Megadeth

Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?

Falls Flat

Review Score:

(4/10)
Megadeth is gone. Dave Mustaine can no longer use his left arm to play guitar. No great loss to the metal genre.
First, Megadeth is a terrible name for a band. It sounds ridiculous and it's also spelled wrong.
Second, all of their album covers are very cheesy. The evil skeleton dude is something you would see in a b grade horror movie. Then, they throw him in a political setting and it comes across like something out of a comic book. How can anybody take that seriously? It may be fantasy, but it's a very juvenile fantasy.
However, those are not good reasons to dislike a band and their music.
"Peace Sells . . . But Who's Buying" is guitar-playing showmanship with terrible vocals. The themes try to come across as intellectual, but fail miserably. They try way too hard to inject evil and nihilism into the mix. But, no matter how hard they try it never has a lasting effect.
The same with Mustaine's vocals, his snarling and growling just doesn't seem natural. When any singer forces a type of tone that isn't there, it throws off the entire sound of the music. His voice is better suited to be a glam rock singer's.
The rest of the music is about playing intricate riffs very fast. While it may be impressive to guitar players, the casual listener will not have anything to grab onto. Speed does not always characterize aggression.
Compared to Metallica, Slayer, and Suicidal Tendencies, these guys are nothing. Mustaine's influence is heard on Metallica's weakest album (before the Black Album), "Kill `Em All". Metallica may not have been such a great band if Mustaine had not been kicked out.

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