The classic thrash album

Was recently revisiting this album and besides the awful vocals

The musicianship for Megadeth was always out of this world mainly cause there were influences of jazz mixed into the speed / thrash metal.

Gar Samuelson and Chris Poland were only on the first 2 Megadeth albums(Chris returned to do some work in 2004) but were both from a jazz fushion band and thrown into metal.

The result is a metal classic

Like pretty much all of the early "thrash" albums this sounds like garbage. I don't know if it was Venom that started the trend but these albums are, for the most part, terribly produced. Dave even tried to "fix" the sound in the 2004 remasters where he remixed the old albums but there is only so much that remixing can do. Thankfully, the songs are good enough that it doesn't matter.

Obviously anger was a huge part of eighties metal, to a degree all of the great metal bands were very angry, but I think that Dave had an edge and that is one thing that makes the early Megadeth albums great. No one is as pissed off as Dave Mustaine and he was able to channel that anger into his music.

I definitely agree about Chris and Gar. They had a level of musicianship that was lacking in their contemporaries and it gave the band a unique sound (kind of like Jimmy Chamberlin and the Smashing Pumpkins). It is really too bad that they didn't stick around longer. Rust in Peace was the first decent sounding Megadeth album (it was produced by Mike Clink) and I would have liked to have heard what Chris and Gar would have brougt to the songs.

Classic.

You can see Chris Poland with his band O.H.M. at The Baked Potato in L.A.: http://prince.org/msg/8/377758
They play there one Tuesday every month. Next date is 3/26.


Music for adventurous listeners

tA

Tribal Records

the material is stellar (side A is absolutely stunning) and the production is NOT bad

80s metal albums are dated, both classic metal and extreme metal albums...

dated doesn't mean AWFUL/GARBAGE

sometimes I prefer these sleek & noisy (a paradox, I know) metal productions of the mid-to-late 80s than the "in-your-face/impecable" productions of the 90s and beyond

and Mustaine has always been an average singer, but I couldn't care less about the "vocal qualities" of an extreme metal singer , they just "bark" their message, LOL

oh, and I think Chris Poland is the secret weapon of this album, sometimes I wonder who was the definitive co-guitarist of Megadeth: Poland or Friedman

[Edited 2/26/13 8:39am]

Great album. I used to get bent and trip out on dave's Occult lyrics.

Man i miss 80's metal.

Rest In Peace Gar Samuelson and although i got love for dave, fuck that ginger.

Hell fuckin yeah!