Megadeth

Love ’em or hate ’em, Megadeth exists in a sphere that steamrolls with fast, heavy metal, creativity that is beyond the “does it suck or not?” level of quality. One never has to wonder if a new album by Dave Mustaine and Co. is going to cut the mustard sonically, performance-wise or material-wise. Most critics agree that Megadeth only hit one bump in the road in their entire career (they point to the Risk album as that bump, which this reviewer thought was great), and all this speaks highly for an artist – especially one venturing out on his own new label (Tradecraft).

Musically, Super Collider is an aggressive assault that majors on the lightning fast riffage of Mustaine and Chris Broderick – and there’s lots of it. The lyrics seem to parallel his faith without overtly proselytizing with his words. The clever poetry is mostly aimed at young people in the real world, and it goes a long way in offering “think for yourself” encouragement, but it’s conveyed in a way that a teenage boy can understand. (Mustaine talks about the “… taste of a fist” in one song, and then poses the question, “What do you think your fists are for?” in another.) But there’s also young adult, working-class material, like the reference to being “trapped in a dingy corporate cubicle hell.”

Mustaine’s never been afraid to ask the “big questions,” like, “If this is living, what the hell is living for?” In other words, he still sounds like he’s good and pissed. Megadeth is in fine form and Super Collider only adds a fresh boost of octane to its fast-racing engine.

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Doug Van Pelt

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