The burning question in the metal world has remained the same for a strong 10 years: what the fuck happened to Metallica? Every long haired tyrant from Jersey to Norway has asked his fellow heshers this riddle time and again. The joke remains that no one has an answer even though everyone agrees that Kill ‘Em All was really heavy. While the world has been left to ponder how the greatest metal band in history became pussies, original ‘Allica member Dave Mustaine has stayed true to his thrash metal roots.

Endgame sounds like 1989. No reason to make that sentence look pretty, the record stands on its own; it’s metallic, crisp and sounds like it’s played by people creating the standard. “Dialectic Chaos” is as spacey as a thrash song can get without someone calling bullshit; an instrumental mind-fuck that has all of the indie stoner sensibility of Torche while not forsaking the mighty solo. Megadeth are feeling frisky right from the start and it comes across fresh not like some kind of comeback record; the band has always played with this kind of vicious heart and integrity, it’s just the record buying public that has slowed down.

“This Day We Fight!” is classic war metal. The pace is breakneck and the lyrics are uplifting in an us-versus-them kind of rhetoric. Mustaine further proves he is a true guitar swordsman, plowing through riff after riff only to literally drive over you with his insane solo work. “1,320″ continues their plight, demanding all of your attention. The guitar work is as fierce and technical as it was on the classic Rust in Peace; math-metal high on Hawkwind records and b-horror films.

Listening to Endgame, from start to finish, is the closest man may ever get to hearing Bigfoot stomp through the Grand Canyon as he fights off an invading Pterodactyl. It is frightening… just listen to the evil, plodding “Bodies” and then chase that down with the strange Alice Cooper story weaving of “The Hardest Part of Saying Goodbye… Sealed With a Kiss.” The name Megadeth may seem cheesy in the Coachella-generation but the music still inspires nothing but the strongest of chills.

The metal years may have faded away long ago but nothing is stopping you from letting the pummeling “Head Crusher” be, at the very least, your end of summer anthem. It’s probably not the most appropriate song for the beach, but it’s the perfect blend of melody and metallic mayhem to blast through your car window as you drive by… middle finger in the air.

[review by guest contributor Matthew Chernus]

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Also: Megadeth on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon