Metal Underground

X-FrEaK Escreveu:a Gears of War ta mt boa

Cyberquake Escreveu:Tou a ouvir... tou a ouvir.

This album really sounds like leftovers from TSHF and it shows with how pedantic the riffs are in this record. The so called 'thrash' elements are in the first two songs of the album, then it goes into the same old midpace CTE-Youth Megadeth mode except that era has memorable riffs and the vocal hooks and lyrics were high quality.

The solos are abundant but they don't have cohesion with the songs, it doesn't have any punch - just a test of speed and scales. Drover is behind Jeff Young as the least memorable Megadeth lead guitar player that Dave has hired. He makes Al Pitrelli look real good since Al can definitely contruct a solo that's not as technically proficient, but has more feel and phrasing. Dave's lead playing is schizophrenic in a bad way - he goes into 'holy wars' mode in the last track which would have worked if there is a great rhythm attached to the song. Even the short solo in Washington is Next from Dave borders on 'sloppiness' that I can't believe that a guy as known as he is for being a control freak in the studio allowed that to be in his record.

The lyrics were simply third rate and because of that, the vocal hooks suffered from it. Amerikhastan and United Abominations would have worked if the lyrical structure were less obvious. Dave just tries too hard to go back into preaching about Politics when he should have concentrated more on how the lyrics will fit into the song. It really sounds awkward and tired coming from a man who was a great lyricist at one time in his career.

On the positive side, production is good which is typical of Sneap and there are songs that have more going for it even with the problems I mentioned above. United Abominations has some good tempo and structure, along with well placed solos and a chorus that would have been real good except when he crams the title song there like a third nipple at the end. Never Walk Alone is just ear candy that could have been placed on Cryptic Writings and Play for Blood has that groove going even though the solos were head scratching.

If I were a guy who gives ratings though I don't believe that you can put a subjective area as 'art' in a numerical basis IMO, I'd give this album a 2.5/10. Bottomline: the big 4 should retire from making albums and just concentrate performing live since they don't have anything significant/good to offer.