Devil’s Review: Megadeth – Th1rt3en

Megadeth has been on a roll with the last few albums. After the atrocity that was Risk, the slow return to form came with the World Needs A Hero, an album that seemed terribly short, yet solid enough. The System Has Failed took some time to grow on me. In fact, it took almost four years for me to really start digging it. By that time United Abominations had been released and it felt like Dave was only starting to really get his groove back. Endgame, on the other hand, blew me away. I think it’s the fact that having another amazing guitarist in the band really challenges Dave to write much better riffs. Th1rt3en is another solid record, but does it live up to the standard they set with Endgame? I’ll answer that in a bit. For now, let’s explore Th1rt3en’s aesthetics a bit.

For the most part, not a lot of songs off of the album were actually written for the album. A handful were written in the 90’s, released as demos and finally re-recorded for Th1rt3en. As you know, a couple of the songs were released for use on projects such as Guitar Hero and the video game Neverdead. In fact, it seems that only about five or six of the songs were written specifically for the album. Regardless, it’s a rewarding listen for any Megadeth fan. The re-records are tight and the new songs sound great. Let’s take a look at some of the songs on the album.

I’ve listened to the album probably over 15 times now. Every time It seems like it gets better. “Sudden Death” was a song I had not fully embraced until the album came out. I downloaded the song awhile back but I didn’t fully embrace it until I heard it on the album. I must say that it is a killer song and it fits well in the mix and it’s a good start to the album. It’s catchy for the most part and its’ rhythm gallops along with a great ferocity that matches well with the solos. Same thing goes with “Public Enemy No. 1”, “Never Dead” and “Whose Life”. I didn’t really bother giving them much attention until I actually got the album. “Whose Life” kind of sounds like an angry teenager type song, but it grows on you.

The re-recording of “New World Order” sounds really good, despite the song being aged a bit; 20 years to be exact. These political attack songs are Dave’s shtick and hey, at least he’s not writing songs about Christianity and whatnot; however, “Black Swan” could be interpreted as such. “We The People” is another pseudo-political song, referring to how the Constitutional rights of the American people are being violated and these days it’s “not worth the paper it’s written on.”

“Fast Lane” and “Wrecker” are perhaps cheesy songs at first listen, but they grew on me and I soon found myself singing along. While extremely catchy, these are two songs that can be skipped over at times to get to better songs. “Millennium Of the Blind” was originally demoed back in ’91 and the lyrics were re-written for this album, with the original lyrics added to the end. A very melodic song with cool solos and a dark heaviness to it.

The last song I want to talk about is the title track which is simply spelled conventionally as “13”. This is probably my favorite track on the album and I interpret it as Dave’s thoughts and reflections looking back on his career. The line “Thoughts became words, cast into the sea. But they returned, always haunting me.”  The lyrics go on to say “After everything, you still want me to bleed.” which I can only assume refers to the fact that no matter how much Dave tries to make up for the things he has done and said in the past, people still want him to fail and constantly slagging him.

As far as musical ability goes, the rhythms are tight and the solos from both Dave and Chris sound stellar. You can hear a lot more bass guitar presence in the songs and that makes for an enjoyable listen, especially knowing that Ellefson is back and Mustaine praises is skill growth so much lately. Sean Drover on the other hand is Sean Drover. His drum work isn’t anything mind-blowing, but it is still very good. Dave’s voice sounds, well, like Dave’s voice. If you’ve never liked Dave’s singing, this album won’t change you. Lyrically, some songs could be better. Megadeth songs have always been pretty straight forward in lyrics and I think that that is what a lot of people like about the band, especially us older fans. The lyrics of a few songs could be better, but they still hold water.

There have been some complaints about the length of the album, clocking in at almost an hour. Sure it kind of drags on, but seeing that the album is called Th1rt3en, I think Dave had no other intention but to put 13 tracks on it. As a long time fan, I can honestly say that this is a very solid album from beginning to end. It has it’s low points, mainly due to lyrics that I spoke about, but the production is very fit. Though more of a mainstream album of sorts, Th1rt3en is a very good Megadeth album. Now to be totally honest, I think it could have been much better had Andy Sneap produced is, but he was busy doing his own thing (Hell). It also feels as if this album was rushed due to the band being very busy in the last two years of touring. Songs re-written and bonus-type tracks being placed on the album similar to Slayer’s God Hates Us All album, make it almost feel like a compilation at times. Regardless, Th1rt3en is an up to par release. It’s not as good as Endgame, but Endgame set the bar very high and once you do that, fans expectations are very high as well. Will this be Megadeth’s last record with Road Runner as Dave ha insinuated after Endgame? Whatever the case is, the next record will hopefully have Andy Sneap producing again and hopefully be back up to the bar that Endgame set.

I’ll give this album a N1n9 out of Th1rt3en.