By: KEVIN JOLLY
Staff Writer
Recently I had a dispute with a friend who was a big Metallica-head, so much so that he had Metallica posters and shirts, and his claim was Metallica was the better band We both argued back and forth over which band was better, and this inspired me to find the final answer by listening to both bands’ entire discographies. After this long process, I researched some more about them, and in my new professional and now educated opinion, I believe my friend was wrong. Megadeth has outpaced Metallica so quickly and severely, while Metallica has continued to deteriorate and flounder, that the two bands are now in separate ballparks. For anyone who only knows Metallica from Stranger Things, Dave Mustaine, one of the original Metallica members, was fired from the band due to heavy drinking, drug use, and occasional violence. Mustaine went on to create the band Megadeth and the two had one of the biggest rivalries in the music industry to date. The rivalry only truly lasted from the 80s to the early 90s though, because, after 1991, Metallica ceased to produce a single remarkable album. But even in this first era of competition, Megadeth still arguably won due to their faster pace, snappy riffs, catchy hooks, and unique vocals, compared to Metallica’s slower and sluggish pacing with drawn-out intros, simplistic riffs, and unexciting vocals. Despite this, some people do still prefer the slower, more methodical approach of deeper and supposedly more powerful sound Metallica offers and that’s perfectly fine. But afterward, Metallica released a weak attempt to transition to nu-metal with ‘Load’ and ‘ReLoad’, and later ‘St. Anger’, a complete flop on every level and an overall embarrassment, and after that, ‘Death Magnetic’, a boring and bloated mess, and finally ‘Hardwired… to Self Destruct’, a just alright transition back into their older sound. All these albums are what I’d call failures when you consider they came from the most successful metal band in the world. Megadeth on the other hand has been going strong, putting out some of the best thrash metal albums you could be listening to up to this day, and with a promising album on the horizon posed for this September. Megadeth had a rough run towards the late 90s and early 2000s, I won’t sugarcoat it, but even their worst albums aren’t complete flops like multiple Metallica albums are. Some of Megadeth’s best albums come from the 2010s and late 2000s, which is unusual for a band as old as them, but they never lost their talent and stayed busy. To put into perspective how weak Metallica’s post-2000 run has been, they’ve released all but three albums since then, all being some of their worst. Megadeth on the other hand has had seven since 2000 and again is planning for an eighth this September. But forget Megadeth for a second, and take any other big metal band. Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Dio, Pantera, and almost any other band will demonstrate how plain, simple, and boring Metallica is. All these bands I mentioned have their own style and stand out due to unique vocals, faster pacing, maybe more theatrical styles, flashier, more brutal, or anything that makes them stand out, but the point is that they all go off in their own respective direction and become masters of their own sound. Meanwhile, Metallica manages to sound just so unbelievably mediocre and average. Their riffs as I mentioned, are simplistic, to the point where even I, self-taught off the internet on and off for two years could play some entire Metallica songs, their drummer is infamously robotic and rough not just around the edges but everywhere, their lyrics have interesting concepts but aren’t too memorable, the vocals are just standard dad-rock gravelly yelling, and there’s not a whole lot else they have to offer. My final point is, that Metallica at its peak isn’t anything too remarkable, that’s not to say they have some great songs, but since then, they’ve fallen off severely in terms of productivity and quality, meanwhile, Megadeth hasn’t slowed at all since their creation and has stayed thrash/speed metal. But even outside this rivalry, Metallica isn’t too outstanding. At the very end of the day, Metallica is a great band for anyone looking to first get into metal due to its accessibility, but they aren’t much else. Megadeth is a fantastic band for anyone looking to find some faster or more intense metal and offers some of the very best of the best. Both bands are great and deserve attention, but it’s undeniable Megadeth is truly the better band.