriented influences as heard on “Cryptic Writings”. These tend to occur during the extended intros of certain songs, and in some isolated cases they take over the song entirely. Otherwise, what unfolds to the ears is something largely comparable to “Youthanasia”, though lacking a lot of the impressive hooks and often trying to merge some older thrash elements into the mix. What results is an album that is just a tiny bit heavier than your average heavy metal album, and definitely a good bit more technical in the riff department.

There are many positive examples of songs that settle into a fairly older vain of Megadeth, albeit ones that hearken to the early to mid-90s rather than the 80s. Songs such as the catchy and minimalist “Moto Psycho”, the mid-paced yet intricate “Disconnect”, and the heavier and riff happy “Burning Bridges”. These songs all carry elements of stronger moments heard on “Countdown To Extinction” and on the various non-album songs that floated around before and after “Youthanasia”. “Burning Bridges” actually turns into a speed/thrash song during the guitar solo, definitely reminiscent of “Fear His Name” off of Overkill’s “Taking Over”.

Unfortunately, there are also a fair share of flawed songs and also a few genuine throwaways. The title track “The World Needs A Hero” and “1000 Times Goodbye” both contain a fair share of solid riff work, but both are loaded with Mustaine’s odd narrative ramblings, which are actually the most overblown fits of sheer corniness he’s ever come up with. At times it almost sounds as if he came up with the verses of these songs via pure stream of consciousness. “Recipe For Hate...Warhorse” brings back memories of “Dawn Patrol”, as it spends more than 2 minutes riding a bass line and contains similarly rambling verses before it actually gets going. Once it does, it breaks out into a series of highly effective riffs and lead breaks, making you wonder why they just didn’t kick things in at around the 1 minute mark.

There’s really only one section where this album truly breaks out into owning what it does and throwing out the true strength of this band, and that is the two song set of “Silent Scorn” and “Return To The Hangar”. While this is meant to be the sequel/conclusion of the famed “Hangar 18” story from “Rust In Peace”, musically this sounds closer to what was heard on “So Far, So Good, So What?”. The first song is a part acoustic ballad, part military march that listens like an army funeral. What follows in the second song is the only thing on here that qualifies as thrash, albeit a shorter and darker version of the late 80s sound of Megadeth. The ending riff where the solo interchange comes in sounds like it was inspired by “Darkness Descends”, and cooks better than anything heard on “Countdown To Extinction” or “Youthanasia”. Why Dave can’t write a whole album like this anymore is absolutely beyond me.

Though this has its moments, it is still a step behind “Cryptic Writings” as an overall listen. If you are one of these old school fans of Megadeth who liked the albums before Dave would speak entire verses of words as if he were on a pulpit, be prepared to be annoyed by about 1/3 of what is on here. This is definitely something that falls into bargain hunting territory, preferably at $6 or less. As much as it pains me to say it, there are cases where an album can be Metal yet simultaneously not very good.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on March 31, 2009.

The World Needs a Hero is supposed to be Megadeth’s return to a more metal sound – according to all the hype that surrounded the release of the album. In reality (without media hype) The World Needs a Hero is a really eclectic mix of influences, sounds, and styles of music. I would say overall it’s probably more “metal” then some previous releases.

There is a definitely a mix of different sounding songs on The World Needs a Hero. The album may not have fluidity to it but you never know what the next song is going to sound like – which is fun in its own way. It does allow the album to be fresh for multiple listenings – but as a Megadeth fan, this album isn’t solid.

Dave Mustaine has done a lot in his life and with the music of Megadeth I expect a little experimentation. One can hear plenty of different concepts in work on The World Needs a Hero. There are more classic metal sounding tracks (“Disconnect”) but there is more of a focus on the groove with The World Needs a Hero than before. There is heavy riffing the leads do take a slight back seat to the main structure of the songs. Songs like “The World Needs a Hero” and “Moto-psycho” have major grooves and focus on that. The guitar work is well done on all the music (even the acoustic/Spanish style on Silent Scorn) and Al Pitrelli (his only Megadeth work) does amazing solos with Dave.

One track that stands out (especially since they all are so different) is “Promises.” It’s a ballad that has violins and a very epic and sad feel to it. I found at first I thought, “oh how sappy.” But afterwards I wanted to listen to it again. It’s really thoughtful and even though it’s not “metal” in that way – it’s still an amazing song.

Both the bass work and drumming have a new focus on The World Needs a Hero. With the new “groove” lens, this allows the structuring elements of the music to take a step forward. This gives this album a unique feel in the Megadeth catalog.

Dave Mustaine does some interesting vocal things on The World Needs a Hero. He seems to do a lot more layering of his vocals lines. He does echoes in the vocals along with an entire track of spoken word. Which is fine – but the track is a little long to do the entire thing in spoken lines. Luckily the lyrics of that track help with the spoken words because Dave is an amazing lyricist. There is nothing too new on this album – the lyrics are shady representations of life, politics, speed, and basic anger issues. I love reading Megadeth lyrics because they are well thought out and applicable to story-telling.

It’s very strange that such a wishy-washy album could be catchy. Megadeth’s use of a variety of tempos, guitar tones, and even violins and trumpets allows this album to be an eclectic (but fun) mixture. It’s not as “metal” as one would hope but there are some standout tracks even if the entire album isn’t powerful.

Songs to check out: Disconnect, Dread and the Fugitive Mind, Promises.

Most Megadeth fans are introduced to the band either through their earliest works or through their early 90’s material. In either case, they are usually forewarned by their knowing brethren to stay away from anything released afterwards. Such was my experience, and the reason that The World Needs a Hero (henceforth TWNAH) was the last Megadeth album to enter my collection. But as it turns out, TWNAH is not an album to fear and avoid; rather, it is a return to the melodic heavy metal style of Youthanasia spiced with the mainstream touches of Cryptic Writings and after the experimental disaster that was Risk, it’s more than welcome. Those expecting a thrash album are going to be disappointed (aren’t we always?), but those that enjoyed their mid-90’s sound will find TWNAH a weaker but comparable addition to that era in the ‘Deth discography.

The return of heavy metal is the album’s key strength. Though Dave’s vocals keep with the more melodic emphasis of their later years, there is an unspoken shift from vocal-oriented songs back to riff-oriented ones and the entire album just has a better feel because of it. Tracks like “Disconnect,” “Recipe for Hate…Warhorse” (the ellipses return!), and “Dread and the Fugitive Mind” represent the heavier bulk of the album: catchy, forceful heavy metal, and it’s good to see the band step up to the plate to deliver it to us. Jimmy Degrasso brings back the double bass beats. Dave Ellefson delivers the strong low end counter melodies just like he used to (“Recipe for Hate” is a throwback to Rust in Piece-era glory). And Dave Mustaine and new enlist Al Pitrelli (from Savatage, whose style is similar to the melodic shred of Marty Friedman) overpopulate the album with poignant lead guitar, to no complaint from me. Mustaine’s leadwork traditionally takes the backseat to his hired gun, but on TWNAH, it’s clear that he has improved almost to the point of equality with Pitrelli. His vocal performance is less consistent, but his melodic singing continues to improve. Certain songs, particularly “Burning Bridges” and the excellent “Losing My Senses,” take the album’ melodic facet to the forefront. I prefer the balance of melody and general heaviness that Youthanasia displayed so prominently, but these tracks never degenerate into Risk territory, with one exception.

“Promises” deserves mention as one of the unexpected diversions in sound that is sure to polarize listeners. As a string-laden ballad, it’s inclusion on a Megadeth album is curious and, for a lot of people, blasphemous. But I defend it: while not as potent as “A Tout Le Monde,” this song is surprisingly touching and a good display of Mustaine’s willingness to try something different every once in awhile. It is also Al Pitrelli’s sole shared writing credit. Good for him.

On the weaker end of the songwriting spectrum we have “1000 Times Goodbye,” which in addition to being lyrically impotent, is quite dragged out and repeatedly interrupted by spoken interjections. “Silent Scorn” is a brief little acoustic instrumental with lead guitar over it. If there wasn’t trumpet parts (!) to it, it would kind of sound like a reject from Testament’s The New Order. Kinda pointless, really. “Return to Hanger,” despite being the only song to have legitimate thrash sections on the album, is a sequel to the classic “Hanger 18,” borrowing heavily from the riffs, vocal lines, and general musical/lyrical arrangement of its older brother. As such, it just begs to be compared to the original, which it cannot hope to live up to. Finally, closer “When” takes forever to get going (over three minutes of vacuous intro precede the song proper), though it’s a decent albeit longwinded song when it does eventually kick in. There’s also a bonus track “Coming Home” on the Japanese version that might as well be a lost Ozzy ballad. Trust me on this one, you can live without it.

It’d like it more if there were actually fucking thrash songs on it (duh), but as one of the many younger metalheads who discovered Megadeth through their early/mid 90’s output, I can’t help but enjoy the majority of this album anyway. The naysayers will continue to say their ‘nay,’ but don’t let that discourage you from giving it a shot, especially if TWNAH sounds like it might be up your alley.

Highlights: “Recipe for Hate…Warhorse,” “Losing My Senses,” “Dread and the Fugitive Mind”

Megadeth's 2001 "The World Needs A Hero" was not the "Rust In Peace 2" many hyped it up to be before its release. However, it is a solid metal album, and somehwat of a throwback for the band.

The album opens with "Disconnect"- a song with a decent riff, and a memorable solo. The title track comes next. Although musically weaker than the opener, it does have some catchy drumming and I like the lyrics. "MotoPsycho" comes next. This was the album's radio single, and you can tell the song was made for radio airplay: it's short and not the most incredibly heavy, musically or lyrically, song that Megadeth has released. While many regard this song as crap, I think the songs catchiness is undeniable, and a catchy song is a good song in my opinion, regardless how corny it maybe. And it still is heavier than 98 percent pof what is played on the radio anyway. Next, "1000 Time Goodbye" plays. A song about breaking up- both uninteresting lyrically and musically; a good song to skip. "Burning Bridges" folows- not a bad song... and not a good one either. "Promises" is Dave's attempt at a ballad that seems to come on every album after "Countdown". Not a terrible song, quite memorable actually. It just clashes with the expected Megadeth style though, which may irritate some.

The second Half of the CD picks up the heaviness a little, and the songs are a bit better. "Recipe for Hate... Warhorse" follows. A pretty good song overall, with nice heavy riffs and good soloing again. Killer bass line as well. Next is "Losing My Senses". At first, I didn't like this song at all, but after a few listens, the chorus is tolerable and I have grown to like it a little. "Dread and The Fugitive Mind" is arguably the standout track on this album. Excellent soloing, riffs, drumming, and lyrics. Unfortanately for this album as a whole, the song was previously released on "Capitol Punishment", so it is kind of old news for most. The instrumental, "Silent Scorn", has a great, dark and gloomy atmosphere in it, whch leads into "Return to Hangar". If this song just had a different title, I think it would be much more liked, as the music is top notch and heavy, but just falls short of "Hangar 18". "When" closes the album. I honestly hate dthis song up until this week, when I started listing to the end of the song. While the beginning is boring as hell and will cause many just to skip the track altogether, the ending of it picks up the pace and isn't so bad afterall.

"The World Needs a Hero" is a decent collection of modernized (and albeit, watered down) thrash metal. It is far from being a "Triumphant return to Thrash" that some have heralded it to be, but on the other side, this album is also not as bad as some make it out to be.

After the abortion that we have come to know as Risk, it was painfully evident that Megadeth could not get any worse (we hoped!). Thankfully, they didn't. They came back with a hard rocking album that sounded a bit like the Countdown to Extinction days. The songs are much heavier and more Megadeth styles than those on either Cryptic Writings or Risk. The guitar work is nowhere near as technical as say, Rust In Peace, but that's a high plateau to be able to match. Great riffs are present throughout the whole album.

Disconnect opens the album with a killer riff then into a great chorus for a nice start to the album. The World Needs a Hero is full of more good riffs and an interesting chorus (very catchy) which is semi-ruined by the annoying as fuck voice-over parts. Moto Psycho is probably the catchiest song Megadeth has ever written but it's also very good (and very underrated for what it is). 1000 Times Goodbye is my favourite song on the album because it does what Mustaine has done with other songs in the past (Wake Up Dead, Mechanix, Holy Wars) and that is it completly changes directions halfway through the song. The phone calls kinda suck, so just listen to the live version from Rude Awakening (which fucing ROCKS). Burning Bridges is another decent song. Nothing too special, the intro guitar is pretty cool and the verse is decent. Promises sucks, recycled Risk material. Recipe for Hate...Warhorse is the heaviest song on the album and another one that would fit perfectly on Countdown. Mustaine's vocals also sound pretty good on this one. Losing My Senses is not great by any means. Just another back-catalog Megadeth song. The last 4 songs on the album are fucking killer. Dread and the Fugitive mind has a wicked chorus that is so easy to sing to and Silent Scorn is a great acoustic break that sounds like your joining the goddamn army. Return to Hangar is also amazing, a second part to Hangar 18 from Rust In Peace. Not quite as orgasmic as the original, but still very good. The album closes with When, with has a very famillar riff *cough*Call of Ktulu*cough* to open and Mustaine ranting about something. However, this rant manages to sound good and turns into a half cover of Diamond Head's Am I Evil. A very good comeback for Deth, and unless we are subject to a mircale, the last Megadeth album.

Disconnect - 9/10
The World Needs a Hero - 8/10
Moto Psycho - 8.5/10
1000 Times Goodbye - 9.5/10
Burning Bridges - 8/10
Promises - 5/10
Recipe for Hate...Warhorse - 8.5/10
Losing My Senses - 6.5/10
Dread and the Fugitive Mind - 8.5/10
Silent Scorn - 9/10
Return to Hangar - 9/10
When - 8/10

No perfect songs on the album, but still very solid.

The World Needs A Hero (TWNAH for the rest of this review) was released on a rabid Megadeth fanbase in 2001. Now why were those fans rabid? After the overblown split with Capitol and the release of Risk, many a 'Deth fan salivated at the kind of music a pissed-off Dave Mustaine might conjure up for his next release. Add to that the fact that Marty Friedman had left the band to pursue "softer" music, and the recipe seemed to be set for a bonecrushing return for the Megadeth boys.

This, of course, was not exactly what happened.

First off, every Megadeth fan in existance wanted and expected a rehashing of Rust In Peace. This was not a valid expectation, no matter how many people bitched about Risk and Cryptic Writings. Evolution, people. Progression. Say what you want about the band, they have at least learned to evolve and progress. Back to the album.

TWNAH starts off with Disconnect, a personal favorite reminiscient of Youthanasia's more mellower metal tracks.

Next up is TWNAH the song. Another good one, and a great Megadeth tune in that it makes use of the attitude from one Dave Mustaine. Proof that great songs can be made using simple guitar riffs.

Moto Psycho is #3, and this one is not one of the better ones. Yeah, it sounds like a great bunch of riffage, but there are really only one or two riffs that just get rehashed throughout the entire song. A direct contrast to TWNAH, where that actually worked well. Also, the lyrics and subject matter are a bit silly after the first listen.

1000 Times Goodbye is another example of turning Dave's attitude into song. Not as good as TWNAH again, but much better than Moto Psycho. Yes, more relatively uncomplicated riffwork, but on a whole it fits the song again.

Burning Bridges is next, and this one is not very good. The song would have been perfect on Risk, and that about sums that up! The biggest problem is that Dave's vocals seem a bit forced during the chorus.

Promises is a great song. Maybe not a great Megadeth song, but definitely a great song on its own. The lyrics are moving, the musicianship is excellent, and the song itself is great to listen to.

Recipe For Hate...Warhorse is one of the finest tracks on the album, and one of the best Megadeth tracks since Train Of Consequences. The guitar work in the second half of the song is just superb, and reminiscient of what Megadeth fans had been expecting the whole CD to sound like.

Loosing My Senses is just weird. Forget this song, it just doesn't work.

Dread And The Fugitive Mind. One word: filler. Not a bad song, but we'd heard it already guys.

Silent Scorn is the latest instrumental from Megadeth. Even with the weird horn accompaniment, the song is catchy and great to listen to (and play on guitar!). Megadeth has proven able to write this kind of music, and Dave needs to do mroe of this in the future.

Return To Hangar. At first I thought this was a cheap attempt to get fans of old-school Megadeth to buy the album, but after hearing it I realized that the song was a great piece of work. Had the whole album been composed of songs along the lines or Recipe... and Return To Hangar, this album would have been recieved much better by fans. The lead guitar tradeoffs between Pitrelli and Mustaine are excellent and bring back memories of Rust In Peace's soloing.

When finishes out the album, and is Megadeth's longest song ever (ok, not counting the remix of Symphony!). It starts out alright, although Dave's vocals could have been better here. Once the distortion kicks in life gets a little better. Not too much, because you're distracted from the quality of the song by the obvious nod to Diamond Head's Am I Evil?

All in all, a decent release. For shits and giggles, lets compare TWNAH and Metallica's Load/Re-Load debacle. TWNAH is a decent Megadeth album. This is its strong point; it's clearly recognizable as a Megadeth release. The Loads, on the other hand, great hard rock albums. The difference is that in this case, they aren't good Metallica CDs. On this point Mustaine and Co. score a point, they have maintained their image and "essence" if you will regardless of the iteration of their music that one might hear. Metallica, on the other hand, evolved a little too much.

Summing up, there's a lot of good Megadeth material on this one. The only problem is that there's not a lot of GREAT Megadeth material on this one. However, the one clue that the album wasn't going to be a total load of crap is found in the credits...Dave Mustaine was the sole author for nearly all of the tracks. For thos of you not paying attention, there was at least one co-author on nearly all of Risk's tracks. You do the math.

Megadeth found a little bit of their former selves on this work. They’ve returned with a metal album, a reasonable album, not brilliant, but really much better than that “Should have never seen the light of day” or should I say “Should have been butchered to death at birth” album “Risk”…
This album was the obvious Mustaine effort to try to get his fans back after that abortion that someday someone has called “Risk”. This album is a mixture of the agressivity of “Peace Sells…”with the more commercial sense of making metal of “Cryptic Writings” and the spirit of an elder Megadeth already reaching their mid thirties… It’s not bad, but those songs really could’ve got more faster at sometimes and those riffs should’ve been stricken with more feeling and thickness on those guitars. All the band members were at their best at this that would be (and we don’t really know that for sure yet…) their last originals record. New boy from Savatage, Al Pitrelli shredded some really fine solos on this one, and he’s good, no doubt he’s a whiz but…that place is and always will be Friedman’s place. Dave Mustaine, once more made a good job, trying to create, as usual, those inverted chords and riffs that no one else in this fucking earth can play, except for the lead guitarist, and DAMN IT you got to admire someone that’s always trying to put other guitarists in the front of their sound devices for more than two hours in a row, just to learn how to play that fuckin riff…Great! The rhythm basis is also irreprehensible. Jimmy De Grasso strikes the leathers as hard as he can until he’s completely dead for a day…and David Ellefson, the veteran, made his bass really have some presence on this record.

It has some good songs like “Disconnect”, “1000 Times Goodbye”, “Recipe for Hate…Warhorse”, the sequel to “Hangar 18”: “Return to Hangar 18” with a rhythm basis being similar to the former song but not as heavy as the original, too bad!, and the fantastic closer “When”, a really pure metal song…
Stuff like “Moto Psycho”, “Burning Bridges” is not that bad, just some attempts to gain some mainstream attention that weren’t essential in this one. But…we know that everyone makes mistakes…Megadeth in the last years became no exception. I’ll just say their names and nothing more: “Promises”, “Silent Scorn” and “Losing My Senses”.

Well even if you are a Megadeth fan or just one of those guys that doesn’t know jack shit about what metal really is, this album can be an interesting experience for all of you…but if you don’t know Megadeth’s real potential I suggest that before you approach this one, you try to get your hands on “Youthanasia”, “Countdown to Extinction” or “Rust in Peace”. Well…if you need comparison…I could say that compare “The World Needs a Hero” to one of the three albums I’ve cited before, is like compare horse shit to strawberry cake…More, I just cant say about it…

I don't believe anyone listened to this cd objectively. Everyone has come to expect instant classics from Megadeth and complex thrash that boggles the mind, but when listening to this one, you have to throw off all that nostalgia and remember what year it is and how old Mustaine and co. are. It's not 1990 and we ain't gonna see another Rust In Peace so just forget about it. Megadeth as a total thrash band is gone. Marty is gone, and so is Nick. I'm sorry to say that as well, but truth be told, Mustaine is still one of the premier songwriters in the metal world.

My standpoint when I first stuck this in my player was that if it's better than Risk, I'll be happy. Well, it was obvious about 3 seconds in that it was better. Disconnect is one of the better tunes on this cd, and is a well structured Countdown To Extinction sounding song, but more modernized. The title track is somewhat disappointing, weak sounding, though there are a couple decent riffs there. Moto Psycho is annoying to say the least, and was more than likely written for radio play. 1000 Times Goodbye, well...I think this was more of a farewell to the good old days of thrash when Megadeth ruled the kingdom. Burning Bridges is without a doubt the cd's best track. It has a more So Far So Good So What feel about it, especially with the guitar harmonies in the chorus, much more thrash than anything they've done in years. Recipe For Hate/Warhorse is a little on the strange side, sounds like it was meant to be played about 10 times faster. Losing My Senses is a Risk song, must've missed that one when mixing it down or something. Dread And The Fugitive Mind is something different from Megadeth, although that double bass thing near the end is a little too much like One...Return To Hangar is blaspheme, and When, well it seems like Dave liked Am I Evil? so much that he'd cover it...but then he got the brilliant Idea to rename it and take credit...oops!

All in all this is still a solid album by a more than solid band. We all know they're capable of so much more, but until Dave decides he can wield the axe again, we'll be left salivating for more...

So Megadeth claim to have returned to their thrash sound on this cd. Well to be blunt, they lied, for the most part. This cd isn't a total bomb like Risk, but its still not that good. A lot of tracks on this cd were originally penned for Capitol Punishment, before that cd became a best-of. They should have remained in the vault and not added to this cd.

The songs on here aren't that thrashy, but decently heavy. Al Pitrelli does shred a few good solos on here. The drumming is pretty good, but nothing that really makes Jimmy stand out, aside from the song burning bridges. The vocals...well its Dave Mustaine, so what are you expecting? The cd opens with the track Disconnect and its an ok song. The title track comes up next and is pretty dumb. "the white house is calling. tell them i'll call back" The stupid little "phone calls" that take place in this song make me cringe. What do we have next, well thats Moto Psycho. Think Metallica 1991 radio single and you have the jist of this song. 1000 times Goodbye is next and I can't stand this song. Its just so dumb, like the title track. There is all these samples of a girl saying things like "we're through" or "there was another guy" or some stupid bullshit like that. So unless Dave just got divorced, this song is about something in the distant past. Not only that, but this isn't what I want to hear megadeth singing about. Burning Bridges is next and the way it starts, this cd is looking very bleak. Then after like 2 minutes, it picks up with a good solo and some cool drumming. Now if only the WHOLE song was similar to this or if most of the cd could be like this, it would be much better. Promises is next and oh my, this is it. A full out whiny ballad that is just screaming RADIO SINGLE. If you've made it this far, just make sure you hit the skip button before you have to hear anything from promises. The next few songs are filler, again with some decent parts in them, but not enough to sustain the whole song. Then we get to a little intro to return to hanger, which features trumpets. WTF?! Ah the much heralded song Return to Hanger, which is a basically a sequel to hanger 18. This song didn't need a sequel. Its an ok song and much better than when Metallica did a sequel to Unforgiven, but still, just leave your legacy of rust in peace alone!! The cd ends with a 9 minute song called When. It has some clear Metallica/Diamond Head rip offs on here, but I don't even listen to this song. It takes a good 3-4 minutes to actually get going and by then I've already given up. If I want to listen to a 9 minute song called When, I'll pop on Opeth.

Overall, this cd is NOT a return to the bands early sound. It has a few decent tracks and a few moments that stand out, but in the end, its not enough to bring the old fans back. Get rid of the ballads and dumb songs, pump up the speed and it would have been better. Though I will give credit for the cover art, its fucking cool! If your a die-hard megadeth fan, then you should probably have this, but if not, don't waste your time. I know I will be trying to sell this cd very soon.