With respect to Megadeth, here’s my profile: I’m only a casual fan, never kept up with the latest Megadeth news, and to this day I haven’t bothered to go buy another Megadeth record.
The CD attempts to overview the golden era of the band’s career (the 80s and 90s) in a balanced manner. And, frankly, even with some great songs like "Tornado of Souls" missing, I still think this song selection represents the best of Megadeth well. Aside from obvious classics, I’m glad “Trust” is here to showcase the band’s more melodic songwriting, as well as lesser-known songs like “Train of Consequences”, "Kill the King”, and “Angry Again” where the band finds a middle ground between melody and technical appeal. Not only did I get a good overall picture of what Megadeth is all about, listening many times to this release made me want to explore more of Megadeth, and I did go on to eventually listen through their albums I have not yet heard at the time I got this.
I also find the song order to be agreeable here. While it isn't chronological, the older & highly rated songs are generally lined up first, while more recent (and not-as-highly-rated) songs tend to be towards the back end of the order. I am in favor of such an approach because the CD grabs the listener's attention with the best of the best, and keeps the listening experience interesting with diversity. It also sounds cohesive, despite putting songs from different albums next to each other. For example, the first three tracks - “Holy Wars…”, “In My Darkest Hour”, and “Peace Sells” - all flow very well from one to another, thanks in part to their instantly recognizable riffs. Compared to the other Megadeth compilation releases, I think this one is the best in terms of number of songs included and the order in which they are presented.
Nonetheless I can’t give this release a higher rating - I have the version that came with a DVD, and the DVD is god awful. Its main feature is the live performance from 1999, but the sound mix is inexplicably bastardized by sporadically cranking up Dave Mustaine’s solos to an obnoxious level where others are drowned out. To make matters worse, such mixing also exacerbates Dave’s sloppy performance on that particular night. Drowning out Marty Friedman’s solos is also a huge disrespect to Marty, who had a better performance than Dave in the film. Watching the band perform with Marty should have been a great pleasure, especially because this was one of his last performance before he left heavy metal for the world of J-pop, but the sound mix totally destroys the experience. I suppose the DVD also does a good job of representing what to expect from Megadeth (or, specifically, Dave Mustaine), in an ironic way.
I will admit that the criticisms by others on this site (and elsewhere) do leave a very bad taste in my mouth. I had no idea for a long time that the songs on the CD were supposed to be chosen by fans’ votes (which would have been very cool). I do feel really bad for the faithfuls for having their wishes ignored and betrayed. I also agree that Megadeth has put out too many compilations with similar set of songs, and I definitely don’t like feeling like I spent my precious money on a cash-grab.
But, my $10 is gone and will never come back, and at the end of the day, I don’t regret buying this. This release is good enough to satisfy my occasional and casual Megadeth fix. I’m genuinely happy with what I have.
No comments:
Post a Comment