I wouldn't call myself a Megadeth fan. I enjoy the music, and respect the hell out of the various incarnations under Dave Mustaine's direction. The thing is I'm not really a Thrash Metal fan. I don't mind it, and respect it, but it's not really my thing. That doesn't mean I don't like certain albums, and I'm not even talking about the commercial stuff.
I've had So Far, So Good... So What! in the CD player for about a month or so now. The idea is to Give the album a good relisten, both on it's own and in mix. It's been interesting the various experiences I've had with this album. One thing I did truly discover is that this album doesn't go into the player very often.
The experiences that help drive this review are in no particular order, as each happened at different times when sitting about the house. Some were on jam nights, and all are with fellow musicians, and family.
Let me start with this album always had a bad rap that I didn't understand. I was talking with Drew one day about it when he had remarked "I didn't know you owned this album." I own all Megadeth albums up until Cryptic Writings, and this one has most likely gotten the third highest numbers of replays. Drew basically summed it up as nothing more than suffering from being the follow up album to Peace Sells. I think that's a good way to explain it as well.
I don't remember when or where I got this album. I know it was a used copy, and for some reason I want to say I bought it off some one I was hanging out with back around 1995, or so. I wasn't as much of a fan of the album then as I am now. It was a good background album witha few decent tracks. While I still think that is sort of right, I pay more attention to the album now then I did then.
The album opens with Into The Lungs Of Hell, which has what I would call a very Patriotic American opening. From there it moves into this wild guitar solo, that pretty much makes up the rest of the song. I think it takes some major major brass balls to open an album with an instrumental, especially out side of the 1960's and have it be a full length track. All that being said what a great way to open the album. It's a great track, with some amazing guitar playing. Although, it is a bit cliche in retrospect, at the time it was a top notch effort to be applauded.
After the openning track Set The World Afire seems so boring. This is a very basic Megadeth track. The overall vibe and sound is very stock for Mustaine. You can find this format as early as Killing Is My Business.
Anarchy In The U.K. is where one of the other stories related to other people comes into play. When this came on the stereo my daughter, with a slightly confused expression on here face, pipes up with "Is this the Sex Pistols." I would have smacked her (not really) until I thought about it for a moment and came to the conclusion I failed Ashlee as a parent. She doesn't really know Megadeth at all, and that is entirely my fault. She knows the Pistols well enough to know it didn't sound right, but not who was actually doing this version. As for the song itself, it's a decent enough cover. Let's face it, you'd really have to try to fuck up this song. I can also forgive the goofy song lyric changes. I get it, I've done it while performing this song live as well.
Mary Jane is one of those songs I like much more now then I did when I first bought this album. At first I took the song at face value, and said yep, it's another song about pot. Then I started really listening, and paying attention to the lyrics. "Forgive me father for I have sinned / I'm a child of air, I'm a witch of the wind / And I'm still wide awake... Mary Jane / From the earth, up through the trees / I can hear her calling me / Her voice rides on the breeze / Oh, it's haunting me / No, I can't get away / No, there's no escape / If I know I'm going crazy / I must not be insane / Beware my friends, as you pass by / As you are now so once was I / As I'm now so you must be / Prepare my friends to follow me / Forgive me father for I have sinned / I'm a child of air, I'm a witch of the wind / Fingers gripped around my brain / No control my mind is lame / I'm in the astral plane, and I'll never be the same / Never, never, never, never, never, never / Never, never, never / Beware my friends, as you pass by / As you are now so once was I / As I'm now so you must be / Prepare my friends to follow me / It hurts so bad I can't breathe / Prepare to follow me". That mixed with the music, and how the song starts off haunting and quickly turns to a paranoid freak out I would take the song as more of a super natural spiritual experience than an escape with Mary Jane. Either that or Mustaine is a pussy about his marijuana usage.
I really enjoy the vibe and production effors of 502, but other than that it's Dave and his band playing really fast in a song about going really fast, sort of. Not a song I would go out of my way to listen to, but I do enjoy it in the mix.
The only song I really remember anyone talking about over the years on this album is In My Darkest Hour. Mainly because it was inspired/influenced/mused by the passing of Cliff Burton. It's a great song all the same, but I sometimes think it was more hype than content. All that being said I like this song for a few key elements. First off it has a true riff that stands out. It's nothing complex, but it doesn't need to be. This song isn't about being complex, it's about dealing and coping. This song also is the perfect mix of what had already been done in Megadeth, and what was still to come. You can hear bits of Rust In Peace as well as Symphony Of Destruction through out the entire songs.
Liar is a track ahead of its time, but that doesn't make it a saving grace. It would have been an album filler on Symphony Of Destruction, but fit in perfectly. On this album it's still a bit of a filler, but one a few years ahead of it's time. I also enjoy this in the mix as well. My only real complaint about this song is how the solo pretty much sounds like it's just thrown in there and has nothing to do with the song.
Then there's an abrupt cut to Hook In Mouth to finish up the album. It is a good and solid end to the album, but while the last two songs showed where the band was going this song takes them back. This is yet another track that sounds more like it should be on Killing Is My Business than it should be on Mustaine's third album.
The album was produced by Dave Mustaine and Paul Lani. I really think they should have found someone proper. This album really suffers because of the production, and the fact that no one was there to really tell Dave that he needs to work more on ironing out certain tracks. Yes, Mustaine can play guitar, and shred with the best of them, but who cares when it just sounds thrown together. You can tell every solo that was punched in, hear so many different cuts and splices, and there is no uniformity. This has all the sounds of an overly produced demo, instead of a well produced studio album.
And yet this is still the third most played Megadeth album in the house over the last decade. Go figure. I think I should revisit some other albums, and possibly correct that issue.
6/10 - content
4/10 - production
8/10 - personal bias
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