Dave Mustaine and co read the world a riot act once more. Words: Dave Ling.
MEGADETH
ENDGAME
ROADRUNNER

Dave Mustaine believes that Endgame is the best Megadeth album since the classic Rust In Peace in 1990 – a lofty boast considering that the former Metallica guitarist/singer went on to issue seven others during the ensuing 19 years, but it’s a claim that’s not entirely without foundation.

Endgame certainly pisses on the execrable Risk (1999) and easily outstrips the so-so The World Needs A Hero (2001) and The System Has Failed (2004), and although ex-Nevermore/Jag Panzer guitarist Chris Broderick replaced Glen Drover during the campaign for their last release, 2007’s United Abominations – a strong album that grew and grew – this one compares extremely favourably with its predecessor.

But, at the peril of inciting Dave Mustaine’s legendary wrath, Endgame is not a better record than 1992’s Countdown To Extinction. And when it comes to parallels with the huge-selling Youthanasia (1994), only time and increased familiarity will tell. However, one thing is crystal clear; Endgame will not only maintain the arc of popularity generated by United Abominations but send it crashing through the roof.

With most of the players retained, and Machine Head/Arch Enemy/Kreator producer Andy Sneap once again co-manning the console with Dave Mustaine, it would be hard to slide a metaphorical fag paper between the politically charged sonic assault of United Abominations and this latest masterwork.

Well-honed after a long burst of touring, the Mustaine-Broderick riff partnership comes up trumps from the off with the album’s two-minute opener – a shred-tastic instrumental called Dialectic Chaos that sees the pair indulging in scorching, lava-hot six-string exchanges. Thankfully, this pivotal relationship is a fundamental feature of the album.

Most Megadeth fans will already have downloaded the excellent Head Crusher by now, and they’ll be surprised to know that it is not the record’s strongest song. That honour goes to its title track, which begins with an announcement of: ‘Attention! Attention! All citizens report to your district detention centres!’ and Dave’s dramatic proclamation of: ‘I woke up in a black FEMA box/Darkness was all around me, in my coffin.’ Based not upon some futuristic sci-fi movie but real-life legislation passed by the last US president that strips victims of their civil rights, this one is classic Megadeth, right down to its juddering thrash framework and Dave and Chris’s sabre-like guitar slashes. So the mellow, string-enhanced strains of The Hardest Part of Letting Go… Sealed With A Kiss, which concerns a bloke who entombs his lover behind a brick wall so that nobody else can have her, represents a sharp but cool left-hand turn.

Ultimately, there is so much to enjoy here, from This Day We Fight! – which in tandem with sister track Dialectic Chaos must open Megadeth’s live set for the next bout of touring – to the light relief of 1,320, an ode to Dave’s love of drag car racing. If the sheer clinical ease with which Endgame is despatched suggests that Dave can now make records like this in his sleep, then let us give thanks for the fact that he has done so once more – and delivered in fine, time-honoured style. [9]

DAVE LING