The essential magic that occurred when Marty Friedman joined the band was seemingly fully exhausted, leaving songs that feel aimless especially when compared to the fiery records at the beginning of this period of the band’s life.Ĭountdown was a gamble, but each record after was a step down in quality as the band struggled to capture that essential fire that makes great rock and roll work, and by this point it seemed like nothing was left. The issue was that the riffs seemed by this point to have wholly disappeared. The reason isn’t just a switch to rock over more overt metal Metallica’s “Black Album” and Megadeth’s Countdown to Extinction each showed that thrash bands could make that transition and still produce thrilling, essential material. Symphony of Dissection: For years, Risk was considered not only the worst Megadeth album but also the worst album of the Big Four. Fans felt they had been promised a heavier direction with Th1rt3en and then faced the same digression as they had in the 1990s with Countdown to Extinction - but with much less promising results. It seems like what really upset people was the band’s heading in a commercial direction again as they had done once before in their career. Releasing material as long as Megadeth had been by this point, it’s difficult not to repeat yourself or go off in strange directions and many criticized the album as a rehash of their previous material. The title track “Supercollider” that comes up next certainly doesn’t help matters with its oddly ’70s rock influenced chorus. However, the LP then meanders into a mid-tempo mess of thrash metal tropes played way too slowly, and this happens before “Kingmaker” even ends. The album starts off promising (although a bit like a Judas Priest album rather than Megadeth) with the blistering intro guitar riff to “Kingmaker”. Symphony of Dissection (Analysis): Super Collider feels like a band that normally has a very strong identity suddenly struggling to find itself. This persistence and artistic work ethic defines Megadeth, who’ve released 16 albums over their career, including their most recent effort, 2022’s The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead! While it wasn’t an easy task, Heavy Consequence took on the challenge of ranking the band’s colossal discography, retracing the career of the thrash metal legends. In 2019, Mustaine was diagnosed with throat cancer, but after completing treatments, he was back on the road and ready to record new music soon after.

While the trajectory of each band’s career share parallels, Mustaine turned Megadeth into a monolithic heavy metal institution and brand independent of his old band. The change drew ire from longtime fans who’d grown accustomed to Megadeth’s more extreme speed metal, especially compared to the commercial shift made by the band’s inevitable rivals Metallica. Never content with stagnating, Mustaine would again shift the band toward a more alternative radio-friendly sound in the late ’90s. From their early years in the mid ’80s playing fiery thrash, the band moved to progressive metal epics with the help of lead shredder Marty Friedman, writing some of the most iconic heavy metal songs of all-time.

Megadeth album flow