I wasn’t really impressed with the two new songs from Endgame (Head Crusher and 1,320) more than I was with United Abominations and seeing all the excitement of the fans and the media about the new songs I was wondering if the problem was me. Maybe I was too old to get excited about new music and I would only be able to really enjoy music I heard before I became this old stubborn bored closed-minded person.
I found out it wasn’t the case when someone sent me a leaked song from Endgame, the opening instrumental track “Dialectic Chaos”. It sounded like Megadeth, it wasn’t a song I heard before and it was fuckin’ killer! I was happy for myself, I was actually able to enjoy it and be impressed by it, I’m not that old and bored at all.
But one thing you have to know is that music presented as leaked stuff on youtube is not to be trusted, specially when it is an instrumental track. And the song I heard is not a Megadeth song at all, it’s an excerpt of a song from a Russian thrash metal band called DeadXheaD. Based on this song it’s a really great band, it sounds like you would expect a thrash Megadeth to sound in modern times had them kept the passion and intensity (except for the vocals). The 30 seconds excerpt of the real “Dialectic Chaos” sounds like a pale, thin alternative for any excerpt of the DeadXheaD song.
Nowadays making good music won’t take you anywhere. With so many bands a known name is worth more than all the best songs in the world (and that’s why every band from the 80s are making a comeback these days, even the ones that failed to get attention back in the day, because the status of being a “classic” band from the 80s is worth more than any killer music by any band recently formed). Endgame alone will sell hundreds of times more than DeadXheaD will ever dream about and the later will disappear in obscurity just like a million other great underground bands no one ever heard about.
Concerning Endgame I came to the conclusion I really don’t like Andy Sneap’s production, at least for Megadeth it doesn’t work. Even the Russian band, which certainly had a much less expensive production, has a more heavy and impressive sound. Sneap’s production sounds thin and generic and artificial. Luckily Mustaine didn’t have today’s technology when he recorded Megadeth classic albums, ’cause even the remastered versions he has released a few years ago suck, he ruined the old albums remastering them.
Tags: Endgame, Megadeth, thrash metal
