Megadeth
Rust In Peace

THE REVIEW

Metal!!! That’s what it is! Simply metal! More precisely, thrash metal!!!

Metal is not an image... it’s not what you call noise... it’s not what you call “music for people who don’t wash and have long hair”... it’s not that musical genre whose lyrics talk only about satan or nonsense like that... it’s none of that! Metal, folks, is skill, speed, power, anger, creativity, it’s illogical, it’s violent, it’s unnatural... it's unmissable!! It goes beyond any musical boundary. This masterpiece is a true metal record, let's not confuse it with the fake bands.

Here we are talking about Megadeth, who together with Metallica, Testament, Slayer (just to mention the most famous because many great bands you surely won’t know... you!) made the history of thrash metal!! We are not talking about just anyone! Dave Mustaine and Marty Friedman, do they mean anything to you? Metal guitarists? No... they are monsters!!!
A disc as sharp as a lumberjack’s axe! Walls of sound are created by a bassist, Dave Ellefson, who brings to life powerful and monolithic riffs, and by a drummer, Nick Menza, who pounds the skins of his drum kit until they bleed!
Two fucked-up madmen of the six strings (but what am I saying... Mustaine plays with 12), who create unthinkable countertimes, who turn chromatic scales into evil riffs without following an obvious logic, yes because the only logical thing to say about this album is that it’s a masterpiece, which marked the era of thrash metal, relaunching Megadeth into the temple of the greats of metal!

Great lyrics, inspired by war and world hunger, sung by a guy who, while burning the frets of his Jackson, makes himself unlikeable to the world, criticizing everything he doesn’t like, with a sharp voice, almost mocking, angry and full of malice.
"Holy Wars" is the first track that, after an acoustic guitar piece that feels a lot like flamenco, returns to its initial speed levels. "Take No Prisoner", a true, indomitable battle cry, leads us to a bass riff that would make even the finest Steve Digiorgio envious! The great "Lucretia" and "Five Magics", the thunderous "Tornado of Souls", ending with the glacial "Rust In Peace... Polaris".
Only "Dawn Patrol" has little to do with it, but it’s nothing in this album that made Megadeth, in that period, the prime antagonists of Metallica for the throne of thrash-metal kings!

But I haven’t yet mentioned the track, the episode, the most apocalyptic song... the supreme metal ecstasy! With its 11 solos, performed, invented, elaborated by the genius called Marty Friedman, one of the best guitarists in the world in circulation (for the non-believers, ask Steve Vai). With its atomic rhythm, its thirst for blood, its imposing rhythm section, its insane desire to get into the head of every single metalhead, never to leave again. "Hangar 18" is the thrash metal experience that shattered the world. It tore it in two, leaving on one side the believers of true metal. On the other side, the fools who criticize this magnificent genre, just because they have so much crap inside that in some way they need to throw it out... to all these dear people I say: to understand who Megadeth were, who Mustaine was, who Friedman is, listen to "Hangar 18", to understand where true metal stopped, to make way for the abomination of nu-metal, listen to this album.