Year Released: 2016
Genre: Thrash Metal
Availability: YouTube
Similar Artists: Metallica, Death Angel, Testament
Click here to read Part XIV of this review.
I wasn’t a metalhead when Super Collider came out. In fact, I had only gotten into metal the year before Dystopia. When Megadeth announced their fifteenth studio album, I was pretty cynical. I have no clue why I wasn’t as naive as most other young metalheads. I guess I just assumed it would be bad because it was a later album from a popular band and I was under the impression that only the first several albums could be good (my opinions used to be highly influenced by the average scores albums received on the Metal Archives).
It was my birthday (or something like that) and one of my gifts was this album. I was excited nevertheless because who doesn’t like being gifted new music. I didn’t even have to pay, so it didn’t matter if it was good or bad at that point. After spinning it, I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy the album. And I still put in on the player to this day.
Dystopia is a very nice checkpoint in Megadeth’s discography. It has an album cover that is nice to look at, the riffs are all relatively fresh, and the good tracks are pretty evenly spread throughout the album. There are only a couple of tracks that I don’t particularly enjoy, specifically “The Emperor,” “Post-American World,” and “Bullet to the Brain.” I also don’t like the cover, but that’s just because it’s a bad song in general, not because of Megadeth.
To start things off, this album is, like I said, a nice break, especially as Megadeth’s previous album, Super Collider, was pretty awful. The album starts off with technicality that can be traced back to Rust in Peace and riffage that is similar to that on United Abominations. Examples of this technicality are “Poisonous Shadows,” “The Threat Is Real,” and “Fatal Illusion.” “Poisonous Shadows” is an interesting track. Combining orchestral-sounding background noises with thrash metal, it’s actually a pretty good song. The riffs are great, but once the verses start, they become pretty mediocre, causing the vocals to be the driving force. “The Threat Is Real” and “Fatal Illusion” both have great riffs and themes, proving that Megadeth can still do what they’re known for.
Not only have the riffs gotten better, but the lyrics have also improved. The lyrical themes are like that of their 2007 release: politics. This is another aspect of this album that is a plus. The lyrics are well-written. I may not agree with them, but it doesn’t take an idiot to know that these are good lyrics, something that their last several albums lacked. The only lyrical segment I don’t enjoy is the spoken-word outro of “Poisonous Shadows.” Despite the spoken-word, the piano is awesome.
This album is a huge improvement. The solos have emotion and feeling, the instrumental, “Conquer or Die,” is completely badass, and the songwriting is much better. But, of course, like any recent Megadeth album, there are flaws. “The Emperor” is a pretty big one. The riffs and lyrics on this track are pretty lame. I mean, what were they thinking when they wrote these riffs? Sure, they can be okay at times, but it’s way too repetitive for my liking. In total, this song sounds like a lost recording from Cryptic Writings.
“Poisonous Shadows” is a pretty popular song, but I can never get into it. It sounds like something off The System Has Failed with it’s cheesy, melodic chorus and boring, chuggy riffs. Even the background noises are annoying to me, reminding me of the industrial dabblings that seem to be scattered throughout their discography. The lyrics are fine, the structure is okay, but the track as a whole is very disappointing.
Megadeth have made yet another comeback. At this point, I really don’t know what to expect from these guys because their entire discography up to this point has been hit or miss. But, despite some small flaws, Dystopia is definitely a hit.
Overall Rating: 86%
The Metal Void 