Error.
This album took massive liberties with the Megadeth sound and direction, and entitling it Risk pretty much covered all the bases. When I first got the album it got heavy rotation at my workplace in and in the car, and it was noticeable from the start that this had moved about as far away from the template as you could get. But I kept telling myself it couldn’t be as bad as my first impressions felt (I had tried to learn from my mistakes that came with my initial reaction to Youthanasia). And so I just kept on plugging away.
Dave Mustaine was apparently quoted as saying “If anyone else’s name was on the cover of this album it would have sold”. So on a couple of occasions I have put this album on, and just listened, not letting any judgement on the name of Megadeth enter what I’m listening to, just to see if I would enjoy the album as something someone had put on and asked me to listen to it and judge it without knowing who the band was.
It did not improve.
As I’ve said, “Crush ‘Em” has a vibe that I can tap along to, probably because Mustaine wanted this to be an arena anthem and be played around the world. You can hear how he crafted it to be just that. So it’s okay without being any more than a chanting tune, one you could possibly get on board cheering your team into the arena by. Maybe.
But as for the rest? It doesn’t improve with age, let me tell you. “Insomnia” is a mish mash of strings and screams and patchy lyrics that doesn’t allow you to bang along in time or even sing along to the lyrics, such is its structure. “Prince of Darkness” is a moody, building song but again doesn’t bring any great love to the table and it isn’t a pure heavy metal song. “Breadline” has a very mainstream sound to it, mostly lyrically as Dave decides to try and sing in a much softer tone than he normally does which is a dead ringer for that commercial bent. The single did well on American charts, but it just doesn’t do anything as a metal song in the slightest. At least it wasn’t a power ballad.
“The Doctor is Calling” has pretty much nothing going for it. Dave chants along while the drums roll slowly and patiently and the guitar play some semblance of a tune before an almost-solo breaks out towards the end, but without any real energy at all. “I’ll Be There” for all intents and purposes IS that wretched power ballad that destroys all heavy music. As average as most of the songs are on this album this is still the one that sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it, and not in a positive fashion. This is the kind of song that could have destroyed Megadeth if it had had any kind of success, because then perhaps the band would have felt the need to keep writing songs like it. No, this is terrible. It is the antithesis of the great Megadeth songs Dave wrote of his ex-girlfriends, the songs that are the greatest in the Megadeth discography.
I can’t even describe the reaction I get when “Wanderlust” comes on. Just what exactly is being thought of in this song is beyond me. This is followed by “Ecstacy” which is the exact incorrect emotion I get listening to this song. It again has gone for a basic musical premise in riff and rhythm, with no excitement or energy appearing in any form. Terrible. There is even less to be said about the remainder of the album. “Seven” is a mirror image of the previous two songs, while the double track at the conclusions of the album, “Time: The Beginning” and “Time: The End” simply don’t carry their weight. The majority of the first track is acoustic based and without any great drive, while the second track is more electric but in such a mournful way that it becomes depressing to even get to the end of the album.
Are there any redeeming features on this album? It really doesn’t seem like it. The first half of the album, up until the end of “Breadline”, was eventually as far as I would get if I ever put this album on. It was the finish for me, because everything after this point has got nothing that interests me whatsoever. That’s not to say the first half has much for me either, but I can at least muddle my way through if it becomes necessary. It’s a sorry state of affairs that this is the kind of alteration to their sound the band felt necessary to make in order to make a statement, to show that they weren’t just a one trick pony. I think everyone involves has now realised the error of their ways, and attempts at redemption have come further down the line. The fact that this was Marty Friedman’s final album with Megadeth was both sad and welcome. His own path was leading in a different direction and he needed to take that on his own. For Megadeth, this is a dark day, and the direction from this point on has its high and lows.
Rating: “Step inside, you’re in for a ride”. 1/5
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