Megadeth
Th1rt3en
Release Date: Nov 1, 2011
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Heavy Metal
Record label: Roadrunner Records
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Album Review: Th1rt3en by Megadeth
Very Good, Based on 8 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
One of metal's most controversial figures for the best part of three decades, Megadeth founder Dave Mustaine may have found God, become a bestselling author and mended a fractured relationship with his former Metallica colleagues in recent times, but his music has lost none of its intensity, passion or rage. Th1rt3en is the followup to 2009's widely lauded Endgame and again showcases the flame-haired firebrand's ability to pen smart, succinct and thrillingly powerful metal anthems that strike a sublime balance between dazzling technicality and good, old-fashioned, catchy-as-hell songwriting. Closest in sound and spirit to their 1992 US chart-topper Countdown to Extinction, Th1rt3en veers from the razor-sharp hooks of Public Enemy Number 1 and Black Swan to the pomp of New World Order and the brooding menace of the closing title track; an all-killer, no-filler feast of state-of-the-art metal that exudes haughty disdain for the competition.
Based on rating 7/10
Amidst the resurgences of Metallica and Anthrax and the genesis of an entire new wave of thrash metal around the world, Megadeth has been consistently and quietly releasing solid albums for the past ten years. The problem has been that the group’s new albums end up being outshined by other new albums, from either their peers (in the case of 2009’s Endgame, it was passed over by critics in favor of Slayer’s World Painted Blood) or newer, more vibrant metal bands with large followings (such as 2004’s The System Has Failed being outclassed by Mastodon’s Leviathan). It’s likely not what Dave Mustaine envisioned for the band’s return from hiatus in 2004 and subsequent signing with Roadrunner Records in 2006.
Based on rating 7/10
Megadeth's 13th studio album, and first since 2001’s The World Needs a Hero to utilize the talents of bassist/founding member Dave Ellefson, was produced by Johnny K (Staind, Disturbed) and features a combination of newly composed tracks, along with older cuts written years ago but never put to tape. Darker, heavier, and more immediate than 2009's Endgame, Dave Mustaine's snarling vocals ride higher in the mix this time around, but fans need not fear, as his fleet fingers are still possessed with the power to conjure the dead. Much of the aptly named Th1rt3en feels vintage, from the familiar political themes on “We the People” and the tightly wound, Dio-esque riffing on “Public Enemy No.
Based on rating 7/10
Unlucky for some. . .
Based on rating 3.3/5
Review Summary: Megadeth keeps rolling along with a strong, albeit less triumphant, thirteenth record.As far as 80s thrash metal bands go, Megadeth has undoubtedly aged the best. That's a dubious honour to be sure, considering how poor many of their contemporaries have been as of late, but it's fairly notable that Megadeth is still able to put out a record that can stand out amongst their more celebrated works. While it's true that the path that lead them to Th1rt3en may have been marked by questionable decision making, Mustaine and co.
Based on rating 3/5
MEGADETH play General Motors Centre in Oshawa February 7 (see listing) and Copps Coliseum in Hamilton February 8 (see listing). Rating: NNN Listening to Megadeth's 13th album, it's difficult not to consider Lulu, the collaborative concept album Metallica and Lou Reed released at the end of October. Compared to that universally panned disaster, Thirteen suggests that Megadeth's defiant leader, Dave Mustaine, has finally come out on top after a bitter, decades-long rivalry with Metallica, who fired him as their guitarist in 1983.
Based on rating C+
Back during this year’s less than functional Mayhem Festival, fliers everywhere dropped the bomb that some fresh Megadeth material would be arriving mid-October, following up the success of 2009’s brutally thematic Endgame. Recorded in a matter of weeks, TH1RT3EN represents either youthful exuberance in a second wind for Dave Mustaine and returning bassist Dave Ellefson, or else something of a passion project by all involved. Unlike the majority of the Megadeth canon, this new album lacks a definitive central theme or political tableau.
Opinion: Very Good
Self-proclaimed ‘state of the art speed metal band’ releases stately new LP. Ian Winwood 2011 Last year Megadeth bandleader Dave Mustaine published a ghost-written autobiography that was so "unputdownable" that were it available in a laminated edition readers would have taken it into the shower. For a man whose defiant sneer is known to metal fans the world over – despite a particularly chequered recording history, the group’s previous album, 2009’s Endgame, entered the US Billboard charts in the top 10 – the songwriter came across as being a sensitive and at times even vulnerable character.
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