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Class 6(66)
Megadeth: Rust in peace
23/07/10 || Habakuk
Introduction
No self-respecting Classics-section can exist without this album in
its roster. Same goes for your CD shelf. If you do not own this album,
go out and buy it. Like, now.
Do not spend your next ten bucks on insurance, beer, bills, hookers or
whatever. These ten bucks are now reserved for “Rust in peace”. No, I’m
not getting royalties. If it had been me who produced this album, I’d
rightfully deserve any cent, though. This is where all striving comes to
an end. A landmark album.
Songwriting
9.5. There is exactly one passage on the whole disc which I would understand being skipped – “Dawn patrol”, which consists only of Dave’s voice over a calm bass line and minimalistic drumming. Personally, I think it’s a genius little song, but this I will be happy to discuss. Which is not the case with any part or song on “Rust in peace”. It doesn’t get boring, there is nothing superfluous or out of place, no irritating solos, no overstretched riffs, everything flows just as it should, everything feels right. We get songs, not collections of riffs. However, I couldn’t put my finger on a specific pattern in song structures, but every single track feels like it’s been written for its own sake and thus brought to perfection. If it needs a chorus, it gets a bad-ass chorus, if not, well, then it doesn’t.
The songs work together, too, as showcased by the first track – which is actually two songs lined up behind each other. If not for the change in lyrical content, one would probably never even notice a rupture.
The whole album walks the line between catchiness and technicality, and masters to bring both together in intelligent, energetic songs. And it doesn’t get much better than this, to be honest.
Production
7. Very clean and transparent production job that suits the musicians’ approach well. A downside is that it’s not exactly a loud album, but we’re dealing with a 1990 disc here, after all. As always, just crank it up. The stringed instruments are nicely adjusted to each other, so you’ll have no trouble making out the awesome bass lines, the solos are crystal clear, and the guitars have a trebly snarl that fits the overall sound perfectly – they just _work _with Mustaine’s vocals. I could understand if someone found them a bit too thin, but personally, I don’t have that problem. With “Killing is my business…”, yes, but on here they sound okay at least. Not the heaviest or crunchiest of sounds, but you’ve just live with that compromise and be happy about getting a clear picture of the riffs instead.
Same goes for the drums, who clearly got the back seat on “Rust in peace”.
They sound good and well-adjusted in themselves, but aren’t exactly in
the foreground. The cymbals blend together a bit too much, double bass
rolls sounds a bit too soft, and the resulting hi-hat/snare focus
reduces the drum sound to an oversized metronome. Still, as negative as
that may sound, the coherent big picture can help redeem possible
negative feelings on Nick Menza’s, or drumming fetishists’ behalf.
Guitars
9. Dave Mustaine and Marty Friedman are double trouble of the finest sort, and you’ve probably read more than enough about ‘em already. Both are skilled, fast and tight as all hell, but manage to keep the thrash sauce flowing nicely instead of wanking for the sake of it. Playing technique serves songwriting, the way it should be. A little triplet galloping here, some nasty shredding there, a frantic solo shaken out of the sleeve, just to be merged with the underlying riff soon afterwards. Even during the basic riffs, no part of the fretboard is safe from the workings of Mr. Mustaine and Mr. Friedman. An abundance of wailing dual guitar harmonics and well-timed riffing accents complete the picture of a fantastic guitar duo. And that’s that.
Vocals
7. It’s no secret that Dave Mustaine can’t sing. All the better if he doesn’t even really try but snarls angrily at the microphone instead, limiting his attempts to realistic goals. There isn’t much feeling in his voice except for spiteful anger. Dave sounds pissed, cynical and tongue-in-cheek, plus he’s backed up by sufficient amounts of backing gang vocals – which is basically everything I ask from a thrash metal vocalist. Still, a good singer he is not, but that’s not what the album asks for anyway.
Bass
9. Thrash is a genre where a bass player has to struggle to make his playing count. Ellefson’s playing on “Rust in peace” (among other albums) is the equivalent to a homerun in that discipline. Despite competing against two omnipresent guitarists, he makes a meaningful appearance, adding a solid grounding as well as finishing touches to the album’s sound. It’s a subtle way of spicing things up, but the album wouldn’t be the same without Ellefson’s full, round bass sound, and that’s not even taking into account the classic all-bass track “Dawn patrol”.
His integral role can be witnessed for example during “Tornado of soul”‘s final build-up (around 4:40) where it is solely due to his chromatically progressing playing that tension builds up gradually, so Dave Mustaine only has to lift his voice briefly for one line (“as I tuck you into bed”) to complete a fantastic climax. That uneasy dissonance during “Hangar 18”‘s intro riff? Owes a lot to the bass holding its position while the guitars move up the fretboard. The punch of the title track? The jumpy groove of “Take no prisoners”? Maintained to a great extent by Ellefson’s support. A flawless, fast and exemplary lesson in bass guitar playing.
Drums
8. Nick Menza’s performance on “Rust in peace” suffers from the aforementioned production issues, but his playing itself is obviously untouched by that and therefore top notch. I think he’s actually a rather hard-hitting drummer, it just doesn’t really show. He manages to keep simple, steady beats interesting, pulls off some quality fills and hi-hat work and supports the rest of the crew with groovy patterns, the odd double bass section – and what’s not to love about a song introduction like the title track’s, or the emulation of the “Polaris” guitar riffs from 4:03 to the end? Rhetorical question, obviously, there is no answer box. Fantastic stuff. This man clearly knew what he was doing and was a great element of the Megadeth metal machine back in 1990.
Lyrics
8.5. Rust in peace has it all, the complete thrash package. Hate for religion, comic books, aliens, war, revenge, witchcraft, lost love, the post-apocalypse and, of course, nuclear war. All that is intelligently crafted, presented in Dave’s trademark cynical fashion and incorporates classic lines like “military intelligence / two words combined that can’t make sense” and “Don’t ask what you can do for your country/ask what your country can do for you”. Definitely worth more than just a sidenote.
Cover art
9. Cover concept: Dave Mustaine. Who’d have thought! This is so
fucken ridiculous yet absolutely metal it’s genius. The icing on a 100%
classic cake. Late Cold War world politicians sitting in a dark hangar
and interestedly watching Vic Rattlehead – who wears a classy suit and
leans on a tube holding a little grey man – wave some sickly glowing
nuclear(?) pyramid around. Talk about a serious political band.
I used to wonder who the depicted German might be – it’s obviously not
Helmut Kohl, who’d be the appropriate counterpart to Bush senior and
Gorbatchov, but Volker fucken Rühe, the German secretary of defense at
the time. Congratulations to Ed Repka for bad & good research at the
same time.
Logo
7. Bam. Old school , sharp-edged, inyourface logo leaving no questions.
Booklet
8. Clean yellow/black nuclear war layout, all the usual info,
colored band and whole page individual member shots: Ellefson looks like
a baby, Mustaine works hard on a Pamela Anderson impersonation, and the
other two go for the puppy dog look with mixed outcomes. Drugged-out
poodle, in Friedman’s case.
The band photo on the other hand is classic and receives a bonus point for Dave’s anti-USSR shirt.
Overall and ending rant
9. Megadeth’s Magnum Opus, a quintessential thrash metal record and among the best things to come out of the Bay Area scene. The guitars are obviously a prominent element of why this album is as good as it is, but if you think Megadeth is just good guitars and nothing else, take a look at the different paragraphs’ length in this here review and you’ll see what my answer is. And in case you’re wondering (everyone’s always wondering about this), yes, I hold this in higher regard than anything Metallica has put out. Dis-a-gree-ers – leave the hall!
Note: Bad research on my behalf, not Ed Repka’s. Volker Rühe didn’t become secretary of defense until ’92. Repka just made someone up. Damn you, Ed.
- Information
- Released: 1990
- Label: Capitol Records
- Website: www.megadeth.com
- Band
- Dave Mustaine: vocals, guitars
- Marty Friedman: guitars
- David Ellefson: bass, backing vocals
- Nick Menza: drums, backing vocals
- Tracklist
- 01. Holy wars… The punishment due
- 02. Hangar 18
- 03. Take no prisoners
- 04. Five magics
- 05. Poison was the cure
- 06. Lucretia
- 07. Tornado of souls
- 08. Dawn patrol
- 09. Rust in peace…Polaris
