DYSTOPIA ALBUM REVIEW

 

Fatal intervention 

By Demon Fang, May 19th, 2020

Megadeth is a band that, when they’re on, they’re on like Donkey Kong. Peace Sells, Rust in Peace, most of Countdown to Extinction, those three songs from Endgame we all know and love – this is the kind of stuff that kept Megadeth firmly stamped right on the map. They dropped off for a while with the two albums after Endgame, but there’s much ado about their 2016 release, Dystopia. With Kiko Loureiro serving as the other guitarist, having the album more closely resembling Rust in Peace is a safe bet – nothing like him and Dave Mustaine coming right on out with some high-flying solos accentuating catchy riffs. It isn’t quite as strong as those albums I just mentioned, but it’s definitely got its strengths.

Sure enough, the album starts off pretty good with the triple threat of “The Threat is Real”, “Dystopia” and “Fatal Illusion”. The intro song operates at a mid-pace, mixing some chugs with some mid-paced gallops and throws all that your way. Thankfully, this comes across more like an earworm than a non-entity. The titular song is more lively given the faster strumming and leads permeating throughout to get it in your head. “Fatal Illusion” creeps up on you with a somewhat angular groove – somewhat reminiscent of what you’d hear from Angra – before picking up the pace and ratcheting up the tension with some thrashing riffs. Big fat fucking spoiler alert, alongside the fiery fretboarding solo-laden instrumental “Conquer or Die” and the out and out fucking catchy affair that is “The Emperor”, these are the best songs on the album, mainly because they’re the most melodic and lively songs on the album.

This is at least better than anything they’ve done since Countdown to Extinction. Having said that, the other songs are considerably weaker – but they’re not without some merit. “Post American World” and “Bullet to the Brain” have memorable choruses thanks to a slightly more urgent pace in the instruments. Like, I dare you to get their choruses out of your head. But both are bookended with lame, plodding chugs that serve as the verse riffs. Seriously, this shit chugs like a fucking choo-choo train! “Poisonous Shadows” could’ve worked as a neat mid-paced song if it were about two minutes shorter. It’s got a decent rhythm that would stick more if it didn’t drag on for six goddamn minutes. As it is, though, it just kind of plods along – and, when taking the other faults into consideration, it lets the album down a fair bit.

Much of the album consists of mid-paced grooves and thrashy-sounding riffs, interspersing shreddy as fuck solos throughout. This is all with Chris Adler providing a solid backend, David Ellefson providing a few bass licks to bring us back to Mustaine and Loureiro’s riffing, and Mustaine bringing about a venomous vocal assault that provides bite to the angry lyrics whilst also providing additional melody to the songs – said venom, the likes of which we haven’t heard since Rust in Peace. But that album presents somewhat technical and highly melodic riffs, and the songs are a lot more interesting as a result. On Dystopia, the songs vacillate between fairly non-descript chugging and vague thrashing with great solos, and enjoyable guitar technics. In cases of the latter, the songs are consistently enjoyable. The titular song’s theatrics make it pop while “The Emperor” has yet to leave my head in the four years this album has been out as of writing this. But in cases of the former, I’m just waiting for a catchy chorus or for either Mustaine or Loureiro to let it rip so that the song can do SOMETHING.

And it all comes back to how, when Megadeth are on, they’re the main event at the Apollo Theater. Half of Dystopia stands a bit below the band’s best work, but then that’s a monolithic standard to try and meet, so to come close to that while still being a band for over 30 years is pretty impressive by any metric. But the other half lives and dies by the solos and maybe the choruses because everything else is kind of lame – just like most everything that they’ve done between Countdown and here. As it stands, it’s good, but I’m also hoping that the Mustaine/Loureiro partnership can produce some truly stellar stuff in the future.

Track List :

1. The Threat Is Real
3. Fatal Illusion
4. Death from Within
5. Bullet to the Brain
6. Post American World
7. Poisonous Shadows
8. Conquer or Die!
9. Lying in State
10. The Emperor
11. Foreign Policy (Fear cover)

***Disclaimer*** 

I do not own any copyright for any of this material!

Copyright belongs to Megadeth and Capitol Recordings! 

Purchase your remastered copy today!