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Friday, May 05, 2006

188. Megadeth / Countdown To Extinction. 1992. 5/5.

Megadeth, well, Dave Mustaine in particular, had been chasing Metallica for most of the 1980’s decade, feeling inadequate about any comparison, and in general looking to find the same fame and success that that band had achieved. In 1990, Megadeth had released “Rust in Peace”, the album considered their masterpiece, and the acclaim and success of that album should surely have put to bed the doubts of the band’s leader. Then came Metallica’s black album, one that brought enormous mainstream success for that band but created some doubts within the fanbase.
Following this, the interest turned to focus on how Megadeth would follow up the album that everyone agreed was one of the best metal albums ever released. And a lot of this focus came about from the environment of the time. Metallica had moved from out and out metal to a new hybrid of their own creation. Hair metal bands of the 80’s were beginning to make changes to reflect the times. Just how would Megadeth go about taking in everything around them to create their next album?
It was the first time that the same line-up of the band had recorded consecutive albums, the habitually rotating roster of players having finally settled into a solid foursome, with Dave Ellefson on bass, Marty Freidman on guitar and Nick Menza on drums. This settled line-up was also reflected by the fact that all four members contributed to some part of the writing process, something that had usually fallen to Mustaine himself to do. The writing was done in two blocks, while the recording came in the early months of 1992. And I can tell you that 30 years ago there was a lot of conjecture about what was to come – would it be a scaling of the magnitude of “And Justice for All” to the black album? Or would it be a step further on towards heavy metal greatness.

In comparison to the band’s earlier releases, this one is the most ‘produced’ of them. Without trying to say this in a derogatory way, this is a much more sterile and strictly structured album than “Rust in Peace”, and comparing it to that album is something that should be avoided given the ultimate greatness of that release. Here everything is reigned in a lot tighter, it is less thrash and more contemporary heavy metal. It is a progression that one could say was the right thing to do, in making sure they were not copying the template of their most revered album. And, in the same way as has already been spoken of during the course of this podcast’s existence, making a metal album in 1992 was not an easy thing to do. In that respect, “Countdown to Extinction” held its own, reaching number 2 on the US album charts on its release. It wouldn’t be correct to say that this is a more commercial release, but there is a definite lessening of the breakout guitar solos from Mustaine and Freidman on this album, and the ones that are here sound very mechanical and structured within the framework, not as powerful and flowing as on previous albums. In some ways, to use a term, it feels as though these songs have been grown in a lab rather than have been organically grown in the wild.
There is no fear of songs on this album approaching the... disappointment... of the way songs like “The Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters” were judged on the Metallica album. Everything on “Countdown to Extinction” is full blown Megadeth, and I can tell you that in 1992 that was a relief. The opening salvo of “Skin O’ My Teeth” and “Symphony of Destruction” weren’t the mindblowers of earlier Megadeth albums but they were fast and heavy with great Mustaine attitude. I think the technical simplicity of “Symphony of Destruction” is often overlooked, it still reminds me a lot of the structure of “Peace Sells”, and perhaps it was designed to be that way. “Architecture of Aggression” and “Foreclosure of a Dream” also have their own format. “Sweating Bullets” and “Captive Honour” in particular again utiilses Dave's love of spoken word interludes in songs, something that can get less enamouring the more you listen to them. “Sweating Bullets” is Dave more or less talking to himself and so the technique is useful for the format of the song.
The lyrics once again centre on politics, war and social issues, all things that are close to the heart of Mustaine. The Gulf War was still an issue at this time and is referenced through songs such as “Symphony of Destruction”, “Architecture of Aggression” and “Ashes in Your Mouth”. Wall Street and the banks is another. And of course there is the issues of mental health in “Skin O’ My Teeth” and “Sweating Bullets”. The title track is about the conservation of the planet, and was awarded the Humane Society's Genesis Award for raising awareness for animal rights issues. So what you end up with here is what you expect from a Megadeth album – lyrics with meaning, songs with heavy guitars and speed, some pontificating – but no songs of Dave’s girlfriend breakups. What a shame.

This is an album that I got pretty much on the day of its release. As explained on the last episode of Music from a Lifetime, I had this album recorded on one side of a C90 cassette, with Danzig’s “How the Gods Kill” album on the other, and I played that over and over again in my workplace at the time and in the car everywhere. I knew every nuance of both albums, every word, every solo. Grunge may have been the most popular genre out there by this time of 1992, but for me it was still metal that ruled the world. This album was on rotation for most of the rest of 1992 and I loved it, and felt it almost touched the greatness of “Rust in Peace”. In the years since, that opinion has changed only slightly. I still love the album and most of the songs, but at times I tend to get picky with it. Lyrically, it’s a dark album. The subject matter concentrated on is pretty full on if you delve into it, and perhaps it is not a real surprise that as I have gotten older I have become a bit more touchy about the issues raised in the songs here. At age 22 you can pump your fist in the air and be angry about it, and then at the end of the album just move on. Maybe not so much at age 52. And as mentioned earlier, the more clinical way the songs here have been written and recorded for me eventually meant that I had more enjoyment listening to the unbridled passion in songs and guitars that comes from “Peace Sells... But Who’s Buying” and “Rust in Peace” than I did here. That’s a judgement, in order to try and explain just where I find the differences of the album are. 30 years ago I loved the spoken-word ranting of “Sweating Bullets”, the renewed Saddam Hussein bashing of “Architecture of Aggression”, the courtroom drama of “Captive Honour”. In the modern day, I’m just not as excited to listen to them. And after a couple of weeks of solidly going back over the album at work and in the car, part of me won’t be disappointed to put it back on the shelves for a little bit. But that doesn’t detract from what was, 30 years ago, a terrific album, and what 30 years later remains up there with the best the band has released. Because when I put the CD on in the Metal Cavern at home, give it a little bit of volume, and let it come at me hard, this album still has everything I remember from that time. The Freidman riffs, the growl of Mustaine’s disdain, the brilliant bass riffs from Ellefson, and Menza’s superb drumming.

Megadeth was supposed to tour Australia on the back of this album, but two weeks out they cancelled the tour (as they had done for the tour to support “So Far, So Good... So What!”, though that had been the day before) and it was almost a decade before they did finally make their second Australian tour. Maybe THAT is what is still annoying me after all these years...

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