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Megadeth: Hidden treasures
06/05/09 || Smalley
I like to think of this little gem as our farewell gift from good Megadeth, as the band would soon become bogged down in a perpetual pattern of inconsistency (and I would say that’s putting it nicely…). It’s a short run-up of the side tracks (you know, the shit for movie soundtracks and such) Megadeth recorded from 1989 to ’95, a damn good time to be a fan of this band, and has a good mixture of original tracks and ‘Deth-ified cover songs, such as…
…“No more mr. nice guy”, which has much less “twang” and much more attitude to its sound than Alice Cooper’s version, and is, I’d argue, better than his. Good way to start the disc off, and the remaining track order on “treasures” does a decent job of mimicking how a real album would flow, rather than sounding like some cobbled-together cash-grab. Anyway, then there’s “Breakpoint”, which is kind of a half-thrasher, but a fun one nonetheless (and the best thing to come out of the Super Mario Bros. movie), then “Go to hell”, with its rather silly lyrics and vocals, and run time that wears out its welcome, has to be my least favorite track on “treasures”. The overly-poppy “Angry again” isn’t much of an improvement on that, but fortunately, “99 ways to die” is flat-out awesome, the best track here, and is perhaps the heaviest song Megadeth has recorded post-“Rust in peace”. Kick-ass. Finally, the cover of Sabbath’s “Paranoid” is much more energetic and thrash-y than the original (listen closely at the end for some lols), “Diadems” is a uniquely eerie slow-burner of a track, and the Sex Pistols cover “Problems” is a load of fun, and meshes very, very well with Megadeth’s sound, Mustaine’s vocal style in particular. Nice note to close this compilation out on, and better than ‘Deth’s cover of “Anarchy in the U.K.”, methinks…
So, with “Hidden treasures”, you get a satisfying number of Megadeth rarities, plenty of variety within the song-writing, a decent snapshot of the band’s glory days, and it’s also cheap as hell now that it’s out of print (so go get yer ass over to Amazon). Besides “99 ways to die”, there’s really nothing here that I’d describe as being better than “good”, but this record is still a good catch; I know Megadeth fans will eat it right up, and perhaps pine for the old days as they do so.
8 moderately-rattled heads out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 1995
- Label: Capitol Records
- Website: www.megadeth.com
- Megadeth
- Dave Mustaine: guitars, vocals
- Marty Friedman: guitars
- Nick Menza: drums
- David Ellefson: bass
- Tracklist
- 01. No More Mr. Nice Guy
- 02. Breakpoint
- 03. Go To Hell
- 04. Angry Again
- 05. 99 Ways to Die
- 06. Paranoid
- 07. Diadems
- 08. Problems
