Megadeth

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It’s the end of an era. When Megadeth announced this self-titled album in 2025, ringleader Dave Mustaine said it would be their last. And though Mustaine says he arrived at the decision to end the band roughly halfway through the writing of <i>Megadeth</i>, it’s a fitting swan song. Nearly half of the album’s 10 tracks—11 if you count the noteworthy bonus track—have a distinct farewell or stroll-down-memory-lane quality. Mustaine may be pushing 65, but he still possesses the venom that launched Megadeth’s 1985 debut, <i>Killing Is My Business…and Business is Good!</i>, into all-time headbanging history. At that point, he was 23 years old and angry about being kicked out of Metallica. Pissed at his former bandmates, he channeled his vitriol into a thrash masterpiece. On <i>Megadeth</i>’s leadoff track, “Tipping Point,” he’s just as irate (“Crossing my heart, how I hope you will die”), this time at an unnamed but very real antagonist. “Let There Be Shred” is world-class thrash that seems like a reflection upon Mustaine’s early days in the LA metal scene and eventual star turn with Metallica. “The Last Note” was originally written about people who commit suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. Mustaine changed course after Megadeth guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari winced at the dark subject matter. Now it’s a heartfelt and surprisingly vulnerable adieu: “The roar I lived for, it starts to die/And now it’s time for me to say the long goodbye.” The kiss-off track “I Don’t Care,” with its punk propulsion and skateboarding-themed video, seems like a middle finger to the music industry in which Mustaine has toiled for so long. As it turns out, it’s about the same person he’s calling out in “Tipping Point.” The bonus track is Mustaine’s version of “Ride the Lightning,” a classic Metallica song he co-wrote when he was still a member of the band. He’s done this before: “Mechanix,” which appeared on <i>Killing Is My Business</i>, is Mustaine’s version of Metallica’s “The Four Horsemen,” which he also co-wrote. Mustaine has said recording “Ride the Lightning” is his way of paying his respects and “closing the circle.” If this really is Megadeth’s last album, consider the circle closed.

via Apple Music