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Megadeth: Endgame

30/09/09 || Smalley

Despite my reputation as a big Megadeth fan, I keep myself from becoming a fanBOY, and refuse to turn a blind eye to the group’s failings, of which, they had an unbroken streak from “Risk” to “United abominations”. However, I did get excited for this one after I heard “Headcrusher”, the first time I’d really been interested in an album from them since “Youthanasia”; would this finally be the return of the Megadeth of old, the Megadeth of “Rust in peace”? Could a two year wait and the millionth change in line-up (Chris Broderick on guitar) render the weak songwriting, bad vocal melodies, dumb lyrics, and ridiculous conspiracy theories of UA a memory, and make good ol’ ass-kicking Megadeth a reality again? Read on for a bit, and ye shall find out…

“Dialectic chaos” opens this up, and it’s a pretty nifty little instrumental, if a bit filler-ish feeling. Still, it has a nice energy, and some of the heavier riffs/soloing ‘deth has made in the last 14 years, as does “This day we fight!”, a song that has enough bad-assness to keep most of the potential cheesiness away, which is what I was afraid of when I read it’d be a “Lord Of The Rings-inspired” song. Dave does a much, much better job here with his vocal melodies than on UA (and that goes for most of “Endgame” overall), and while “This day” lacks the focus that the best ‘deth songs had, and does sound like retreaded material, at least it’s still entertaining, more than I can say for most of what they’ve made this past ten years.

On the other hand, “44 minutes” is not entertaining, rather, a disappointment, especially since it’s about such a crazy event. C’mon Dave, I know you can crank out something better than the draggy tempo and riffs here! After that comes “1,320”, which sounds like if Dave went back in time to ’88 and did “502” right, since they have similar songwriting, and are both about driving super-fast, but “1,320” has much more bite than its somewhat boring predecessor did. Unfortunately, bite is something that the riffs and songwriting on both “Bite the hand” and “Bodies” lack, and it starts to seem here “Endgame” will end up yet another middling ‘deth album. Still, it’s nice that we’re over halfway through this one, and no dumb, UA-style conspiracy theories have popped up yet. So far, so good!!

…so what, unfortunately. Yes, the title track is next, and it talks about some nonsense conspiracy theory that would fit right in on UA: “Refuse the chip? Ha!/Get persecuted and beat/By the tyranny of mind control, for the mark of the beast!”. I know I should’ve been ready for this bullshit when I saw the bar-coded detainees (in Gitmo Orange, naturally) marching through a detention center on the cover, but isn’t Dave aware this Bush-era, conspiracy doom saying is ridiculously dated now? Hell, Dave even calls W the “ex-president” here, so even he admits he’s late to this party! However, the song’s pretty solid musically, starting with a cool spoken-word intro, where Dave orders all U.S. citizens to report to their “district detention centers”, and while the riffs do drag at first, they pick up a minute and a half in, and along with the good soloing, manage to make this one pretty decent.

The atrociously-titled “The hardest part of letting go… sealed with a kiss” gives us a curve ball amidst all this (mostly) safe ‘deth material, with a soft, acoustic intro, melodic singing by Mustaine (he actually does a pretty good job), and good integration of symphonic instruments, even! But, if all this makes it sound like a power ballad, the lyrics about breaking up with a girlfriend Cask Of Amontillado style, and the heavy riffing/leadwork keep it from becoming that. Next is “Headcrusher”, the first track to get leaked, which was a smart move, considering it’s the best one on the album, and the closest Megadeth’s come in the past 18 years to recapturing their thrash days; the energetic soloing, sharp, aggressive riffing, and to-the-point songwriting result in the most purely exciting song they’ve made in a long, long time. “How the story ends” is a bit more mainstream than I want ‘deth to sound, but it’s still catchy, enjoyable stuff, and “The right to go insane” finally closes the album out. Though I do appreciate how Dave talks about financial woes here, something that actually matters in the world today (instead of “detention centers for U.S. citizensargh!!1!!1”) the songwriting still underwhelms, making it a weak choice for the album closer. Eh.

So, “Endgame” isn’t a great album by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it has more energy and heaviness than the last Megadeth record did (or the three before that one, for that matter). Sure, the songwriting here is mostly just Dave going over the same turf he blazed long ago (there were many sections on “Endgame” that reminded me of something specific from the ’85-97 records), but a wannabe-vintage ‘deth album is still more entertaining than anything else they made from “Risk”-onward. I really don’t know where the band can go from here (if they can go anywhere new, with any sort of success), but I am somewhat satisfied with what they gave us on “Endgame”, and for right now, that’s probably enough.

Information
Released: 2009
Label: Roadrunner
Website: www.megadeth.com
Band
Dave Mustaine: guitar, vocals
Chris Broderick: guitar
James LoMenzo: bass
Shawn Drover: drums

Tracklist
01. Dialectic Chaos
02. This Day We Fight!
03. 44 Minutes
04. 1,320
05. Bite The Hand
06. Bodies
07. Endgame
08. The Hardest Part Of Letting Go… Sealed With A Kiss
09. Headcrusher
10. How The Story Ends
11. The Right To Go Insane

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