Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Megadeth
Label: 57 Records
Release: year_month
Length: 46:46
Rating: 4/5
Dear Uncle Dave, I don’t know what to write to you this time. You’ve let me down plenty of times, but I’ve always quietly rooted for you, even though your Super Collider was more of a Super Colonoscopy. I knew your romance with Chris Broderick and Shawn Drover wouldn’t last long, and I was right. Maybe they really didn’t belong in Megadeth, but you should know you were partly to blame for their exit too. Still, I’ll give it to you: you surprised me with their replacements. Brazilian guitar wizard Kiko Loureiro (ex-Angra) and Chris Adler (Lamb of God) were the last two guys I’d have expected to join you.
Even so, I never really believed you’d left your »dad-rock« phase behind, so I’m glad I was wrong, because you clearly still have a few aces up your sleeve. Dystopia is proof that real speed/thrash blood still runs through your veins, and with moments that even recall Rust In Peace or Youthanasia, you’ve finally, hard as it is to believe, put out a proper, powerful Megadeth record after long, long years.
Dystopia is such an unexpected punch to the face that it leaves you gasping for air as soon as the opener The Threat Is Real kicks in, dripping with a strong Holy Wars… the Punishment Due atmosphere. Uncle Dave, are you really the same Dave who was plunking a banjo on The Blackest Crow from Super Collider!? Holy hell, is it really possible that the good old dirty, fast and furious Megadeth is roaring again on Dystopia, or is the intro just wishful thinking? The title track wipes out every doubt, bursting at the seams under the weight of convincing riffs that, alongside Junior’s deep bass, click better than anything they’ve done in at least ten years. With its brilliantly flowing structure, a simple but punchy chorus and pyrotechnic solo excursions, Dystopia is probably even one of the better Megadeth songs ever.
In the past you burned me with great opening moments on albums that quickly turned into a not-so-pleasant bowel exam, so I stayed cautious and didn’t let that first good impression fool me. But with Fatal Illusion, David Ellefson’s phenomenal bass steps into the spotlight and digs a grave for any last lingering doubts. Dystopia still has to properly sink into the ears, but there’s little doubt it’ll go down in the annals as the best post-Youthanasia Megadeth record. That’s also shown by how little the quality fluctuates on Dystopia, with no major dips in the band’s energetic performance, which hasn’t sounded this alive in years and years, and the reborn Megadeth deliver more than enough thrilling moments all the way to the end of the album. Death From Within could have come straight off Countdown To Extinction, and Bullet to the Brain proves that Kiko has completely revived the famous Megadeth twin-guitar formula. Loureiro is far more organic than the robotic Broderick, he even brings occasional touches of jazz and South American flamenco temperament into his soloing, and Mustaine really struck gold with this pick. Dave hasn’t had a guitar partner this good since at least Marty Friedman, which their almost minute-long, volcanically eruptive, harmonic showdown in Bullet to the Brain shows beautifully. Adler stays somewhere in the background the whole time, laying down a solid and powerful drum foundation that’s also much less varied and dynamic than we were used to from the ‘Death drummers of the past (though he’s still far more inventive and colorful than Drover).
Dystopia does have a few weaker, or rather, less interesting moments. Post American World slightly recalls Sweating Bullets but kind of rolls aimlessly to the finish, Poisonous Shadows doesn’t deliver on its promising acoustic start (mostly because of ineffective vocal lines that don’t match the instrumental part), and Conquer Or Die is a pretty unnecessary instrumental. But the superb Lying In State lifts the standard again; by far the most aggressive thrasher here, it recalls the Rust In Peace era most strongly and, right before the finish, works as a kind of Mustaine reminder that the rage still lives in him and that Rattlehead can still rattle (the furiously executed cover of Fear’s Foreign Policy only confirms it).
Ah, Uncle Dave, what can I say? Even if you’re sometimes that weird uncle who walks around in a tinfoil hat, stockpiles supplies for the end of the world, drops slightly racist remarks that leave the rest of us smiling awkwardly, and hides in the basement from chemtrails, you can still write a good song and a hell of a riff. And Dystopia shows that you can still kick some ass with Megadeth and raise from the dead a band we had almost written off.
Lineup
Dave Mustaine – guitar, vocals
David Ellefson – bass
Kiko Loureiro – guitar, piano (7)
Chris Adler – drums
Production
Dave Mustaine, Toby Wright & Jeff Balding
Tracklist
1. The Threat Is Real
2. Dystopia
3. Fatal Illusion
4. Death From Within
5. Bullet to the Brain
6. Post American World
7. Poisonous Shadows
8. Conquer Or Die
9. Lying in State
10. The Emperor
11. Foreign Policy
