The World Needs a Hero (Megadeth, 2001)

During high school, my friends and I tended to gravitate toward Megadeth over Metallica as we were under the impression that Metallica had sold out, seeing that they were getting all kinds of airplay, the cool kids were listening to them (we were not cool kids), and there were some embarrassingly weenie songs on Metallica (The Black Album). We didn't even think about them getting even less metal, since Load and Re-Load were still a number of years off. Meanwhile, Megadeth was keeping it real, delivering quality metal albums every other year. 1990's Rust In Peace may still hold claim to the best metal album ever recorded. They even withstood the anti-metal mood of the 1990's for a couple more albums, but even they were soon reduced to sports-arena anthems like "Crush 'Em" on the decidedly unmetal Risk from 1999.

So it was quite a surprise to hear The World Needs a Hero, the album where frontman Dave Mustaine decided he was going to be metal again. It's not a total comeback album. In fact it really did nothing to restore the former glories in any financial way (we can all hate on arena rock, but it does pay bills). There are some weenie tracks on their, like "Promises", yet another example of Megadeth competing and envying Metallica at the same time. Also, the lyrics department dropped the ball here, as Mustaine is on the fast-track to his more conspiracy-theory type subjects, interspersed between woman problems. On the other hand, there are some mad powerful hard-hitting riffs and solos going on, especially "Burning Bridges", "Recipe for Hate", the nostalgic "Return to Hangar" and "When", the song which should have attracted any lawyers working on behalf of Diamond Head for cloning their NWOBHM classic "Am I Evil?", best covered by Metallica back in the mid-1980's.

With about half good songs and half so-so/lame songs, The World Needs a Hero is a partial success, not getting the band back to 1990, but maybe 1994 or so. Not long after its release, the band abruptly broke up, unable to properly perform due to an injury Mustaine suffered to his arm. That was the official story anyway, and suspicions of extreme tensions in the band were justified when Mustaine re-emerged in 2004 with an all-new band called Megadeth. It turns out that this album was recorded by a very unhappy band and its a minor miracle it even was released given all the interpersonal problems wrecking the band. Mustaine was and still is a difficult boss, but his animosity toward late-joining members Jimmy DeGrasso and Al Pitrelli was spilling over and damaging relations with his long-time bandmate David Ellefson. To release an album with someone else on bass was seen by many as an act of betrayal. Fortunately time has healed the rift and the Mustaine/Ellefson partnership is back again. Unfortunately the music just isn't what it used to be.