And it would seem that the countdown continues so in some sense I guess that there should be a sigh of relief that we are not yet extinct at all but moving steadily along. Yeah we have the occasional mishap out there but I digress. So can you believe that it has been twenty years since Megadeth first released their “Countdown To Extinction” album? I know that it amazes me, but I will say that I really enjoyed this particular album myself.
Back when this album came out I was finding myself getting more into Megadeth as a Metal fan than I ever had been before. Yeah there were some moments on the debut and I liked the same songs that everyone liked on “Peace Sells” but there was not much that thrilled me on “So Far So Good So What”. It happens. It was not until “Rust In Peace” (1990) that I found them to be a band of preference to me and this was largely based on a friend who ran a radio show in the region and played them all the time. I was also very involved in a Metal band of my own and I reckon that Megadeth was “speaking” to me as a player even though I was a drummer and not a guitar slinger like Mustaine. At the end of the day I guess I was also just leaning more into this brand of Metal based on how it was put together. Faster, more aggressive and making a larger point with its lyrical content. This appreciation really continued to brew when the band delivered “Countdown To Extinction”. I found “Skin O’ My Teeth” to be an energetic tune and “Symphony Of Destruction” would become a live staple that always set the audience off. The views in “Foreclosure Of A Dream” were slightly ahead of their time and when listened to today are speaking volumes about the way we live. This was a powerful album for sure and one who’s message was rather bleak about some societal ills that we find ourselves facing. The playing was also top drawer from Mustaine who had Marty Friedman, Dave Ellefson and Nick Menza as a part of the band at this time.
Continue reading 20 Years of “Countdown To Extinction” by Megadeth…… →
Artist: Megadeth
Title: “Anthology: Set The World Afire”
Label: Capitol Records/EMI Music
Release Date: 9/30/2008
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 4.5/5
It seemed like only yesterday that we found this very label releasing a “Greatest Hits” compilation by those stalwarts of the Heavy Metal way Megadeth and while it was true that the release would deliver the goods when it came down to pure and intelligent Metal, the time had clearly come for the game to be upgraded and for this idea to be visited once again. That Greatest Hits package was a single disc seventeen track affair and it managed to cover a lot of ground which definitely served the needs of the bands fan base but now with the labeling being that of an Anthology, we would now get two discs and the material would span some thirty three tracks. From top to bottom, everything that you expect to find on such a release is here to be enjoyed and examined from an early career to most recent viewpoint. Of course with the band now being on Roadrunner Records, we don’t find anything from their latest album “United Abominations” but we do go up as far as “Risk” and “Cryptic Writings”. All of the staple tracks from the bands beginnings are here and while it seems as though every song that we found on “Greatest Hits” is made available here, we do find that “Symphony Of Destruction” is a live version and “Mechanix” this time around is the original for on the hits release a couple of years ago gave us a remix from 2002. A second live track is offered up with a rousing version of “Peace Sells” from 1992 and if that doesn’t please you enough there is a demo track called “High Speed Dirt” from a 1992 session to enjoy. The bonus content was good enough in my opinion but with a release like this I lean towards the classic tracks that made me a fan of the band in the first place. They provide a several page booklet but it really doesn’t offer much to that kind of fan who loves to read something while the album is playing. It just lines out the individual tracks and lets you know what album they have originally come from. There are a few but not a lot of photos between these pages to enjoy as well and these depict four different lineups of the band from across the years.
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Where Heavy Music & Pop Culture Collide
