The World Needs a Hero

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.