Here's one I've wanted to do for a while. And the reason why is because of the band:
Band: Megadeth
Album: Super Collider
Genre: Thrash Metal; Heavy Metal
Year: 2013
Label(s): Tradecraft [United States]
Line-upDavid Ellefson [bass]
Dave Mustaine [guitars, vocals]
Shawn Drover [drums]
Chris Broderick [guitars]
Track listing1) Kingmaker
2) Super Collider
3) Burn!
4) Built for War
5) Off the Edge
6) Dance in the Rain
7) Beginning of Sorrow
The Blackest Crow
9) Forget to Remember
10) Don't Turn Your Back...
11) Cold Sweat
I remember when this album was first announced on their website and when Wikipedia got hold of it. I don't remember how excited everyone was when it was announced, but I do know that I was definitely cracking. I listened to
Endgame and
TH1RT3EN over and over while waiting for the details of Megadeth's 14th studio album. I remember that the latter was particularly hyped since David Ellefson officially bumped fists with the band after twelve years of animosity. The end result of their then most recent LP wasn't all that impressive, from what I can remember. Even with the return of their former bassist, the cracks in Megadeth's armor were starting to show a little. Time certainly isn't kind to some bands. Megadeth is one of those bands and we can hear it in
Super Collider.
The Album: The album itself wasn't expected to be a truly massive monster of thrash. Mustaine's over 50 years old and the band is 30. It was not expected to break any new ground to an already oversaturated modern thrash market with nothing truly interesting being brought to the forefront. However, Megadeth proved they still had the cojones to contribute heavily to the modern thrash scene by putting out their best album since
Rust in Peace, the thrash-tastic
Endgame. Now where was the band to go from here? Well, less than a year later before they began working on their new album, David Ellefson decided to reunite with the band, citing any and all personal issues from before had been resolved. With this epic reunion, the band was ready to begin recording their next big album,
TH1RT3EN. The end result was less than impressive, but it was still decent. With that behind them, what would the future hold for 2013?
The Songs: I'll just say it right now. I was less than impressed with the songs here. All of them are very hit-and-miss. I was already far removed from the thought that Megadeth could do no wrong (Dave Mustaine using his newly founded religious beliefs to turn down a show with Rotting Christ,
The World Needs a Hero, his inflammatory remarks towards his own fanbase regarding this release), but as much as I wanted to say that the band had run out of steam, I just had to look back at
Endgame and all the good parts of
TH1RT3EN. Good times! So maybe that was just a precursor to what they labeled as the follow-up to their 2011 LP. Shame that I was in denial. There's so many songs on here that are either mediocre or just plain bad. No songs are great, no songs seem to get any sense of true speed. They all just seem to sit in the same stagnant pool of average mediocrity.
And considering the recent successes of this album's two predecessors, that's certainly disheartening to accept.
The album starts off strong with "Kingmaker," a song rooted in groove that starts off with a nice bass lead from Ellefson. In fact, Ellefson is probably the king of the mountain on this album. He's still got chops and knows how to pull off plenty of metal-worthy swing. If I had a band, I'd certainly commission Ellefson to do some bass solos here and there. The man is just that good. All the other band members do their collective jobs, but they commit the most offensive sin of any metal band: there's no spirit. Most of these songs feel like they could have used a severe adrenaline rush and were nothing like they could have been. You have no idea how disgusted I was when I heard "Burn!" This was supposed to be the second single (I think) from this album. I did myself and the band a huge disservice by listening to this song from start to finish. There's nothing here that stands out at all, not even Dave's guitar work.
The man is, and always will be, an amazing lead guitarist who is more than capable, even at this age, to churn out blistering fast guitar work. God knows Hetfield missed out when he kicked Mustaine out of Metallica. Just listen to
Endgame or "Never Dead" from
TH1RT3EN. Even at 52 years old, this man still knows how to thrash. I don't know what happened in the studio for them to make the song a mid-paced number. With a title like "Burn!" I expected to be burned by the flames of pure guitarmony and breakneck speed. But no. I got a kick in the nuts.
The following track "Built for War" isn't all bad and has some neat guitar work. I like the melodic guitar lead Chris does and harmonic vocals Mustaine pulls off. It even has the growling Mustaine vocals that I love hearing so much. However, the lyrics are lacking in aggression. It's got that, but it's not that "I'm going to f*cking kill you, there's no f*cking way you will ever escape" over-the-top anger that so willingly perpetuates Megadeth's lyrical resume. Just a little bit more aggression and that would have sealed the deal for me. This track gets a pass from me. It's got more speed to it like "Kingmaker," so that's good. The following track "Off the Edge" is back to blandness, especially in the lyrical department. I REALLY hate the lyrics in this song. Mustaine seems to really have lost the edge to write good lyrics to save his soul. I get it. He's made it halfway in life and there's never going to be the lyrical brilliance of stuff like "Bad Omen" or "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due" or "Lucretia." While the lyrics on
TH1RT3EN weren't amazing, there was more inspiration there than here. The entire song is so worthless, I hate the fact the band actually agreed to put this on the album.
The next song is arguably my favorite. It probably took me off guard the most because of who does guest vocals. He enlisted David Draiman, principal vocalist of bands Disturbed and Device. Immediately, I was skeptical of the quality of the track before even listening to it. I've listened to Device once before, but I've listened to Disturbed more times than I can count and considering how lambasted the band gets by "true metalheads," I was admittedly nervous about how the track would turn out. However, my assumptions were wrong. "Dance in the Rain" is a really good track, certainly the best song on the album with it's thrashy bridge that closes out the song in a blaze of glory. With the way it's structured, I wanna call it a sort-of pseudo sequel to "The Right to Go Insane" because both songs talk about the same thing. It's solos are a step up in comparison to at least 50% of this album's lead guitar work, which for a guy like Mustaine, is less than impressive here and certainly not on par with other stuff he's done. But at least we can agree that this guitar work is better than
Risk.
Next is "The Beginning of Sorrow." Not a throwaway track, but not one you'll find yourself listening to a lot. This song has guest vocals by his daughter, Electra Mustaine, who has a very beautiful voice, I should mention. She performed her father's band's most emotional song "A Tout le Monde." She did a fantastic job on covering the song (you should go check it out, by the way)). Beyond that, there's nothing ultimately special about this track. I'm just bored at this point with the album and am already siphoning through other, much better Megadeth songs.
You may as well forget about the next three tracks "The Blackest Crow," "Forget to Remember," and "Don't Turn Your Back..." "The Blackest Crow" breaks out into a southern fried banjo opening so silly and unmetal that I can't help but think that Volbeat sat in the studio giving them cues. Seriously, I was thrown back to "Devil or the Blue Cat's Song." Nothing against Volbeat, but really, when I think of Megadeth, I don't think of the kind of rockabilly heavy metal that Volbeat does. That's way out in left field as opposed to Megadeth, which is/used to be balls-to-the-wall thrash metal. God, I'm really stretching. I don't want to review this album anymore. The next two songs are completely filler and totally skippable. Nothing but bland, run-of-the-mill metal that has no redeeming qualities to speak of. At this point, you're just begging for the end to come and when it finally does with a song with a familiar title like "Cold Sweat," you're relieved that there's something to grab onto. Mustaine has always been good at writing songs about gambling and taking risks ("My Last Words," "Train of Consequences," "Play for Blood") and while this one is the least impressive out of all that he's written, it still can qualify of one of those Megadeth tracks about losing it all in the heat of the moment, the unlucky son of a bitch who gambles it all away, all for nothing with everything to lose and nothing to gain. Mustaine's chops show their quality here in the solo about halfway through the song. Him and Chris do some wonderful tremolo picking trade-offs around that time that sound amazing as hell.
Oh, but wait! It's a cover of a Thin Lizzy song?! Damn it... So three good originals and one good cover? That really freaking blows.
The Production: Modern sounding, but that's not a deterrent. I understand that Megadeth is well over 30 years old, so there has to be some solace given for even the type of production they chose. They're not with Capitol. They're not with Sanctuary, and they're not with Roadrunner (thanks Vic, right?), but they're instead with Tradecraft, Dave's own record label. In all fairness, I can respect the man for putting this album out on his own label instead of going for one of those big labels again. I can truly respect that, so I can give the modern clean production a break.
Overall: I was horrendously disappointed with this release. You have no idea. I've been a Megadeth fan for almost twelve years so far and I've acquired, at this point, all of the band's LPs. I've loved the band from their humble (anger-filled?) beginnings with
Killing is My Business...And Business is Good! to their highest moments with
Rust in Peace) to their lowest, most controversial moments with
Risk and
The World Needs a Hero to their triumphant return to their massive thrash sound with
Endgame. I can say that I'm a real HUGE Megadeth song and know my 'Deth shit. But had I known this album was going to be this bad, I would have never even bothered to buy it. I would have just downloaded it instead. I have much better albums to spend my money on and much better Megadeth albums to listen to.
In fact, I think I'm going to make a playlist of my personal favorite Megadeth albums, randomize them, and have an old-fashioned marathon thrashing out with Megadeth. Maybe it'll help me forget this album's bittersweet taste it left upon my taste buds.
Final Rating: 4 demon horns out of 10
Recommended: "Kingmaker," "Dance in the Rain," "Built for War" and "Cold Sweat." Download those and forget about the rest.
Subject: Album Review: Megadeth - Super Collider (2013) 
Wed Apr 23, 2014 2:10 pm
