Liste des groupes Heavy Thrash Megadeth Back to the Start - Greatest Hits

As soon as I was exposed to the world of heavy metal, I learned about "that other band" that surpassed Metallica in every way possible and impossible in this world. I've been apart of several flame-wars regarding the competency of Metallica and the place of "this other band" in regards to the Four Horsemen. After some time, I got sick of fighting and decided to give "that other band" a chance to see if they were good at all.

That other band was Megadeth.

This was the first piece from the band that I had gotten, though I knew more or less about Dave Mustaine, his "contributions" to Metallica and what he and Megadeth stood for, before acquiring the CD. It was late at night, and I wanted some new music: Metallica was taking forever touring and the two years since Death Magnetic came out were too much for me, so I decided to give Megadeth a second chance. Thought I, "Buy a compilation album. You can't miss with Greatest Hits."

Which brings me to this: the Megadeth compilation album whose artwork I had engraved in my memory since the time before my introduction to the world of music.

As I suspected, a good deal of the songs were in the usual tenor of Megadeth: that is, complaining about the government from a left-wing standpoint. I don't get involved in politics, since its just used by humans as another outlet to vent their hatred (as is elitism here in the metal scene), so obviously this got annoying after a while. But, fortunately, there were enough tracks not about the government on this album to make up for it. And even "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due", "Symphony of Destruction" and "Hangar 18" (which I see no similarity between it and "Call of Ktulu) grew on me eventually.

Since SOM doesn't allow "track-by-track" reviews anymore, I'll just go through my favorite tracks on this album. "Peace Sells" is the most politically neutral track of Dave's "political" work in Megadeth, and as such was catchy as hell (even though it was the theme song for the hated MTV...but Megadeth didn't sell out because of it, apparently). "Sweating Bullets" is one of my favorites, especially Dave's guitar solo, which I hope to learn (along with "Eruption"). "Angry Again" is a good track, as is "À Tout Le Monde", the latter showing that Dave Mustaine is also a skilled musician who can play shreddingly fast and deftly slow.

Now here we come to the most-debated song in thrash-metal history: "The Mechanix." It's a Metallica song written by Dave Mustaine...there, I said it. It first appeared in 1982 on a demo-album of Metallica, therefore it has appeared first in the world on electronic medium as a song credited to the band Metallica, therefore making it a Metallica song. When the band split, Metallica remade it into "The Four Horsemen", and Dave took the original and sped it up. Megadeth's version is obviously faster, though not as heavy as "The Four Horsemen", and I enjoy it just as much as I enjoy Metallica's version.

Most of the other tracks didn't really stand out for me, except for "In My Darkest Hour", Dave's tribute to deceased former band mate Cliff Burton. It's a nice, dark song and doesn't sound artificial or purposefully sped up, as if it could stand on its own and be strong enough without the rest of "So Far So Good...So What?"

The last track, however, was one of my favorites off this album. It wasn't until later that I found out it was from "Risk", the "St. Anger" of Megadeth's discography. But allow me to be open-minded with Megadeth as well and say that this song...fucking rules! The intro is weird, standing out from the other speedy tracks of the album, Dave's voice really sets the scene for the darkness and evil to come, and its one of the heavier songs by Megadeth: not to mention Marty and Dave's solos are some of my favorites.

I know, the back-and-forth comparisons of Megadeth and Metallica will anger many, most of whom feel Metallica is inferior to Megadeth. However, even among those who feel that Metallica is inferior, they need the Four Horsemen to compare Megadeth to, and therefore they do a greater disservice to Megadeth by doing so. The band is good enough without being compared, and from what I've heard you say about both bands in the comparing, its as if Megadeth wouldn't be as "good" for you if there wasn't "that other band called Metallica" to compare it to.

Needless to say, some comparison is inevitable. The history and future of these two amazing bands are forever tied. Truth be told, its a good thing Dave Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica, because now we have two, amazing metal bands with hours upon hours of amazing music to head-bang to!

Veteran fans of 'Deth should get the album, mostly just for the hell of it, so they can have a "greatest hits mix" they can pop in and listen to when they just want their favorites. New fans should also get it, because its a testament to the amazing skill of one of the Big Four of Thrash Metal; how Megadeth excels through good times and bad.