Cut to last week when Megadeth released Dystopia, an album that more or less does exactly that.
Straight away, "The Threat Is Real" delivers an aggressive punch of pure Heavy Metal, just what the band needed to reassert themselves as a dominant force. It's easily the best choice to be the album opener but unlike "Kingmaker", it's not a complete prick tease. The rest of Dystopia manages to keep up with the pace set by this opening track and the commercial modern Rock sound staining the previous album has been replaced with modern Thrash Metal instead, just as it should be.
Luckily, just because the band are confidently pumping out modern music doesn't mean they've neglected Metal from the past...specifically, Metal that they created. There are several songs that sound as though Dave Mustaine wanted to recreate the greatness of their more popular material such as lead single "Fatal Illusion", which I've previously compared to "Peace Sells" on this blog already, or title track "Dystopia", a standard tune that probably would've been stronger if it didn't have the same basic structure as "Hangar 18" beat for beat.
Despite these connections, it's not just money for old rope. Sure, there may be similar lyrical topics about war politics and the evil American government ("Post American World", "Lying In State") and a handful of songs beginning with acoustic guitar before breaking into heavier riffing and double bass drumming ("Bullet To The Brain", "Conquer Or Die") is about as experimental as the album gets but minor similarities aside, the band are able to record music that stands on its own feet.
There's a healthy mix of fast-paced shredders and slower more melodic foot stompers, making it perfect for the Heavy Metal fan who enjoys variety. Remember, at the end of the day, this album is a collection of Metal and that's what the band set out to achieve. The only duff choice in the track listing is a cover of Fear's "Foreign Policy" right at the end, the album equivalent of a gymnast performing a quadruple somersault but stumbling over on the landing and accidentally headbutting every single judge in the process.
Clocking in at under two and a half minutes, it's the sort of song that'd normally be banished to the realm of post-album release B-sides but has instead made it onto the main tracklist. It ends the album on a weak note (especially after "The Emperor") and gives the impression of musical regression when played after every other track. Fortunately, even during this unnecessary cover, the band are on top form through all eleven tracks. Dave Mustaine's vocals are as gravelly and consistent as they have been for the last decade and Kiko Loureiro's guitar work is on par with Mustaine's in both technical skill and prominence in the mix. However, therein lies one of the album's minor flaws.
Whilst David Ellefson has proven his worth throughout his career with the band, his bass on this album is almost non-existent. If it's not mimicking the guitar melody, it's being overshadowed by it. Similarly, Chris Adler's drumming is fantastic on this album (if you like heavy use of double bass) but could've been mixed in with the rest of the music a little bit better. The album is definitely more preferential towards the two guitarists but fortunately, it doesn't ruin the overall quality unless you were looking forward to an album that showcases the talents of the entire band...like Rust In Peace.
Despite all the recent deaths in the world of music, at least January gave us one blessing in the form of this album. Dystopia is a proper Heavy Metal album right down to the core and in my opinion was worth the release of the previous album if only to guide Dave Mustaine into writing this one. I give it an 8/10 and recommend it to fans of the genre, especially fans of Countdown To Extinction. I feel like this rating is representative of the music on the standard edition of the album but if you own one of the many Deluxe Editions with a whopping one or maybe even two extra tracks, this could change*.
The only thing that seemingly won't change any time soon is the trend of record labels and bands fleecing their customers/fans by releasing up to four editions of the same album, all with different track listings and none for sale in the same location, unless you either pay through the nose for an unjustified amount of new content or decide to just pirate it and suffer through news of ageing Rock stars lecturing journalists about how fans wanting to hear as much music by their favourite bands in one place hurts the industry as opposed to those same stars being too chickenshit to stand up to their greedy record producers, who absolutely do not care about just how empty they can make our wallets.
FUCK ME, that was a mouthful!
* *takes a deep breath*
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