Megadeth
Warchest

THE REVIEW

For every band, sooner or later, the time comes to take stock, and even Dave Mustaine's Megadeth cannot escape this law. So, in 2007, a retrospective box set was released, consisting of five discs: the first three retrace the band's career through its most representative and well-known tracks, but also include live tracks, rarities, and songs never released on the U.S. market; the fourth disc is a live concert held at Wembley Stadium in London on October 16, 1990, and finally, the fifth is a DVD capturing a splendid concert from September 30, 1992, once again held in London, but this time at the Hammersmith Odeon.

Generally, such releases are viewed with suspicion by both fans and "industry insiders," as there is always a fear of facing a commercial operation aimed solely at making money, offering material already known and perfectly available in the group’s various standard discography releases. Fortunately, the box set I want to draw your attention to today does not fall into the category of the aforementioned "scam releases"; in fact, it proves to be a conceptually well-structured product that, in my opinion, traces the history of Megadeth by ideally dividing it into two parallel paths: the first, encompassed in the first three optical discs, showcases the evolution of the band through its studio works, opening with "Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good" from the eponymous debut album and closing with "Of Mice And Men" from "The System Has Failed," thus providing a clear and comprehensive picture of the various phases the band has gone through during more than twenty years of career; the other ideal thread is contained in discs four and five, which reveal the band's live performance side, presented in its most famous (and most loved by fans worldwide) line-up, namely with Nick Menza on drums and Marty Friedman on guitar, alongside David Ellefson on bass and Dave Mustaine, the latter as singer and guitarist. Now, at this point, I would prefer to focus on the second part of this interesting box set, since the first part, except for the unreleased tracks (which are also very valid), contains songs that are well-known to everyone, therefore they do not require my introduction.

With that said, I can begin by saying that the Megadeth portrayed in these two performances on English soil are truly in a state of grace: fast, powerful, technical, and furious as per the best Bay Area tradition; the sounds are clean but not retouched, and the tracks, which follow one after another like punches in a brawl, are sung by a Dave Mustaine who is, as usual, surgical and mocking, supported by a heart-stopping rhythmic and solo section: Menza drums like a madman, while Friedman and Ellefson churn out notes like deranged steamrollers. As for the DVD concert, the video quality is optimal, with a nice front view of the band and well-calibrated cuts that don't cause headaches but make everything more enjoyable and entertaining.

I want to give a special mention to the artwork, truly beautiful and captivating, completed with a booklet rich in photographs and accompanied by a detailed description of the official discography of the American band. In conclusion, I would like to say that we are facing a truly well-crafted product, a box set worth spending your money on! I highly recommend it both to the most devoted fans and to those who are not very familiar with Megadeth, indeed I would dare to recommend it more to the latter so that they can get an idea of the class and power of one of the ensembles that have rightfully entered the history of Heavy Metal.