Megadeth
So Far, So Good.. So What?

Two years after "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?", Megadeth return to the scene with a more mature, more elaborate, and less raw album than the previous two: "So Far, So Good... So What?" The title is the same classic and obvious as always, focusing on war, the dead, etc. The cover, however, seems made for a video game, which despite this comparison, is undeniably unique in its style. Talking about the tracks, it is overall a good piece of work. There's those who say this album is the best ever produced by them, but in my opinion it isn't so, and I'll explain why: the first song "Into the Lung of Hell" manages to give a pretty good idea of how the album is structured: more elaborate tracks, even though it has some hints of the rawness it once had, here Dave and the company seem to have hit the target. Excellent instrumental start.

"Set The World Afire" is the "best" of the entire work: The track has a devastating start, after 2 minutes of Megadeth-style riffing, you get to the heart of this gem, and describing it isn’t all that complicated: Dave boasts a less scandalous but damnably James Hetfield-like voice, even the entire execution seems to catapult us back to the times of "Kill 'em All." These influences are all too evident, and while the track might sharply raise the average, it can’t be said that Dave has been (even here) original and full of ideas. The third is the cover "Anarchy in the UK": it seems absurd to me to put a cover on an album of originals, it should at least halve the cost of the entire work, the worst part is that this work consists of only 8 tracks, which causes a much heavier damage. The cover is good, but I repeat: poverty of ideas. From the fourth track to the end, we find everything I said at the beginning: a musical evolution and maturity that brings Mustaine, with two new members like Jeff Young (guitar) and Chuck Behler (drums), to his own genre. These evolutions can be noticed in a track like "Mary Jane": more thought-out riffs and solos, a good composition played in a thousand ways. Dave finally shows that he can also exploit his abilities as a musician, at times brilliantly. "502" is a track with intricate and very fast riffs that ends with speaker-breaking solos, followed by a long drum roll. At number six, we find "In My Darkest Hour": dedicated to Cliff Burton, it is another song that greatly recalls the sounds, riffs, and desolate solos of "Ride the Lightning." Next is "Liar": the dear leader of the group is a punk admirer, you can understand that in this song, whose rhythms hide behind Thrash amplifiers. The pearl of this song is the solo. Finally, we find "Hook in Mouth", a kind of anthem to freedom, an anthem with a hammering content, performed with slower riffs and an enticing but certainly not exceptional voice.

"So Far, So Good... So What?" is what I consider a good Thrash metal album, no more no less. Better than the previous one, but still with some drawbacks to improve. Aside from that pointless cover and the pathetic influences, the rest is the beginning of what is masterfully exposed in the following (master)piece.