It’s a real shame that Dave Mustaine has to keep opening his mouth.
By constantly finding new ways to stuff tabloid columns with bigotry, he makes his band’s achievements seem less deserved – and more like an angry accident.
The 20th Anniversary Edition of Megadeth’s Countdown To Extinction is in many ways, a timely reminder that Mustaine was not always so clueless.
From the restrained album art to the razor sharp guitar riffs, the record was considered by critics of the time to be a successful attempt by Mustaine to put the breaks on the band’s hitherto obsession with speed.
Contained in the remastered version is a never-before-released recording of Megadeth’s 1992 performance at San Francisco’s Cow Palace and as such the re-release manages to paint a portrait of a band at the top of its game.
The album is also a great chance to hear guitarist Marty Friedman sprinkling gorgeously melodic guitar work around Mustaine’s industrious playing.
The live performance of ‘Skin O’ My Teeth’ is a great example of the peculiar modes and phrasing that define his work, forming some of the most intelligent, yet underrated guitar playing in the thrash genre.
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Perhaps wisely, he left Megadeth at the peak of their popularity to live and work in Japan. Mustaine stuck around to keep the dream alive, subjecting Megadeth to numerous line-up changes and a run of critically panned releases.
Yet regardless of what Mustaine has to say now, Countown For Extinction will go down as the near perfect formula for one of the world’s true mad-scientist musicians.
