Megadeth - Megadeth ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

JANUARY 2026 

HEAVY METAL / MELODIC THRASH METAL

FOR FANS OF: DEATH ANGEL, EVILE, ARTILLERY

        THRASH-O-METER        

★★★★★★★☆☆☆ SONGWRITING

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ LONGEVITY

★★★★★★★☆☆☆ THEMES

★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆ PRODUCTION

★★★★★★★☆☆☆ MUSICIANSHIP

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ CHARACTER

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ THRASHABILITY

Reviewing sh!t from a band in your "top 5 metal bands ever" list is equally thrilling as it is intense - and add into that the fact that this will be their last one... let's just say its been an interesting few days. First, lets get the bad news out of the way and something that really fncked with me:

This album sounds like sh!t

Megadeth's self-titled and last studio album is an engineering marvel for the kids of today: its been sandpapered so much that you can blast this from your trusty little Bluetooth speaker or even have it blaring from the smartphone and it still sounds like something.

In their pursuit of clarity and precision, every sound track (the separately recorded guitars, drums, bass, vocals, etc) feel sterilised of overlap of frequencies and executed like a machine - killing the soul of the album. There is no room for the instruments to breathe let alone find a way to come together naturally.

This all adds up to a disconnect which stresses the fact that yeah, albums are (duh) recorded in bits and pieces, separately, engineered thousandfold and polished with an undue hunger. Something inevitably creeps to mind listening this vision here:

This is exactly the sound of metal built by AI in the immediate future.

Clinical, unenthusiastic and spiritless. Thats about sums it up when I think about the playing here. Really difficult album to get excited with.

Megadeth from the left: James LoMenzo, Dirk Verbeuren, Dave Mustaine and Teemu Mäntysaari

That being said: its not like I was unprepared, what with where Dystopia ventured into: smothered to a sound flatness that couldn't excite even the likes of Chris Farley who was born excitable - Lucifer rest his beautiful fat ass!

The listeners today, eh?

Tipping Point, I Don't Care, Let There Be Shred and Puppet Parade flew past me as singles as I wanted to wait and walk the whole journey.

Surprisingly all these tracks are crammed into the album’s opening stretch, which makes it feel crowded and ends up wasting some of the songs’ potential. The singles are melodic and fast, offering both shreddage and assertive snap back to form.

Its I Don't Care which kind of jumps from the bunch with its almost The Offspringesque merry stomp and Dave's "you gotta know" chanting - I was rather surprised to find a damned grin on my face. Interestingly there was a clean error in the sound squelching around 0:57-1:02 which was... surprising, to say the least, to leave a blaring issue like that into such a soundwise obsessed an album.

Taking a step back and looking at how they've arranged the songs on this thing its clear that there's no great master plan with the traditional ups and downs - its simply to accommodate how people nowadays listen to music. Albums are fast becoming a thing of the past and those that come out need to be top-heavy due to our diminished attention spans.

Gotta hook 'em, you just gotta! - Spotify execs

It's an Megadeth album!

Interestingly tucked among the singles is Hey God?!, and it will inevitably rub some people the wrong way for obvious reasons - which I think is superbly amusing because its good damn song. Its less about religion than it is about growing old and realising there's no one of the old gang around left to talk to. Felt a heap more personal an outing than the usual rants about the societal injustices and war that we've come to expect. Other songs cut pretty close to sh!t Dave's gone through too so there's that at play.

Another Bad Day in many ways feels like the first proper Megadeth song with its strutting wickedness that they had going on back in the Hidden Treasures era - especially with kick-ass songs like Go to Hell and Angry Again. It’s hugely melodic and pushes Dave’s snarl to the front. The next one up Made To Kill immediately brings 'The System Has Failed' album to mind with its thundering and more thrashing momentum.

Storywise, though, the album's start of “let me spell out how badass I am” routine lands kinda funny - because if you have to announce it, well... I have some news for you...

The end of a long journey... ?

Honestly, I kinda expected a bigger vibe of a farewell as Megadave has had these kinds of songs, "goodbyes" and "tatas", here and there before. This was supposed to be the proper "so long, and thanks for all the fish" moment. You definitely can't say this is a concept album, nor felt like a grand farewell of any kind.

While in many ways the album lacks cohesion it also brings to mind Countdown to Extinction, Youthanasia and Cryptic Writings era - to most Megadeth's golden period. Gone is the speed and tightness of the past few albums. Comparing this to their previous few albums it feels extremely straightforward - kind of the polar opposite to 'The Sick, The Dying... and the Dead!' which was really way out there with some of the stuff going on.

Regardless, if this is indeed it for Megadeth in the studio, Teemu’s acoustic shenanigans do a nice job of ushering our snarling uncle Dave toward a well-earned rest. The Last Note is a pure Megadeth-of-the-late-90s experience. I absolutely also get all the reasons why Dave wanted to end the album with 'Ride the Lightning', but I don't think it adds anything to the mix. Its a spiritless rendition of the song.

Megadeth's eponymous epitaph of an album is alright. Alright like Dystopia (which was very alright, alright?), and a fnckton more alright than Super Collider, or Th1rt3en - even though the latter has 'Sudden Death' and 'Public Enemy No. 1' which were seriously motherfncking alright... breaking into aight! territory, even. The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead! ... it was alright (for a fan of Megadave).

No vinyl tonite, I guess!

The (personal) last notes

But the sound... well, hells! I'm proud to be the old man yelling at the clouds because of how the album sounds and how its put together...

because fnck those clouds

I'm still listening the hell outta this one!

What I’ve always loved about Megadeth is that even at their worst, you can’t deny Megadave’s songwriting proclivities. Even with sh!t like the 'Risk' album there are moments where the welcome stain of 'deth is undeniable. Or in the weirdness of 'The Sick, The Dead... And The Dying!'

You might not always be on board with what ends up on tape, but there’s an instinct there that separates song makers from music players.

Even Dylan, Lennon, Bowie, Dio, Ozzy and the likes experimented and pushed boundaries - and often for the better. For me Dave is up there right next to the other great ones; the man has written an absurd amount amazing songs and albums.

Megadeth's heritage to metal music is undeniable and there are plenty of reasons theirs is a name recognized everywhere - and it’ll probably stay that way until the lights go out.

PS. I've always loved Dave's voice and that's a hill I'll fnckin' die on!

PPS. A bit of an heads-up if you’re listening on the go: the cymbals are boosted so aggressively they can sting your ears. If I wanted to joke about it I'd say its an age thing... when you start losing the top end, you crank it to compensate.