Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Utopia sells…but who’s buying? Nobody really, for all the beauty that resides in a perfect world of equal opportunities, of pain free existence and each nation, each person, doing all they can to protect and savour the planet, Dystopia is a much keener collector of souls than its well preserved shrink wrapped cousin, Dystopia never runs out of places in which to revel or play with the destruction available.
In the hands of Megadeth, the soul of American Metal in as much that they have consistently provided the finest music of their genre over the last thirty years, Dystopia is another rung on the ladder, the notch on the bedpost and bones of the great unwashed in which to glorify. Dystopia may be a foul business but it’s the one state of reality in which we all agree we feel and in which Megadeth exploit through their authentic lyrics and realistic power of observation, that and the grinding pulse of a sound that has never once betrayed their fans.
Dystopia doesn’t quite hit the mark in comparison to the last couple of releases, yet that is in itself a commendation, for whilst the seductive reasoning of Thirteen or Super Collider cemented the band as being as much a part of the 21st Century as they had broken down walls and raged against the part in the last two decades of the previous century, the new album is to be seen as more cynical, fresher perhaps in its glowing seething eye and the thought of mortality is one that gives the album its unbounded and extreme edge.
Dystopia is an album which ties which were bound, the knotted rope of conformity, has broken loose; if this is the next stage in re-invention for a band that forges ahead without ever descending into the stale, then mortality is to be seen as only a constant companion, not as a judge, jury or executioner.
Tracks such as Fatal Illusion, Bullet To the Brain, the utterly brilliant and dramatic warning transposed in Post American World and Poisonous Shadows capture the heart and soul of Dave Mustaine and David Ellefson’s drive, determination and steel.
This is Megadeth, perhaps not at their ultimate rip snorting best, but certainly at their most raw, honest and terrifyingly, hauntingly beautiful, Dystopia is a mindset that cannot and should not be avoided.
Ian D. Hall