Post by redshoes on Oct 16, 2006 11:23:08 GMT -5
1986 must have been a magical year. Reign in Blood is very magical to me. It indeed makes me think of fairies, unicorns, and fuzzy animals. Being butchered at the slaughter house at least. And of course, you're simply not allowed not to give a nod to Metallica, Master of Puppets casting it's own omni-present shadow over all of metal. As for Megadeth, some people would argue this is not the Megadeth masterpiece, and maybe it isn't, but you really have to hand it to Dave on this one. He probably only spent a 4th of the budget on smack and coke this time...
What I like best about this is that, despite all of his actions outside of actually playing music, the lawsuits, the slanderous words, the dog kicking, when he simply just writes music, Dave seems to be rather carefree as compared to his contemporaries. Where Slayer is giving us history lessons and Metallica is giving us public service announcements, Megadeth isn't afraid to talk about bill collectors, comic book characters, and psychotic broads out for revenge, and the music parallels these themes. One begins to wonder listening to the breakdown in The Conjuring, the opening riffs of Peace Sells, the outro of Wake Up Dead or pretty much any and all of the Willie Dixon cover, if it was Dave's own willingness to experiment that lead to these ruder riffs, trips into Dave's own unique brand of groove and power metal, or if it was simply something he could do that the others couldn't.
It's almost ironic, listening to Dave's solo in the breakdown of Bad Omen, feeling the swing time of Samuelson's drums in the opening phrases of Black Friday, and hearing the band come together to crush at the end of My Last Words, how in many ways, this group had achieved a level of virtuosity that the more stiff lipped and staunch contemporaries hadn't. Only Pantera could answer to this record as a retort rather then an alternative. (or maybe this was the retort to I am the Night)
This isn't a brand of thrash metal that most people will see as superior to what was put out by the other heavyweights of the '80's, as light as it is and willing to get. For that reason more then any other, this should be viewed as it's own entity, on it's own tier. You wouldn't compare A Night at the Opera to Bloodthirst unless you were insane. Maybe it's things like that that drove Dave insane...
...Or maybe it was just the drugs, anyones guess there.
Album rating: A
What I like best about this is that, despite all of his actions outside of actually playing music, the lawsuits, the slanderous words, the dog kicking, when he simply just writes music, Dave seems to be rather carefree as compared to his contemporaries. Where Slayer is giving us history lessons and Metallica is giving us public service announcements, Megadeth isn't afraid to talk about bill collectors, comic book characters, and psychotic broads out for revenge, and the music parallels these themes. One begins to wonder listening to the breakdown in The Conjuring, the opening riffs of Peace Sells, the outro of Wake Up Dead or pretty much any and all of the Willie Dixon cover, if it was Dave's own willingness to experiment that lead to these ruder riffs, trips into Dave's own unique brand of groove and power metal, or if it was simply something he could do that the others couldn't.
It's almost ironic, listening to Dave's solo in the breakdown of Bad Omen, feeling the swing time of Samuelson's drums in the opening phrases of Black Friday, and hearing the band come together to crush at the end of My Last Words, how in many ways, this group had achieved a level of virtuosity that the more stiff lipped and staunch contemporaries hadn't. Only Pantera could answer to this record as a retort rather then an alternative. (or maybe this was the retort to I am the Night)
This isn't a brand of thrash metal that most people will see as superior to what was put out by the other heavyweights of the '80's, as light as it is and willing to get. For that reason more then any other, this should be viewed as it's own entity, on it's own tier. You wouldn't compare A Night at the Opera to Bloodthirst unless you were insane. Maybe it's things like that that drove Dave insane...
...Or maybe it was just the drugs, anyones guess there.
Album rating: A