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Rating: On the occasion of the release of the new "United Abominations," I find myself reviewing this "The World Needs a Hero", the 9th album by the American band Megadeth, released in 2001.
The album in question hit the market after not-so-happy years for the band: on one hand, the very poor sales results of the previous "Risk" (the first real flop after 15 years of their career due to its total estrangement from the Megadeth sound, a pop-rock mixed with electronic inserts), on the other, the departure, not without heavy controversies, of Marty Friedman, now in constant conflict with MegaDave...
No matter, with Al Pitrelli (formerly of Savatage and Alice Cooper band) recruited on guitar, with the trusty David Ellefson on bass and the confirmed Jimmy DeGrasso behind the drums, Mustaine decided to dive into this new work, trumpeted as a return to harder and purer metal, a clear cut from the recent, unconvincing (but above all unprofitable...) past!
Yeah... pity that even if the two previous mediocre ones, "Cryptic Writings" and "Risk," haven't provided a nice image of the band's health status, this "TWNAH" doesn't do much to raise their profile, quite the opposite... it is, in fact, a bland CD, lacking ideas, sometimes even too slapdash.
The problem is: you can't label it as a "return to the hardness of early metal" if there is still a strong search for melodies and solutions that favor easy listening and assimilation by a wide audience; melodies that inevitably end up not matching the hardness and ferocity of the thrash so much sought after.
So, it's not enough to recover the old, angular writing or to resurrect the old (now a bit dusty too...) mascot Vic Rattlehead for "a return to the origins": rather it is a pathetic attempt to attract the old fans again, deluding them into thinking they have really returned to the "mother house" of thrash.
Not even self-celebrating (or self-plagiarizing, which is somewhat the same in this case...) with a song ("Return to Hangar", a squalid revisitation of the classic "Hangar 18," drawn from "Rust in Peace," from a period when 'Deth really had ideas and technique to show off) is enough, just as shamelessly plagiarizing a classic of '80s metal (the concluding "When", which, apart from presenting the identical opening riff to "The Call of Ktulu" of the "cousins" Metallica, from minute 2:30 onwards reveals itself to be a perfect copy of "Am I Evil?" by Diamond Head, albeit not presenting a shred of the power and fascination of the original...) is enough to make believe they have made a great comeback on the metal scene of the time: metal which was in terrible condition, stifled by the new nu currents.
Another negative factor is however the alarming lack of creative inspiration by MegaDave: too many banal songs that are supposed to act as fillers, but unfortunately constitute the majority of the album! The opener "Disconnect" is a perfect example of this: it starts with a nice riff, solid and heavy, but then loses itself in a boring and uninspired mid-tempo; even the various "1000 Times Goodbye", "Burning Bridges", while trying to propose new sounds, soon fall into the banal, ending up being quickly forgotten.
In the end, the best tracks turn out to be the sweet semi-acoustic ballad "Promises", truly inspired and atmospheric, but above all the adrenaline-fueled "Dread and the Fugitive Mind" (also appearing in the "Capitol Punishment" collection of the previous year), with its verses closely resembling those of "Sweating Bullets": good rhythm, catchy refrain, and excellent final solo.
For the rest, there is little or almost nothing: the leading single "Moto Psycho" proves to be too commercial and too oriented toward an MTV-dependent audience that wants to present itself as "grown-up" by listening to metal, but it is the most "sustained" track of the batch and overall is enjoyable: if returning to harder and rawer sounds materializes in this, there's real concern for what the future of 'Deth might be.
A future which shortly thereafter would bring the news of the band's breakup, which took place in 2002, also due to Dave's well-known wrist problems... fortunately, since 2004 there has been a return to the scene (this time much more convincing) of the American combo: a new lineup, new ideas that led to a good "The System Has Failed" and the latest, excellent release, that "United Abominations" mentioned at the beginning.
Here, instead, there is little to do: we find ourselves still in the darkest period of the band's history, a period that started after 1994 and would continue right up to the breakup; few ideas, unwillingness, attempts to mix their sound with external contaminations poorly suited to the spirit and genre proposed, just as many attempts to arduously lift their heads and return to their roots, only to end up tripping up again and offering a product as weak as this album; it's sad to give a negative review to a work of good old Dave, but there's little to do, denying the evidence is useless!
If with "Risk" the group had declared they wanted to produce an album with new sounds, capable of astounding critics and audiences (and they succeeded, unfortunately for Dave and associates), with this "TWNAH", there was no much-anticipated return to thrash or at least more generally to heavy metal, and the fact of presenting themselves to the public with shameless and front intentions like the prominent display of Vic on the cover and a "Return to Hangar" truly scandalous even just for having been conceived (despite it paradoxically could prove to be a success, based as it is on one of their best compositions), smacks of a mere commercial operation and too, really too much, of pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes...
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Dread and the Fugitive Mind ()
Let me introduce myself
I'm a social disease
I've come for your wealth
And leave you on your knees
No time for feeling sorry
I got here on my own
I won't ask for mercy
I choose to walk alone
Whats yours is mine and whats mine is mine too
If you shake my hand better count your fingers
What if I do get caught?
What if there is no judgement?
If Im right I loose nothing
If your right I loose it all
I ought to get caught
Because I'm doing something wicked
I'm guilty haunted by my fears
And the only consequences
Are dread and the fugitive mind
You built walls to protect you
So no one will infect you
Pursued by those out there
That vanish in thin air
Come a long way to find
What you allready left behind
You don't know when the end is
But it's coming fast
03 Promises ()
Two hearts that shouldn't
Talk to each other become close
In a town much like a prison cell
People speak our names
On the street in hushed tones
Oh the stories they'd tell
If anyone would listen
You come from a town where
People don't bother saying hello
Unless somebody's born or dies
And I come from a place where they
Drag your hopes through the mud
Because their own dreams are all dying
And when we walk down the street
The wind sings our name in rebel songs
The sounds of the night should make us anxious
But it's much too late when the fear is gone
I will meet you in the Next Life, I promise you
Where we can be together, I promise you
I will wait till then in Heaven, I promise you
I promise, I promise
There's so many fighting
To get past the Pearly Gates
But nobody ever wants to die or get saved
Their intentions aren't that good
And I can smell the asphalt
That's their personal road to hell being paved
And when we walk down the street
The wind sings our name in rebel songs
But it's much too late when the fear is gone
I will meet you in the Next Life, I promise you
Where we can be together, I promise you
I will wait till then in Heaven, I promise you
I promise, I promise
05 Losing My Senses ()
One man speaking the truth
No one likes when it fits
So we tell soothing lies
And betray our own lips
The uncivilized world
And its people decay
Once sweet breeze is defiled
Sucking our breath away
Fill Solos - Mustaine
Yesterday's answers has nothing to do
With today's questions
Life can only be understood in reverse
But must be lived forwards�
I'm losing my senses, I'm losing my senses
Fill Solos - Mustaine
We watch as the living all die
Contemplating if we should
Ever open our eyes
If all that we touch
Keeps turning to sand
We will cease to exist
Till the last living man
Fill Solos - Mustaine
Yesterday's answers has nothing to do
With today's questions
Life can only be understood in reverse
But must be lived forward�
Life can only be understood in reverse
But must be lived forward�
I'm losing my senses
Fill Solos - Mustaine / Solo - Pitrelli
Yesterday's answers has nothing to do
With today's questions
Life can only be understood in reverse
But must be lived forwards�
Life can only be understood in reverse
But must be lived forwards�
Fill Solos and Synth - Mustaine
String Arrangement - Suzie Katayama
08 Coming Home ()
(Music, lyrics: Mustaine)
And today, I leave you
But I'll be back someday
And as I fly away
My hope is that we'll meet again
I'm off to my home away from home
I will miss you
But I know
I know you know
I'm coming home to Arizona
I'm coming home to Arizona
I'll take you everywhere I go
I'll show you everything I see
And as we say so long
I know your tears wish me well
It won't be long till I'm back again
We will meet again
We will meet again
You will see, oh
I'm coming home to Arizona
I'm coming home
09 Moto Psycho ()
Responsibility, an anchor around my neck
Dependability, made me a nervous wreck
Accountability, I live from check to check
Volatility, neglect and no respect
Got my wheels in motion and I got a path to beat
I hit the road to "I don't know" and look for "Tough Shit Street"
One-way ticket nowhere there's no windows on this train
Can't see where I'm headed but I'm going there again
Moto Psycho
Going nowhere everybody is a
Moto Psycho move it or lose it baby
Going nowhere 100 miles an hour
Moto Psycho I'm a Moto Psycho
Moto Psycho
You know you can't resist to tell me what I mean
You gave my mind a twist said that I was unclean
The actor runs the play and ad-libs in between
You're all that I resent my thoughts were so obscene
Got my wheels in motion and I got a path to beat
I hit the road to "I don't know" and look for "Tough Shit Street"
One-way ticket nowhere there's no windows on this train
Can't see where I'm headed but I'm going there again
Moto Psycho
Going nowhere everybody is a
Moto Psycho move it or lose it baby
Going nowhere 100 miles an hour
Moto Psycho I'm a Moto Psycho
One-way ticket nowhere there's no windows on this train
Can't see where I'm headed but I'm going there again
Moto Psycho
Going nowhere everybody is a Moto Psycho
Going nowhere move it or lose it baby Moto Psycho
Going nowhere 100 miles an hour Moto Psycho
Where I'm headed I don't know but I'm shoving off and I hit the road
Going nowhere everybody is a Moto Psycho - time and time and time again I'm a
Moto Psycho
Moto Psycho move it or lose it baby
Going nowhere 100 miles an hour
Moto Psycho I'm a Moto Psycho
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