I have never been a big fan of these guys but somehow I do not think I have ever givin’ them a fair listen. A friend played me a little of “Peace Sells…” when it was hot and I liked it a tad (I was still militantly hardcore punk/noise rock at the time). When I got a hold of their follow-up “So Far, So Good… So What” I think I played it only once or twice. I probably thought less of their “Anarchy in the UK” cover (although not nearly as embarrassing as MÖTLEY CRÜE’s wretched version a couple years later) on said album and I am glad they left that one off of this. Even though (at the time) musically I was never a big fan I have always dug Dave Mustaine’s personality, politics and up-front admission of his punk influences (DEAD KENNEDYS, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, etc.).

From listening to this disc, it appears that these speed-metal masters really had it going on. The guitar work is unreal and some of these tunes were very compositionally innovative for their time (that said, most of these tracks seemingly stand the test of time). David Ellefson always had a fairly unique in-your-face bass sound. His instrument never got buried in the mix as his (now former) leader’s former act has. And while we are on the subject of METALLICA, there are a couple of tracks where it is hard not to notice Mr. Mustaine emulating James Hetfield’s vocal style (“Angry Again”, “Trust” and “Prince of Darkness” come to mind). Although he can be an ok singer, most of Dave’s vocal uniqueness stems from his non-musical talking and ranting. It appears that some of it ended up in the METALLICA movie in an even less musical (though unforgettable) form.

Most of these recordings do not suffer from cheesy dated overproduction (only the “Countdown to Extinction” 1992 tracks come close with some pretty sterile snare drum in the mix). Kicking it off from the blitzkreig “Holy Wars” to heavyweights like “Peace Sells” and the classic-rock tinged “Sweating Bullets” gets us off the ground in a timely fast fashion. The band had a musical diversity within one song and some stylistic diversity from song to song. An example would be going to the almost ballad-like “A Tout Le Monde” (where Dave croons to a lady in French no less), to the Voivodish “Kill the King” and back to the early/speedy “Mechanix” and “Wake Up Dead”. It’s like each cut has it’s own little world. Man, I feel like I really may have been missing out. It’s too bad Ellefson is gone, but I guess with Chris Poland back the band still technically has two original members. Eh? I’ve always dug their logo and now I am starting to dig the music a lot more as well.

- Herring

OFFICIAL SITE: www.megadeth.com

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