ALBUM REVIEW: Megadeth – The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead


 

Whether you want it to or not, once a nickname is acquired, it sticks. Sometimes for life. For almost as long as the band has existed itself, Californian speed metal legends Megadeth have been known by fans as Megadave. A purely affectionate nickname for sure, but one which grew out of frontman Dave Mustaine‘s often brutal and cold-blooded approach to personnel management. The singular constant in a revolving door of band members, make no mistake. Mustaine is Megadeth. Always was, always will be.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Destruction – Diabolical


It’s hard to believe – especially for some of us Of A Certain Age – that this year sees the fortieth anniversary of legendary German thrashers Destruction. Frontman Marcel “Schmier” Schirmer might be the last man standing from the band’s original line-up (co-founder and guitarist Mike Sifringer having left last year) but the band’s fifteenth full length studio album, Diabolical (Napalm Records) still manages to recapture that old fiery attitude.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Sacred Reich Reissues


From ‘War Pigs’ to the present day, metal and politics have gone hand in hand and Sacred Reich has never shied away from the subject. As far back as their Draining You of Life demo in 1986, the Arizona thrashers made it abundantly clear that fascism is bullshit, Nazis are the enemy, and that oppression in any form should not be tolerated. This steadfast opposition to dictatorship, corruption, and social injustice has served them well for over thirty years, but recently the band has found themselves in the unbelievable position of actually having to defend those views. Swamping their social media pages with insults and demands to “stop making everything political”, some of their so-called “fans” really seem to have missed the entire fucking point of Sacred Reich.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Anthrax – Persistence of Time Reissue


As strange as it may seem, 1988 stands as the only year where each member of the “The Big Four” all released new studio albums. Go on, check if you want. I’ll wait.

With Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth, and Metallica having pulled significantly away from the rest of the pack with those 1988 releases, the beginning of the ’90s gave each of them the chance to reaffirm their place at the top of the thrash metal food chain. Along with the likes of Testament, Exodus, and Kreator, 1990 opened the new decade in a blaze of glory while also becoming arguably the last truly great year for the genre.Continue reading