Hey folks! I actually did not know about the previous album initially being a Mustaine solo album so that was an interesting read for sure. I did however dive into
United Abominations (2007) this week and I'm here to share my thoughts on it. And again from what I read it seems like Mustaine is sort of making this with a new lineup and trying to 'reboot' the band on a new label, this time Roadrunner. And I actually think this album sounds very much in line with a mid-00's Roadrunner album for good and bad. I was also slightly familiar with this album like I mentioned in my last big post, my experience with it is basically I listened to it 2 or 3 times back in the day (maybe around '08 or '09) and I remember feeling positive enough about it where I didn't dislike it, but I suppose it was one of those things that fell by the wayside in my teenage years as I was branching out into a lot of things.
Sleepwalker was a song I remember being quite positive towards and the intro right away made me go "Oh yeah this riff" and I really like how that clean guitar interlude leads into the chugging riff. I don't know what the general consensus on the song is, but I think it's one of their better opening songs on an album so far. Sure I wouldn't put it above the classics (Holy Wars or Wake Up Dead for example) but I think it does its job very well as the album opener. Some great riffs, a pretty good and memorable chorus and I like the solo section as well. Washington is Next is another fine song with a particular riff that makes me think of a more sped up Wasted Years by Iron Maiden (but I also believe that riff is one of those classic copycat riffs where multiple bands have written something similar). The energy of the song is pretty great though and I do like the more modern sound of the album so far. For the most part on this album I actually feel forgiving about the weaknesses because there's things I like. For example the third song Never Walk Alone... A Call to Arms has a chorus I'm not in love with, but the chugging riffs and the fast paced solo makes me feel positive about it as a whole despite not loving the chorus. It's not bad but it's not amazing.
Gears of War is another song I like a fair bit. It's slower and less energetic than some other songs on here but as soon as that intro riff kicks in I can't help but headbang. The guitar tone is just great in my opinion. Blessed are the Dead provides a nice little breathing moment and I actually really like that rumbling bass that leads you in with just some guitar work on top of it during the verse. Play For Blood is another solid little song just under 4 minutes that has some great riffs in it. Don't have too much to say about it other than that. I guess we now arrive at the hot topic of the album, the remake of A Tout Le Monde, this time a bit more uptempo and featuring Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil. A band I like a lot and I like her as a vocalist, but she feels kinda wasted here unfortunately. I guess Mustaine has a bit of a George Lucas in him of going back and trying to improve upon greatness but without achieving it, whether it's this song or the remastered albums sounding a bit rough. This is a remake of A Tout Le Monde and the song itself is a great one so you can't necessarily go wrong, but it's not as good as the original. For me, this sort of weird 'we took an old song and gave it some makeup and placed it in the middle of our new album' thinking isn't that great. I don't hate this like some others might do, but similar to the Anarchy in the UK being on SFSGSW, this 'remake' kinda takes me out of the album for a bit. I would just rather listen to other Megadeth songs, or Lacuna Coil, and not this.
Getting into the final stretch of the album we got another classic Megadeth splash of politics with Amerikhastan - a song title I'm not really too fond of but I enjoy the song for the most part. You're Dead starts off with some guitars that actually took me back to Holy Wars for a second (although not played as fast) but the song takes a different turn after that. I like this song though, the riff behind the chorus actually reminds me a bit of early Smashing Pumpkins but the solo section definitely picks up pace so you get both a little flavor of alt rock/grunge guitars and thrash in there. Burnt Ice is a song that took me a few spins to warm up to but I like how the song just seems to pick up more and more momentum as it goes and the frantic way in which it finishes. Today I learned this is actually the proper album closer but I listened to this album with the Led Zeppelin cover Out of the Tiles without realizing it was a cover. I know I'm way overdue for a Led Zeppelin discography listen beyond the classics and I might do that in 2023. However, upon learning that, it does make sense. Just from the start this song has a bit of a different vibe and it sounded almost too poppy or positive to be a Megadeth song.
Getting into the final verdict I must say I'm mostly pretty positive towards this one. The one concern I have is that five listens in, I'm not sure how many songs stand out individually aside from Sleepwalker, and I think of this mostly as a great chunk of songs. However maybe upon further revisits I will pick out favorites and go "Yeah this one is really great". When you listen to an album five days in a row, sometimes it's hard to find those individual moments because it all flows together pretty well. I do like the sound of this album and it's probably something that will get me back for future listens. I believe the next album Endgame is more of a fan favorite and maybe this album falls a bit to the wayside but I'm curious how you guys feel about it. Because I could understand people either loving it and having it in their top5 OR being more ambivalent towards it and having it a lot lower. I'm coming out of this with a good feeling for now and I think once I get through all their studio albums I might do a final re-listen of each album once to kinda get a final ranking.
Topic: Megadeth (Read 355210 times)
