CD Reviews

Megadeth

United Abominations | Roadrunner

By MIKAEL WOOD | May 18, 2007

3.0 Stars

ABOMINATE YOURSELF: The new Megadeth album captures Dave Mustaine (left) in a particularly pissed-off mood.

Given that it has a new line-up, comes only a few years after a serious injury to frontman Dave Mustaine’s left arm, and features one tune named after an Xbox game, you’d be firmly within the bounds of reason to expect the new Megadeth album to sound like a watered-down version of the classic thrash-metal band Mustaine has led since he was kicked out of Metallica almost a quarter-century ago. Yet United Abominations is actually Megadeth’s least diluted work in years. It overflows with Mustaine’s patented guitar theatrics, which despite their familiarity still amaze in “Sleepwalker” — where he lays classically inspired curlicues over his young bandmates’ speedy chug — and in “Gears of War,” which almost redeems its video-game link with loads of laser-gun riff action. The album also captures Mustaine in a particularly pissed-off mood: the title track is a no-holds-barred takedown of the United Nations (an organization he recently described to Revolver as “totally ineffective”), and in “Amerikhastan,” the singer tells “Jihad Joe” that “we’re coming to get you.” Mustaine’s politics can tend toward the simplistic, but his playing doesn’t.

Megadeth + Machine Head + Heaven And Hell | Tsongas Arena, 300 Arcand Avenue, Lowell | May 17 | 617.931.2000

The Big Hurt: Crashing Pumpkins
I recently had the "was that real, or did I dream that?" feeling about the upcoming Spider-Man musical featuring songs by U2, and I happily concluded that it was a dream.
Why there won't ever be another 'Big Four' - and why that's a good thing
In April, thrash metal's self-billed "Big Four" — Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax — played a one-off American show in the middle of the desert in Indio, California.
Dave Mustaine's righteous path
Now sober, the ginger frontman is not only sharing a bill with Metallica, but the stage in an end-of-the-night jam to celebrate the Big Four, along with Slayer and Anthrax, and commemorating 30 years of pioneering thrash by playing select gigs around the world, including New York's Yankee Stadium next month.
Megadeth | Th1rt3en
While Metallica is in Lulu-land, in the doghouse of fans and critics alike, sometime-nemesis Megadeth stay the metal course with another solid release served without the pretense of musical evolution or artsy growth.
Photos: Megadeth + Motorhead at the Tsongas Arena
Megadeth and Motorhead perform live at the Tsongas Arena on January 29, 2012.
And it Stones me
Hey, someone’s got to keep the flame alive.
Evil incarnate
Metal reveres above all the single mind, undivided by doubt or the gentle dialectics of sanity.
Print the legend
This exhibit offers an eye-popping, floor-to-ceiling survey of practically every poster produced to advertise under-the-radar Providence shenanigans from 1995 to 2005. Slideshow: Images from Wunderground
Grandma's Boy
Another warm turd from Adam Sandler’s production company, this stoner vehicle directed by Nicholaus Goosen follows Alex (co-producer/screenwriter Allen Covert) as the 35-year-old video-game tester gets evicted and ends up living with his sweet Grandma Lilly (Doris Roberts) and her two friends (Shirley Jones and Shirley Knight).
Crossword: ''Game theory''
I think I see a little pattern
Crossword: ''A greet addition''
Don't just say hello
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