Don't have this one, but I am familiar with some of the songs. Never liked "No More Mr. Nice Guy" that much, but "Go To Hell" off the Bill & Ted soundtrack is AWESOME!!!!!! The movie, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey was originally titled "Bill & Ted Go To Hell", before they changed it thinking the title wouldn't sell. Unfortunately, the movie was nowhere near as good as the first one.

On a side note, King's X also has an AWESOME song called "Junior's Gone Wild" on the Bill & Ted's bogus journey soundtrack.

Hidden Treasures rules! I love these sorts of odds & sods EPs. They have enough material that they should do a Hidden Treasure 2.

I think it's overall a good fun disc with the covers obviously being the weaker tracks here.
Also, every time I hear 99 Ways to Die It always reminds me of good old Beavis screaming 99 Ways to Diiiiiiieee !!!.

I dig this E.P. a lot, as much as I like their thrash I really like the style they employed throughout this collection, I wish they'd have made an entire album of new material in this vein. Faves are 99 Ways To Die, Angry Again, Breakpoint, Go To Hell & Diadems.

Pretty decent disc.I listened to it quite a bit when it came out.Havent gave it a spin for quite a while though.No More Mr Nice Guy,Go to Hell,Diadems are my faves.

I like Hidden Treasures. I have most of the soundtracks that the songs are from but it's great to have all those cool tunes on one disc.

Hidden Treasures is actually if not my favorite, definately my most listened to 90's Megadeth, even though it spans a couple of years, it flows great, and the performances/writing are top notch, despite a few goofy moments on the covers, which aside from Problems is just the fact that they didnt change em from the originals enough to make them their own.

I love Hidden Treasures. Don't know why really.

Cryptic Writings May 30th 1997

Following the rather large and long running Youthanasia world tour, Megadeth would take the rest of 1995 off during which time Dave Mustaine would work with Fear vocalist Lee Ving on the side project MD.45. Megadeth itself underwent more changes business wise, signing with ESP management and hiring Bud Prager as their new creative manager taking the now absent Max Norman's place. Prager's previous clientle had consisted of such acts as Foreigner and Bad Company, so its no wonder the image of the band would continue even further in its downward sprial into the bowels of the mediocre. Recording for the new album was begun in Nashville in September of 1996 with new producer Dan Huff, originally to be titled Needles and Pins. New manager Prager closely supervised the writing and recording process, even going so far as to contributing parts of songs and lyrics. Dave would finally get his wish for that number one record, as when the album came out in 1997 he went to #1 on the Billboard 200 and became Megadeth's sixth consecutive gold record. The album would also spawn another string of hits in Trust (#5), Almost Honest (#, Use The Man (#15), and A Secret Place (#19).

Despite all the success of the album commercially, it's pretty bland overall. While it does have its fast parts, the vast majority of the record is ultra slow, melodic and forced further into that commercial sound of 90's mainstream heavy metal. There's also relatively no beefiness to this album at all except on a few songs, most of it sounds forced and incredibly thin. In addition, while it's not bad for band's to experiement, evolve and get personal, Megadeth doesn't sound reflective here, they sound tired almost like they were giving up. As far as positives, this album does manage to pull out of its musical tomb a few times, generally in the form of a riff (pretty neat Floyd sounding one at the beginning of I'll Get Even) or an interesting part of a solo, but overall its just catchy and dumbed down. Fortunately, Dave does remember what Megadeth does best, and that's thrash, "She-Wolf" and "The Disintegrators" are both pretty together and thrashin' with "Vortex" also managing to sound thick in the face of the thin sound of most of the rest of the album. As far as the radio tinged stuff, "Trust", "Almost Honest", and "Use The Man" manage to pull off ok and be reasonably catchy. However, overall this record just sounds too forced and half assed to make much of an impression, with well over half being forgettable. Easily one of the worst albums in Deth's catalogue second only to Risk.

While Countdown and Youthansia were certainly geared toward more commercial success than past efforts, This record simply suffers from way too much calculation for commercial success. I guess in an effort to continue the band's popularity Dave decided to let the album go this direction. I agree the album is a bit bland and doesn't sound as "real" to me, but I still give it a spin every so often and there are a few decent tracks here.

Even with all of it's faults I think this record is still better than some comparable albums in the 90s such as the horrible Load and Re-Load records.

I actually like this Megadeth album, yes it was very calcuating and it was the worst Megadeth album up to this point, but I do like alot of the songs on this album including the very commerical track 'Trust' and I still spin the album on occassion.

Cryptic Writings is a great melodic hard rock album. Sure, a lot of it is pure mainstream pop-rock, but for whatever reason, I like it. I think the main problem is the production. A bit too glossy and polished, so the more pop-ish songs sound a lot better live. The only songs that don't really work are "Sin" and "I'll Get Even".

I like 'Cryptic Writings' ok... more than 'Youthanasia'.... that album puts me in a coma, it's like it takes only 30 seconds to get incredibly boring, I don't know why. 'Cryptic' has some crap on it, but it does have 'Vortex', 'Disintegrators', 'She-Wolf'....and I like 'A Secret Place' too.

I like Cryptic Writings - it's not the Megadeth of old, even bringing in White Heart/Giant/Studio Guitarist Dan Huff to produce it. When I first heard it, I thought "It's better than Reload"

Not the best Megadeth album, but not the worst (that would come next)

Even though I really like a couple of the faster tracks here the best, I will say Trust and Almost Honest are couple of really good songs, but there's such blatant commercial whoremongering going on, its just not as good to me.

I think this album kicks arse, Mastermind has some of Dave's best lyrics ever, the only songs that I think are average at best are Sin & Have Cool, Will Travel but the rest is great and Marty sounds inspired. I hate what the remaster did to the songs but the bonus material was cool. I also have the Live Trax and Cryptic Souns (No Voices In Your Head) EP.

I liked CRYPTIC WRITINGS a lot when it was current, but in this age of Megadeth's return to harder/nastier territory it doesn't get much play anymore. "Vortex", "She-Wolf" and "The Disintegrators" are strong tracks, but the rest is a wee bit too much on the radio friendly side. Never cared for the single "Trust" much but I do like "Use The Man" and "I'll Get Even."

This is also my least favorite Megadeth album cover. It looks like something a kid hacked out with Crayolas in five minutes. I read an interview with Mustaine years ago where he said the cover they used was a last minute replacement for another piece of art that didn't work for them. The album's original title was to be NEEDLES AND PINS, and the album designers brought in a photo of a model sticking pins in a voodoo doll that Mustaine said "Looked like f**kin' Bjork holding a piece of chicken" (). The band hated that image so much that they had to come up with something else quickly, hence the title change and the cover we have today.

All in all I'd say that CRYPTIC WRITINGS ranks near the bottom of the Deth pile but it's still got some good stuff on it. Keep in mind that I'm a Megadeth fanboy, so hell, I even like some of RISK (I have a feeling I'm going to be alone in that category when we get to that one...).

I had magazines with promo reviews of 'Cryptic Writings' which featured that pins-needles-chicken cover.. I thought it looked like a strange quilt.

Hey, I really really like a good half of 'Risk' too, there really is some excellent songwriting in there, so...

That's three in a row! I have almost only read bad reviews on this one, but in my opinion, this is just as good as 'Youthanasia'. Yes, it's a bit more commercial, but that doesn't bother me at all when the majority of the songs are so awesome! More melodic, but still heavy. The most underrated 'deth album!! A very personal album for Dave, lyrically. "Use The Man" deals with his drug-past, and "Trust" is about his relationship with a woman.

Killer tracks: Trust, Almost Honest, Use The Man, A Secret Place, She-Wolf

I haven't said much as i'm such a fanboy but I like most of Cryptic Writings. Compared to a lot of what was coming out then it at least sort of sounded like metal though I think he was listening to much to his producer on that and Risk.

Like most of the opinions here, I too like some songs more that others on Cryptic Writings. Not my favorite disc, but certainly not the worst either. The poppier leanings didn't bother me.

Being that I could relate on a personal level to alot of what Dave was saying on this cd, I like it. Havn't listened in awhile, cause there definitily is better stuff to grab in the catalog by this band.

Laterz

I will defend Risk to the death. It's really not that much of a departure from its predecessor. Sure it has a few crappy pop songs, but it seems that they're the only thing people ever concentrate on, leaving some awesome tunes overlooked. I can't see why any Megadeth fan wouldn't love "Prince of Darkness", "Insomnia", "The Doctor Is Calling" or "Time: The End". Hell, even some of the more melodic songs are good. "Ecstasy" was the song that actually introduced me to the band and made me a lifelong fan. "Breadline" is a pretty little song. "Seven" and "Wanderlust" show a bit of the 90's influence with some classic rock elements thrown in. Okay, everybody knows that "Crush Em" sucks. Big deal, it's only a minor blot on a great record.

Risk seems to get a bad reputation for being, well, a risk. It's certainly one of the more expirimental albums of Megadeth's career, but I happen to think that it's an expiriment that worked. Sure, it ain't thrash or even metal really, but I bloody well like it.

I like it a lot too. I would prefer just simple, great Dave songs of whatever sound/style instead of bland waves of midtempo sound that are made to sound like typical Megadeth but come off as forced and unmemorable (see just about everything from 'The World Needs A Hero onward). I hate 'Breadline', and 'Crush 'Em' is too big a ball of cheese for me, but I really really enjoy most of the songs on the album. 'Wanderlust', 'Ecstasy', 'The Doctor is Calling', being my favorites. 'I'll Be There' is great too but the spoken part probably could have been left out. Deathcult is right in that there is a certain dark quality to the record and I can't get enough of it. It fills a certain listening niche that needed to be filled nicely.