Megadeth - TH1RT3EN

New Music Tuesday is in full effect today with a little Halloween style album that dropped today. Megadeth is one of my favorite metal bands of all time, and they put out the 'Thirteen' release today. For the future discussion of the album, I'm not going to spell it out with the clever numbers for letters scheme, because it takes too long and it kind of loses its fun. Anyhow, my first thought this morning was the film 'Thirteen Ghosts' could have played into this somehow, or that the movie will be upset that it sucked, and that this album wasn't out to promote the movie back in 2001 or whatever it was. Perhaps what's more obvious than that convoluted nonsense is that it very well might be their thirteenth album. Guess which one is the case? I'll let you decide. This album has been talked about for a couple years now. I recall reading about Mustaine talking new music in early 2010. This album is supposed to be amazing. I mean, every artist says their next album is going to be phenomenal, but they were hyping this one up pretty good. I think the plan was to somehow go back to the old school Megadeth 'Countdown to Extinction' feel, but also make that modern. I'm not sure this feels a whole lot different from the older Megadeth records, but hey - that's a good thing. There are some crazy stories about odd events that happened during production, and how it could relate to the old unlucky '13', but I don't really care enough to talk about it. I think this album rocks pretty gosh darn hard. It's 13 tracks of pure metal in the way that only Dave Mustaine can spit it. It's hard to imagine a metal fan not falling in love with this, and it's not like Megadeth is dropping albums every year to feed the fans fix. So for me, this one is a home run. If I'm in the mood for metal these next few months, this one is going straight in the player.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Sudden Death
2. Public Enemy No. 1
3. Whose Life (Is It Anyways?)
4. We the People
5. Guns, Drugs & Money
6. Never Dead
7. New World Order
8. Fast Lane
9. Black Swan
10. Wrecker
11. Millennium of the Blind
12. Deadly Nightshade
13. 13

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. Sudden Death
2. 13
3. Public Enemy No. 1

FINAL RATING:
3.75 out of 5 stars

Megadeth - Countdown To Extinction

Boom goes the metal dynamite! Mustaine and company have been one of my metal favorites for over a decade now. I love his voice and the lyrics and guitar work on all of their records is always beyond solid. Even if you're not a huge metal fan, I think you can listen to a few tracks and be really surprised by how you're captivated by the music. Some tracks get a little 'talky', meaning there are too many words instead of just block rockin beats and major guitar riffs. No question he has a ton of talent on the axe, but the lyrics can be preachy sometimes. I guess it might depend on the mood you're in too. All in all, you have to respect these guys as foreman of metal nowadays. They've stayed true to form and Mustaine has showed he can generate really good music after leaving Metallica. These fellas keep putting out new stuff from time to time, but I honestly haven't heard anything remotely recently from them. I keep playing the old stuff just because hey, it's really good. Check 'em out!

TRACK LISTING:
1. Skin O' My Teeth
2. Symphony of Destruction
3. Architecture of Aggression
4. Foreclosure of a Dream
5. Sweating Bullets
6. This Was My Life
7. Countdown to Extinction
8. High Speed Dirt
9. Psychotron
10. Captive Honour
11. Ashes in Your Mouth
12. Crown of Worms
13. Countdown to Extinction (Demo)
14. Symphony of Destruction (Demo)
15. Psychotron (Demo)

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. Symphony Of Destruction
2. Sweating Bullets
3. Foreclosure Of A Dream

FINAL RATING:
3 out of 5 stars