Rust In Peace [12" VINYL]

Product Information

Just as the thrash era was coming to a close, Megadeth managed to squeeze out one last onslaught before falling into the valley of commercial-minded post-grunge metal that consumed practically every 80s thrash band in the following decade. And what a parting shot it was. Rust in Peace finds Dave Mustaine at the height of his creative power. Stuffed with theatrical, ambitious playing, creative riffs and a chemistry between the instrumentalists that scientists say technically counts as a form of magic, Rust in Peace is the high water mark of the original California thrash scene.

Another great plus of this CD is the overall quality of each song. As you might probably guess from the perfect 100 score, there are no fillers on this album. Each song is a success, and that’s a rare thing indeed. All the way from the legendary ‘Holy Wars… The Punishment Due’ to ‘Rust In Peace… Polaris,’ each song is a trash masterpiece, and I never find myself wanting to press the skip button. Listening to this whole album, beginning to end, is definitely not a problem.The moment you hear that opening riff in “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due”, you know exactly what you’re in for. In short, Rust in Peace is a veritable assault of razor-sharp cyclonic riffing, soloing and just general shredding courtesy of the Dave Mustaine/Marty Friedman tag-team. A legendary tag-team that soar higher than a hippy commune with the kind of guitar acrobatics that are still unmatched to this day. “Hangar 18” sees them trading blows with all kinds of insane soloing and leadwork, while “Rust in Peace… Polaris” busts out the hard-hitting riffs amidst a bopping composition. Of course, there’s the zero bullshit thrasher, “Take No Prisoners” that positively takes no shit with its mad thrashing riffs. “Tornado of Souls” is more like a tornado of riffs while “Poison was the Cure” is nothing short of speed metal insanity – and then there’s “Lucretia” contrasting that finely with a crunchier, more mid-paced riffset that’s just so goddamn catchy, it ought to be illegal. There’s just so much going on with just the riffs alone, that it becomes positively captivating just seeing where this Cirque de Soleil act will go next.

The very first thing that comes to my attention is the insane shredding in the opening minute and a half of Holy Wars…The Punishment Due. It blows my mind how good, intense, and catchy those guitar parts are. Thankfully that level of shredding is frequent throughout the rest of the album, reappearing on every song except the slow groovy, funk metal song Dawn Patrol, which has no need of guitar anyways. Megadeth’s best shot at getting on top of the thrash heap was with this album; Metallica and Slayer had peaked four or so years ago (Anthrax never being any competition to these three), thrash was probably at it’s commercial apex- or at least pretty close to it- it was the perfect time to strike. It wasn’t a bad attempt, but various head-scratching ideas in this album stop it from being the definitive statement that Megadeth probably hoped it would be. This is a good album. It's got technicality, speed, thrashy riffs, and melodic solos. The bass sounds good, and the drums don't sound as poppy as their previous album. Overall, it's pretty much what thrash metal should be.

Contributors

Overall, Rust in Peace is a thrash classic, and easily Megadeth's best album. It features Megadeth at their best, with technical riffing, very impressive shredding and soloing, and some nice bass work. Though Megadeth doesn’t fall completely off the face of the planet with their next album, as hard as they try the band will not match their maximum opus, Rust in Peace, nor do they even record an album that sounding similar. The band claims that the next Megadeth album could fit into the band's RiP - CtE era (as well as some more commercial elements), but can it top Rust in Peace? Unlikely, but we'll just have to wait and see. Despite the overall catchiness and practiced technical restraint, there is a substantial amount of quality left to be desired. Dave and crew simply tried too hard at striking a balance between the technical and the memorable, as opposed to letting it occur naturally. As a result of this, certain songs come across as forced. At times, they even become painfully sterile, and truly test the listener’s patience. Holy Wars is particularly bad at this. So is Lecretia, Five Magics, Tornado of Souls and the over-praised Hangar 18, whose solo-after-solo towards the end becomes nerve grating. In these particular songs, the ‘Deth crew abuses the power metal-style of melody, and creates riffs that come across as overly consonant. There is just no real distinguishable contrast between each riff to make them truly interesting beyond the initial impression of “that’s catchy”. Yes, I am not the slightest bit exaggerating with the title of this review. I seriously believe Rust in Peace is probably the best album ever. I have lots of albums I really love. I know albums that I listen to a lot that are heavier. I know albums I listen to that are faster. I know albums I listen to a lot that are more technical. Not that all three of these musical traits aren't present on Rust In Peace of course, but never in my life have I heard an album with more focus, better composition, and more memorable songwriting than Rust In Peace by the great Megadeth. And while Megadeth did some excellent stuff both before and after this, they have yet to scale these heights again...this is just absolutely phenomenal... Also, with the addition of more skilled instrumentalists, Megadeth could write and execute more complex, challenging compositions, clearly evident on “Rust in Peace”. Also, with this new found ability to write and execute more complex music, the focus shifts away the lyrics or vocals, which have never been a strong spot for Megadeth. But that said, the lyrics are fairly good, maybe due to the fact that they don’t have to be the main focus and become more fluent and natural and less forced.

The structuring of 'Take No Prisoners' is my main grumble, but moving on from that song I also wonder what made 'Five Magics' take the form it does. I mean, the intro is fairly cool and goes through plenty of changes that generate atmosphere and give each instrumentalist a chance to show themselves, yet when the meat of the song arrives it suddenly seems dispensable, as if it was just something interesting that the band had thought up. The same goes for 'Dawn Patrol', which is clearly inessential yet sort of entertaining in a totally different way to the shredding in 'Hangar 18' or elsewhere. I wouldn't have such a problem with the off-the-cuff structuring and inclusion of ideas if 'Rust in Peace' felt like the kind of album where the musicians were just having fun with ideas; however, it doesn't, since the level of technical ability and forethought (mostly) on show utterly disagrees with the concept that the band were jamming or having fun. I suppose that is probably my biggest criticism of 'Rust in Peace', since there isn't a sense of fun or spontaneity about the songs here, while 'Peace Sells' (the other sacred Megadeth release) does have those things. Maybe it's the mix or the production or the technical concentration that goes into some of the songs, but I can't always just enjoy what's happening here despite the extremely high level of quality. On the flipside of the coin is the catchier stuff which is all a mix of power, speed and straight-up heavy metal. Lucretia has a heavy emphasis on the lead work and features YET ANOTHER awesome solo. These just keep on coming! And of course, the song’s about the ghost that lives in Dave’s attic. And of course with the addition of Marty Friedman, the fret work on this album is the highlight. Both guitarists seem to have a defined role that each is comfortable with, making the tag team effort of each that much better. Both Mustaine and Friedman burn through amazing fret burning solos with ease and impeccable speed due to their collective jaw-dropping skill. The songs do exhibit the same sense of creative freedom and intuitiveness that Dave has always possessed, but the focus has become clearer. “Holy Wars” has an intro riff that immediately grabs the ear, while the vocal delivery that follows over a series of well placed riffs is almost clean in its precision, though raunchy in timbre. The mystical sounding classical guitar interlude provided by Friedman throws the listener for a loop, yet takes nothing from the unity of the song. “Take no prisoners”, “Poison was the cure”, and “Lucretia” are all full speed ahead, uncompromising riff thrashers, the first of which containing a brief bass solo that challenges Joey Demaio’s status as the most out of control soloist on the instrument. It's missing the speed metal riffage that I love so much about Peace Sells and Killing Is My Business. Rust in Peace certainly has fast riffs and hooks, as well as lightning fast solos, but, again, they aren't the same. The technicality is there still, but, for whatever reason, this album reminds me of a band like Atrophy or Testament after 1988. That is to day, it's just thrash metal, other than some speed metal-esque riffs of "Lucretia."What a disappointing pressing of this album [for this price]. Pressed by Specialty Records Pressing, you would think this release would shine, just like they often do with Specialty/Allied companies pressings: Iron Maiden's Somewhere In Time first US pressing was made by SRC and it sounds like the best vinyl pressing of the album to me, Metallica's Ride The Lightning SRC/ARC pressings are often considered to be the best variants of the album, etc. Music Direct reserves the right to change the terms of this promotion or discontinue this offer at any time. There is usually only one album of each genre that deserves a score of a perfect 100. For example, in the power metal genre, that honor belongs to Helloween’s Second Keeper. In traditional metal, that’s Dio’s ‘Holy Diver.’ In thrash… we have Rust In Peace. This album is thrash perfection, and let me start of by complimenting the songwriting.