Tradecraft
2013
1. Kingmaker
2. Super Collider
3. Burn!
4. Built For War
5. Off The Edge
6. Dance In The Rain
7. The Beginning Of Sorrow
8. The Blackest Crow
9. Forget To Remember
10. Don't Turn Your Back...
11. Cold Sweat (Thin Lizzy cover)
Ah, Megadeth. One of the first bands that got me into metal and still one of my favorites. Their classics have a special place in my collection and more recently the band has re-grabbed my attention with some very good albums like Endgame and The System Has Failed. I go into this one with a slight bit of skepticism though. Th1rt3en was an OK album, but has not really aged well for me and I can't remember the last time I felt the need to listen to it. It's just never the Megadeth album I reach for. Also, I do my absolute best to separate musicians as people and their work, but Mustaine really does make it a challenge. The more he screams his lunacy to the world regarding evolution or where Obama was born the harder I find it to take him, or anything connected with him, seriously. I'll try to push that to the back of my mind and hopefully enjoy some music that reminds me of my metal beginnings.
Well, it's hard to focus on the music when the music is this fucking boring. Listening to this album is just 45 minutes of your life you'll never get back. There's nothing about this album that screams "WTF?!" like say Risk, but I settled into utter apathy by the middle of this album.
Super Collider starts off alright with Kingmaker which at least has a little aggression, but even on that one the vocals are kinda phoned in and it never quite breaks out and shreds. The sad thing though is that this is as ripping as the album gets and the only decent song to make a single on an album full of mediocrity. By the time the second track Super Collider is done I feel a yawn coming on with it's sort of southern rocky/country-ish feel that recalls songs like Have Cool, Will Travel. This wasn't a particularly good idea for the band back in '97 and it's still not now. The Blackest Crow also has a similar feel and is similarly boring. Beyond this a lot of the album is just too mid-paced and trudges on as if the band is on autopilot. I think the only real time songs stand out on here is when they're worse than boring like Built For War which is disjointed and annoying. There's really precious little in terms of shredding guitar or intensity to make any songs or this album stand out and this kind of comes across as a more rock oriented album. Certainly, this is waaaay removed from anything thrash metal.
It is sort of funny that perhaps my biggest gripes going into this release turns out to be a non-factor though. I wasn't big on the idea of David Draiman on a Megadeth album, but if I wasn't told he was on it, I probably would not have noticed. His vocals are just buried backups that neither add nor subtract from the quality and it's pretty much anecdotal that he was involved.
This is just the sort of album by a classic band that nobody gives a fuck about. One of those forgotten releases that just make you shake your head and throw on one of their classic albums to make you remember what you loved about them. It basically adds nothing memorable to their song catalogue, and I'd say this is for serious fans/collectors only.
Highlights: Kingmaker
Rating - 2.0/5
2. Super Collider
3. Burn!
4. Built For War
5. Off The Edge
6. Dance In The Rain
7. The Beginning Of Sorrow
8. The Blackest Crow
9. Forget To Remember
10. Don't Turn Your Back...
11. Cold Sweat (Thin Lizzy cover)
Ah, Megadeth. One of the first bands that got me into metal and still one of my favorites. Their classics have a special place in my collection and more recently the band has re-grabbed my attention with some very good albums like Endgame and The System Has Failed. I go into this one with a slight bit of skepticism though. Th1rt3en was an OK album, but has not really aged well for me and I can't remember the last time I felt the need to listen to it. It's just never the Megadeth album I reach for. Also, I do my absolute best to separate musicians as people and their work, but Mustaine really does make it a challenge. The more he screams his lunacy to the world regarding evolution or where Obama was born the harder I find it to take him, or anything connected with him, seriously. I'll try to push that to the back of my mind and hopefully enjoy some music that reminds me of my metal beginnings.
Well, it's hard to focus on the music when the music is this fucking boring. Listening to this album is just 45 minutes of your life you'll never get back. There's nothing about this album that screams "WTF?!" like say Risk, but I settled into utter apathy by the middle of this album.
Super Collider starts off alright with Kingmaker which at least has a little aggression, but even on that one the vocals are kinda phoned in and it never quite breaks out and shreds. The sad thing though is that this is as ripping as the album gets and the only decent song to make a single on an album full of mediocrity. By the time the second track Super Collider is done I feel a yawn coming on with it's sort of southern rocky/country-ish feel that recalls songs like Have Cool, Will Travel. This wasn't a particularly good idea for the band back in '97 and it's still not now. The Blackest Crow also has a similar feel and is similarly boring. Beyond this a lot of the album is just too mid-paced and trudges on as if the band is on autopilot. I think the only real time songs stand out on here is when they're worse than boring like Built For War which is disjointed and annoying. There's really precious little in terms of shredding guitar or intensity to make any songs or this album stand out and this kind of comes across as a more rock oriented album. Certainly, this is waaaay removed from anything thrash metal.
It is sort of funny that perhaps my biggest gripes going into this release turns out to be a non-factor though. I wasn't big on the idea of David Draiman on a Megadeth album, but if I wasn't told he was on it, I probably would not have noticed. His vocals are just buried backups that neither add nor subtract from the quality and it's pretty much anecdotal that he was involved.
This is just the sort of album by a classic band that nobody gives a fuck about. One of those forgotten releases that just make you shake your head and throw on one of their classic albums to make you remember what you loved about them. It basically adds nothing memorable to their song catalogue, and I'd say this is for serious fans/collectors only.
Highlights: Kingmaker
Rating - 2.0/5
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