Youthanasia (Megadeth, 1994)

Whether Dave Mustaine likes it or not, one usually needs to use Metallica as a measuring stick for each of Megadeth's albums. Megadeth was born not long after his ouster from Metallica back around 1981 or so and originally was conceived as a metal proto-supergroup with members of Slayer, though that lineup never really materialized. Even from the earliest albums, it was clear that Mustaine was trying to teach his old bandmates a lesson about what thrash metal was supposed to sound like, with varying levels of success. While Metallica embodied the core of thrash for most of the 1980's, Megadeth floundered, dabbling between real thrash, souped-up hard rock, and odd cover songs. While Metallica had a rock-solid lineup only changed by death, Megadeth stuggled to maintain consistency, with the second guitar and drummer spots in constant rotation. By 1990, Megadeth finally found their "sweet spot" with Rust In Peace, featuring a solid lineup and a sound that challenged Metallica more than ever.

As we skip along to the album in question here, released four years later, we see the "classic" lineup still intact, but the adherence to thrash waning, as the band settled into a heavy-hard rock pattern that would dominate their albums for the rest of the decade. As usual, the Metallica factor is in play. Youthanasia is remarkable in that it marks the first time Megadeth had released more albums than Metallica, and in fact would never fall behind Metallica ever again (to date I think they are now leading 14 to 9). At first they seemed to be prepared to call out Metallica for selling out on their self-titled mainstream breakthrough, releasing the almost-as-good-as-the-previous-album Countdown to Extinction the year after the Black Album. But on the eve of this album's release, it was clear that Metallica might have sold their souls, but they were now also very rich and playing in circles well above anything Megadeth could muster by sticking with thrash. So the changes began and would continue. As Metallica mellowed out into Load and Reload, Mustaine & Co. parted ways with thrash as well, following up with Cryptic Writings and Risk. Hard rock, indeed, but metal? Meh. Of course there was a change in the weather yet again with the arrival of a new decade, but that's covered in the post on The World Needs a Hero.

I think I gobbled up this album back in my "12 for 1" music club days, where many college kids amassed their most mainstream albums on the cheap. My interest in the band was waning during this time, so I didn't revisit them again until 2001. To this day I still for some reason only have the even numbered albums, except for Risk and some of the later ones. I appreciate their thrash return of the 2000's and even saw them live a couple times down in Southern California (opening for Heaven and Hell, and then doing their own headlining). Of course the lineup then was pretty wacked out. I guess it's too much to ask for a stable lineup and a good thrashy sound.