By: KEVIN JOLLY
Staff Writer
The brand new Megadeth album, ‘The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!’ released last Friday, September 2nd, and it proves the band has still got what it takes. Their past few albums have been excellent and honestly, they’re up with some of their best work from the 80s and 90s. And this new album has kept up the trend. Megadeth’s sound is switched up a little, but that’s a good thing because they’re known for trying out different styles and it keeps them interesting. The pacing is fast, faster than usual for Megadeth. The songs feel like they’re anxiously waiting in any downtime to explode back into lightning-speed riffs. This album sounds very aggressive, as if while listening the music could sucker punch you. Mustaine’s vocals are noticeably deeper and more aged which is expected considering he’s now 60, but it doesn’t take long to get used to because he still retains the iconic Megadeth snarly yelling. My favorite song on the album, ‘Night Stalkers’, is from what I interpreted, about the Gulf War of the 90s and has a feature from Ice T of ‘BodyCount’ which is short but extensively appreciated. Some other great songs that I liked specifically were, ‘We’ll Be Back, ‘Soldier On, ‘Dogs Of Chernobyl’, and the self-titled, ‘The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!’. Some of my lesser liked songs were the two covers, ‘Police Truck’ and ‘World Is On Fire’ which I thought both were unnecessary and could have easily been cut. Some other ones I wasn’t a big fan of were ‘Junkie’ and ‘Life In Hell’ because I thought the overall direction of the songs just didn’t work out and they both sound a bit choppy. But even the weaker songs on this album are still pretty enjoyable. The biggest strength of this album is the pacing, which as I said is fast even by Megadeth standards and it makes everything sound so much heavier. The biggest weakness of the album is the lack of direction because some songs are about the Gulf War or the Black Plague or Drug Addiction but then there are also goofy songs about wanting to be an astronaut which is fine but it’s an awkward transition from hyper-fast thrash metal into more lighthearted pop-metal. Overall, it’s not perfect, but still an energetic and angry, wonderful thrash-metal/speed-metal album I’d recommend to any Megadeth fan, metal fan, or anyone who likes loud music.