Even though they’ve set aside their differences, a driving force behind Dave Mustaine’s success has always been to upstage Metallica. This year he did it.
On November 1st, Megadeth and Metallica went head to head with album releases: Megadeth with Th1rte3n and Metallica with Lulu, their controversial collaboration with the legendary Lou Reed. Of the two albums, both commercially and musically, Megadeth emerged victorious.
Lulu is an experimental collaboration fusing thrash metal with spoken word. At its best Lulu is a smooth amalgam of Metallica and the Velvet Underground. At it’s worst Lulu, is nonsensical babble backed by feedback. Unfortunately it goes from one extreme to another during a single song. Despite these flaws there are times when the collaboration comes together smoothly such as “The View” where Metallica’s riffs sync up with Reed’s Pentecostal sermon. However, a lot of the time Reeds words and Metallica’s music are on different wave lengths and the vocals don’t gel with the music, leading to a distorted sound that makes you wonder whether or not the two parties were in the same room together when it was recorded. A mixed bag that will certainly be off putting to many listeners.
Megadeth’s Th1rte3n, while not as strong as 2009’s Endgame, is a more then worthy follow up heralding the return of Dave Ellison to the studio. Where many bands try to artfully deliver their political statements, Dave Mustaine delivers with the subtlety of a battle-axe. It doesn’t get any harsher then, “Until people know right from wrong, the Constitution isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.” Whatever your political position, you have to admire Dave’s straightforward approach (It makes me wonder what a Megadeth/Zach De La Rocha collaboration would be like). The guitar solos, the lyrical content, Th1rte3n is everything a Megadeth fan expects.
Here’s my point, over your holiday shopping sessions if you are going to get one album for a friend who loves metal (other then Anthrax’s Worship Music) go with Megadeth’s Th1rte3n.
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