{"id":438527,"date":"2026-01-26T12:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T12:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/438527\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T12:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T12:28:08","slug":"megadeth-megadeth-album-review-pitchfork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/438527\/","title":{"rendered":"Megadeth: Megadeth Album Review | Pitchfork"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been 43 years, 17 albums, and 32 member changes since Dave Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica<\/a>, the fabled schism that galvanized the thrash-metal pioneer to form his own band. Megadeth<\/a> was fueled by spite, inspired by speed, and enabled by Mustaine\u2019s preternatural gift for Flying V warfare, as well as his knack for asking provocative economic queries about the salability of peace. For four decades, Megadeth have been high priests\u2014not the highest, but close\u2014in a church of metal where technical prowess, breakneck tempos, and sneering attitude are the holiest of virtues. Megadeth have weathered nearly all of metal\u2019s generational permutations, only once deviating from their heshin\u2019 formula with 1999\u2019s infamously confused country\u2019n\u2019industrial mish-mash, Risk.<\/p>\n

Like most \u201980s metal heroes who briefly lost their way in the late \u201990s, Megadeth have spent the 21st century varnishing their legacy with what\u2019s tried and true, delivering eight LPs since 2001 that all basically sound the same. And now, not by choice, but by necessity, Megadeth are exiting the business with their self-titled swan song. Mustaine, the band\u2019s leading visionary and only original member, is suffering from a hand injury called Dupuytren\u2019s contracture that will eventually claim his singular ability, so Megadeth might be the last album the guitar god is ever capable of making. For a career that can be symbolized by Mustaine\u2019s fascination with ellipses, both textual (So Far, So Good\u2026So What!) and musical (those guitar solos\u2026), it\u2019s too bad that his final statement amounts to the terse utility of a single period.<\/p>\n

No score yet, be the first to add.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re going into the 17th Megadeth album expecting fresh perspectives and guitarwork that goes toe-to-toe with the brilliantly imaginative riffs that Mustaine laid down half a lifetime ago, that\u2019s a skill issue. Bands in Megadeth\u2019s grandad age bracket\u2014Iron Maiden<\/a>, Judas Priest<\/a>, even Metallica\u2014make new albums for the same reason that people re-register their cars: to prove they’re still functionally fit for the road. Opener \u201cTipping Point\u201d earns the green light in that regard, a brisk and bludgeoning thrash jaunt that begins with a torrential solo raining down from Mustaine\u2019s fretboard. The 64 year old vamps for the doubters once again on \u201cLet There Be Shred,\u201d a lighthearted blitz that revisits the meta posturing and tongue-in-cheek silliness of thrash\u2019s foundational texts. And on the midtempo \u201cPuppet Parade,\u201d Mustaine dons his grizzled spoken-word cadence in a pointed nod to all-timers like \u201cPeace Sells\u201d and \u201cSymphony of Destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Megadeth proves that Megadeth can still do the thing, but it\u2019s missing the communal gravitas of a band\u2019s last hurrah. Megadeth have endured more personnel changes than any other thrash institution, and while Mustaine has firmly maintained the spotlight, the band\u2019s greatest feats have always been a team effort. He\u2019s never had a lineup as creatively inspired as the early-\u201990s ensemble responsible for the nimble riffs, jaw-dropping solos, and slugging prog-jazz grooves of Rust in Peace and Countdown to Extinction, which is why nothing on Megadeth comes anywhere close to those highs. His current hired guns get the job done, but without decades of camaraderie behind them, their recorded chemistry sounds bland and inflexible. Plus, it\u2019s a little disappointing that Megadeth\u2019s tastiest solos are handled by Temu Dave Mustaine, a guitarist literally named Teemu M\u00e4ntysaari who\u2019s never appeared on a Megadeth record before this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been 43 years, 17 albums, and 32 member changes since Dave Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[12327,64,63,134,136,1672],"class_list":{"0":"post-438527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-albums","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-web"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}