As a new fan of Megadeth and now an owner of three of their albums: Countdown to Extinction, Rust in Peace and Super Collider. I have already began to love the music by Megadeth no matter which album it is and I am hoping to get all the albums in the future.
I’ve lately been noticing that this latest album by Megadeth called “Super Collider” has received many negative reviews by the critics. It may have to do with the change in Dave Mustaine’s voice and the band going to more aggressive heavy metal away from their traditional thrash metal that everyone is used to. But I still loved this album and now I’ll give you my own review on it.
I found Super Collider to be a lot more aggressive than the Megadeth I was used to ever since I bought and listened to Countdown to Extinction which sounded a lot more like the thrash metal everyone was looking for. I had to say that I give this album five stars because as a fan of typical heavy metal I found that this album met the expectations I wanted when it comes to heavy metal: Heavy but melodic sound. That’s what I expect all the time when I’m listening to any metal band. I think also the change in their sound has to do with their change in record label recently which is when the band parted was with Roadrunner Records.
As usual I think Dave sounds like a legend on guitar and vocals (and he super hot! Don’t get me wrong, a lot of metal chicks dig him and I happen to be one of those metal chicks now), After listening to Super Collider and Countdown to Extinction I’ve noticed he sounds different obviously but who am I to complain? I think he sounds great. Shawn Drover is an excellent drummer and is a total dynamo on the drums. Every song on this album delivers a great beat and it’s all because of him of course. David Ellefson the current bassist I’d say he does really well. If he keeps it up he will definitely make it on to my list of favorite bassists. Chris Broderick is also a great guitarist as well along with Dave I’d say it’s tied between them for now.
The tracks on this album are all very aggressive yet melodic at the same time depending on the song which is what I look for in heavy metal. The songs “Kingmaker” and “Super Collider” are good intro songs. Kingmaker’s good riffs gets you pumped up for the action up ahead and gets you going, that’s what I like. The song is said to be about painkiller abuse and dependency. Then Super Collider comes in and it’s not as fast sounding as Kingmaker because it’s a lot slower but then again listening to it makes you wonder what it’s about. Dave describes the title song of this album has been drawn by some inspiration from particle colliders and the search for the “God Particle”, whatever that means because I don’t think any of us know what that means. “Burn!” is another aggressive track which returns afterwards, it’s the type of song you want to listen to if you’re angry and you need to let that anger out by listening to a song with sound and lyrics like that. “Built for War” is another song where that comes in handy it’s another “unleash your anger” type of song and I don’t know if I like it or Burn! better because they’re both good songs with great guitar riffs and beats so yeah no competition here. “Off the Edge” was a solid song, I’d say it’s one where we go away from the tunes that are good for expressing emotion and we start to go into the tunes that have more deep meanings and Off the Edge is a sign that we are starting to exit the aggressive tunes and enter the ones with more meaning to them.
“Dance in the Rain” was a little more melodic and if you listen to the beginning you’ll notice that the first vocals feature Disturbed’s David Draiman singing the song’s intro. I found this to be rather surprising because when I listen to Disturbed I’m more used to hearing him sound a little different. The next two tracks “Beginning of Sorrow” and “The Blackest Crow” are not as aggressive, they are more on the melodic side so we have a combination of both of those things on this album which, as I said is what I like. “Beginning of Sorrow” proved to be a lot slower but suspenseful. “The Blackest Crow” is said to be about loss and subsequent depression. I start to wonder from here what that links to and the song itself aside from the lyrics appears to have a Southern influence.
“Forget to Remember” is probably my favorite track on this album. The melody and the meaning had me quite emotional when listening to it and sometimes, songs like this are the ones that end up being my favorite. Dave describes this song to have two different meanings. It can be either about trying to forget about a past relationship or about someone someone suffering from Alzheimer’s disease which I eventually learned later on that Dave’s mother in law suffers from that. But also I like this song the most is because it has that melody that I like, that darker melody with also the intense aggressive metal side combined into one with lyrics about something sad to create a song that is emotional yet metal which I also love.
Then there is “Don’t Turn Your Back” which is said to be about something inspired by one of Dave’s friends who describes Dave as the type of guy that’ll steal someone’s dope and then help you look for it. Now that I think of it I never imagine Dave to be like that to be honest. Then to finish off the album is the song “Cold Sweat” which is a Thin Lizzy cover. Decent song but never realized it was a cover.
I have to say this album is one of my favorite heavy metal albums of all time. There’s not a single song on here that I dislike even though some of them I did not particularly love if you know what I mean. Some hardcore long time Megadeth fans might disagree with me because they’re too used to the classic thrash sound (now why does this remind me of how the KISS fandom is sometimes?)
That’s it for now, I don’t know if I’m such a good critic on Megadeth yet because I’m a new fan of them as well. I really wish I didn’t miss the Gigantour show in Toronto they were at because I was on vacation when it happened. Pity, but I hope that Megadeth comes back here on the next tour and hopefully this time I won’t miss it.
Now if you will excuse me I’m going to stare at pictures of Dave for a bit because I can’t get over how fucking hot he is! ❤
-Emily
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