Last August, thrash metal icon Dave Mustaine announced the end of Megadeth. After one final album, the band’s seventeenth, and a farewell tour, Mustaine is hanging up his Flying V guitar. This is partly due to issues with his hand, including arthritis and Dupuytren’s contracture, a painful condition that causes one or more fingers to bend toward the palm. As a perfectionist and virtuoso guitar hero, Mustaine wants to go out on top rather than continue to play with diminished abilities.
That final album, the eponymous Megadeth, is a fitting swan song for the man who crafted some of history’s finest metal riffs but always seemed in the shadow of his former band, Metallica. Joined by Teemu Mäntysaari on guitar, James LoMenzo on bass, and Dirk Verbeuren on drums, Mustaine unleashes one last onslaught of aggressive thrash.
If Dupuytren’s contracture is already affecting Mustaine’s playing, it’s not apparent on Megadeth. Mustaine and Mäntysaari tear through complex, heavy riffs and blistering solos with speed and precision. Mustaine’s low, grainy voice, now more of a growl than a whine, sounds appropriately world-weary for a collection of songs channeling Mustaine’s rage. The album covers Mustaine’s favorite topics of war and violence while also getting more introspective at times.
Album opener “Tipping Point” is classic Megadeth, with rapid-fire, palm-muted riffing, multiple dueling guitar solos, and Verbeuren’s bludgeoning drums. The song is a revenge fantasy, with Mustaine threatening violence both physical (“watching the life drain out from your eyes”) and psychological (“I will invade your mind, make you fear the sound of voices that aren’t there”). It’s undeniably catchy, a statement from Mustaine that he can still churn out nasty riffs in his sleep.
“Let There Be Shred” straddles the line between metal posturing and reflection. On one hand, it’s a dramatization of Mustaine’s place as a guitar hero. “On the day I was born, a guitar in my hands, the earth started rumbling a thunderous command,” he sings. On the other hand, it’s an appreciation for a life spent onstage, with poetic imagery describing the performances he’ll miss when he retires. He sings about the moment he steps onto the stage and the energy of the fans. “The stage has been lit; get up on your feet. Hearts start to pound; everyone gets off their seat,” he snarls. And he sings about the thrill of the performance itself. “Guitars are all screaming; they squeal with delight,” he sings. “Clawing fretboards away at the speed of light.” And the song is more than just nostalgia. If you call a song “Let There Be Shred,” there had better be great shredding, and Mustaine and Mäntysaari deliver the goods.
Much has been made about Megadeth covering Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning,” one of the last two songs, along with “The Call of Ktulu,” that Mustaine wrote with Metallica before they kicked him out of the band. The Megadeth version is fine, but unnecessary. Most thrash metal fans have listened to the original version hundreds of times, and Dave’s reimagining isn’t different enough to be a distinct song.
“Hey, God” is one of the album’s most interesting tracks. Musically, it’s a throwback to the Countdown to Extinction or Youthanasia era of Megadeth. Lyrically, it’s one of the most vulnerable things Mustaine has written. Mustaine converted to Christianity more than 20 years ago, but his faith rarely surfaced in his songs. In “Hey, God,” Mustaine wrestles with his faith, doubt, and his relationship with God not being as close as he wants. “Hey, God, it feels like you’re so far away,” he sings. “I know that it was me who moved. I never had that much to say.” Throughout the song, Mustaine wrestles with his own mortality and insecurities. At one point, he tells God, “I don’t know why you care at all.” At another, he admits of his selfish life that “it ain’t the way I wanna live.” Mustaine’s songs often use violent or creepy imagery and tough-guy posturing, so it’s refreshing for him to let his guard down.
Mustaine gets vulnerable again on “The Last Note,” a song that serves as a farewell to the fans. In the mid-tempo metal song, Mustaine contemplates the end of his career, the legacy he’s leaving behind, and his final days onstage. It’s a sad farewell, one forced upon him by age and his hand condition. “The roar I lived for, it starts to die,” Mustaine sings. “I can’t outrun the spinning hands of time.” But there’s also a sense of accomplishment in the finality. Mustaine had a great career, and he’s going out on his terms, with one final album and tour to celebrate his music and appreciate his fans one last time. This idea, and the entire farewell album, is summed up well in the song’s chorus. “The final curtain falls, a quiet end to it all. Now it’s just memories in my mind,” he sings. “Just fading lights and names; if I ever play again, then let this last note never die.”
The final Megadeth album delivers those last notes. One last collection of metal aggression. One last testament to fretboard mastery. One last chance to appreciate one of metal’s greatest guitarists. While the album may not reach the level of the band’s first six albums,, it’s a fitting farewell for Mustaine, with enough heavy riffing and histrionic shredding to make those last notes memorable.
