Megadeth

Rust In Peace

Megadeth's Peak

Review Score:

(10/10)
In my opinion, nothing Dave Mustaine has ever done in his entire career with Megadeth has ever really reached the same peak of quality that Metallica achieved with each of their albums (barring 1998's awful ReLoad). However, in 1990, Dave Mustaine released "Rust in Peace" to the world's bloodthirsty metalheads, and came really, really, REALLY close.

"Rust in Peace" is a plutonium-packed straight-for-the-jugular thrash gem. With this album, Dave Mustaine, Marty Friedman, Nick Menza, and David Ellefson proved to the world once and for all that Megadeth was NOT a band that was going to live in Metallica's shadow, and secured their position as the OTHER big name in the explosive thrash movement. Though in the past, Mustaine's songwriting skills had the nagging quality of being somewhat hit-and-miss, (some songs were superb, others downright bad) on this album he was firing on all cylinders and reached a peak in creativity. From a thrash standpoint, "Rust in Peace" shocked nearly all and reached new heights in creatve and genuine songwriting, where Dave managed to mold and bend the tricks of the thrash formula as he saw fit, and still managed to produce a dynamite song in the process. Nearly every song on this album takes daring and surprising musical risks, with intricate yet compelling guitar leads and lengthy, almost jammy guitar solos, all handled with an impressive amount of creativity even Metallica never reached in the peak of their career. Listen to a song on this album... odds are you haven't heard another thrash song like it from anyone.

On a track-for-track basis, this album is a machine, with songs ranging from great to awesome. Each song is at the very least really good, with the vast majority qualifying for great and fantastic. As for track favorites, "Take No Prisoners" is easily one of Megadeth's best and fastest songs, and what first got me hooked on the album. "Lucretia" could easily usurp it as my favorite, with "Tornado of Souls" not far behind.

If there is anything working against this album, if not a reasonable explanation as to why Megadeth has never achieved the level of fame that Metallica has, it's the fact that vocal-wise, Dave Mustaine is certainly no James Hetfield. In fact, I'm going to come right out and say it: Dave Mustaine is a horrible singer, and it is the one truly negative aspect of this album, and the reason it cannot be classified as perfection.

As a whole, the vocals on this album just plain stink, and Dave really doesn't know how to handle his voice very well. Far too often he utilizes an extroadinarily annoying high-pitched wail normally reserved for the heavyweights like Bruce Dickinson and Matt Barlow, (not quite the echoing screams they give, but a tone of voice only they can really handle) and even Hetfield knows to stay far away from this vocal territory. Even worse, many songs (Take No Prisoners, Five Magics, etc.) incorporate this multi-singing effect into the choruses, which could be the whole band singing the chorus, or many overdubs of Mustaine, but whatever it is, it's downright obnoxious.

Unfortunately, the poor vocals are a heavy criticism, and it takes a few major points away from the album, but thankfully the music easily makes up for what the singing lacks. It can be considered high praise if an album's music alone can make it an essential purchase, and that's exactly what "Rust In Peace" is. After a while, you somewhat get used to the vocals and learn to enjoy the whole album overall, and understand just how important it was to the thrash scene.

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