Some people viewed the departure of Megadeth's roots in Speed/Thrash Metal as a sign of selling out much in the same way they viewed Metallica's rise to success. Megadeth invented Thrash along with Anthrax, Metallica & Slayer and they abandoned it! We should get the rope, right? No. Just like Metallica, Megadeth started to finally grow up. Do you want to sit around and listen to a bunch of fifty year-old millionaires bitching about the establishment and the failures of society and blah-de-blah? Do you? You can if you want, but youthful anger is hard to maintain, especially when you are moderately to staggeringly rich. Sorry to tell you this, but all bands, and I say ALL bands, are in the music business to sell albums. That's where the money is. Chicks? Maybe. Creative fusion. Certainly. Megadeth is no different. Mustaine is no longer shooting heroin and going on drinking binges, he's married with children. People change. So do their musical tastes. Is Youthanasia un-metal. F*ck no! It still rocks as hard as anything out here.
"Reckoning Day" Metal, brutal, kick-you-in-the-teeth. A great hate-my-old-girlfriend/ex-wife song. A classic. "Train Of Consequences" another certified rocker. Great lyrics and great riffs. "Addicted To Chaos" a slower, more moody outing. Still very kewel. Lyrically deep. Megadeth has grown up indeed. "A Tout Le Monde" one of Mustaine's greatest songs. There's feeling in there, as opposed to just shredding your face off with a non-sensical diatribe to anger and misery. Greatness! "Elysian Fields" on of my all-time favorites. This is a great f*cking song! What a hook. Great lyrics. Solid. "The Killing Road" where Motley Crue and Bon Jovi were writing songs about the road in the cowboy/rebel Bob Seger sense, Megadeth comes out with the truth about being on the road. Kewel. "Blood Of Heroes" another favorite of mine. There is something very catchy about this tune. A straight-forward riff and cool lyrics, I don't know why, but I love it! "Family Tree" a great song about abuse. Thinking man's metal. The bang-you-head-against-the-stage metal is dead and buried. This is where it is now. Grow up and deal with reality. "Youthanasia" a great underrated song. Talk about poignant. The generation left behind. "I Thought I Knew It All" a little slower than the rest, a testament to realizing that we aren't perfect. "Black Curtains" Mustaine jumps back a few albums back to Peace Sells with this straight-out rocker. Dark and empty and filled with angst. "Victory" Take Megadeth's career so far and put it all together into one song and you have "Victory." Mustaine praises the fact that his is still alive after battling booze and drugs.
Overall, Youthanasia is melodic and menacing and stilll manages to rock better than most albums ever could. If you think that Megadeth sold out then you need to turn around and look at yourself. No one likes a forty year-old rocker walking around with long hair and an overhanging beer-gut wearing faded old Peace Sells shirts and trying to hold onto his past as his future slips away. If you dig that, well...to each his own. The word 'loser' is spelled with one 'o' just in case you needed to know. I'm not saying to forget the past, there are a bunch of great metal albums that I will always love, but definition of attitude needs to be a current thing. The world is ever changing. Embrace it or get left behind. Megadeth f*cking rules! No question about that! Youthanasia rocks!
Dig it!
I really don't understand why metal fans keep insisting in the useless paranoia speech of "selling out" every time a metal band releases an album who isn't bloddy 5000 beats per minute loud and noisy as their former ones! Let's face it, Youthanasia is one of the best Megadeth albums ever. Musically and lyrically speaking. The mood is heavier, though the pace is slower than Countdown or Rust. The guitars have been tune down half a step, so it contributes to that.
Musically, it is a killer! Mustaine's both vocals and riffing are amazing, very well produced and Marty does well with some amazing soloing.
Sure, it isn't as "Megadethish" as Peace Sells or Rust, but it sure as hell is a definite highlight in this outstanding band's carrer.
"Addicted to Chaos" is my favorite, but you can name every one of the songs in the album as quite good. Intricate, melodic, defying, dark and metalic. That sums up this masterpiece!
Actual Rating- 4.5 Stars)
Youthanasia(1994). Megadeth's Sixth Studio Release.
In 1994, Grunge, stricken with the death of Kurt Cobain, began to get less and less popular, and with the 1995 releases of Soundgarden's 'Superunknown' and Alice In Chain's self-titled album, that genre sadly went out of style and was replaced with Rap-Metal(god help us). Always in the shadow of things, bands like Megadeth and Metallica, who hit it big in the early-90's, tried valiantly to repeat their sucess, and with the 1994 release of 'Youthanasia', Megadeth once again entered the Top 30. While Metallica's 'Load'(which was released later the next year) has since become a disgrace even if it did go to #1, Megadeth prospered until the release of 'Risk', which effectively saw them "selling-out" too. In retrospect, 'Youthanasia' has been described by fans as one of Megadeth's best, and certainly their last great album. So, is 'Youthanasia' a good listen, or a sorry state of affairs? Read on to find out!
Track Ratings-
Reckoning Day- 'Youthanasia' starts off with "Reckoning Day", an unforgiving, metallic attack that blends thunderous, pounding guitar riffs and demented vocals with the solos and choruses Megadeth fans have come to know and love.
Train of Consequences- One of Megadeth's strongest tracks, "Train of Consequences" starts off with the *spit-fire*(It's undescribable, but amazing) guitar riff, but Mustaine turns the song into an optomistic, melodic look at the possibilities of life. Mustaine's pained vocals and Friedman's wacky guitar work will blow you away!
Addicted To Chaos- A slow thrasher, "Addicted To Chaos" uses a pulsing guitar riff and melodic vocals from Mustaine to create a *slow* rocker not unlike their hit "Almost Honest". Friedman and Mustaine hit all the right notes, and Menza's drumming won't fail to please. Not really a ballad, yet one of Megadeth's more emotional tracks.
A Tout Le Monde- 'Youthanasia's biggest hit, and most unlikely, finds Megadeth doing a ballad about lost love, but what's weirder is Mustaine sings the chorus entirely in French! Friedman and Mustaine spit out emotional rhythm and electric guitar melodies, and Mustaine's vocals(for once!) work extremely well, giving the song a deep sense of emotion. Unless you can't stand French(the language), "A Tout Le Monde" is an emotional ballad you won't soon forget.
Elysian Fields- Megadeth goes back to their Thrash roots on "Elysian Fields", a dark and sarcastic at the death of Jesus Christ(It's not sacreligious at all..). Mustaine's creepy vocals and Friedman's doomy guitar riff go from metallic to punky, and the chorus is something to behold(It reminds me of Alice In Chains). Good song.
The Killing Road- Much like Testament's Death Metal material of the 90's, "The Killing Road" is a dark, dreadfully hopeless ode to going insane, mixed with Mustaine's uncaring(don't worry, they aren't Death Metal vocals) vocals and Friedman's thumping guitar riff. Great musicianship, great song!
Blood of Heroes- Beginning much like an epic from the Boston Symphony, "Blood of Heroes" soon turns into a "kill-or-be-killed" song, complete with amazing solos, riffs, and time signature changes from Mustaine and Friedman's duel-guitar attack. Mustaine's dark lyrics and creepy vocals work well! I like this one a lot!
Family Tree- Although it starts like "A Tout Le Monde", "Family Tree", complete with an emotional rhythm guitar melody, soon turns into a seedy rocker about the government trying to cover up conspiracies. Friedman and Mustaine's guitar antics go well with Ellefson's addictive bassline, and Mustaine's vocals echo back to the good ol' days of "Hangar 18". C-O-O-L!
Youthanasia- The album's title track, "Youthanasia" is an interesting look at the demons of Dave Mustaine, yet the song, which features "distorted" vocals from Mustaine, doesn't really pick up until much later in the song. When it DOES pick up, Friedman dishes out an amazing solo, not to mention some great riffs. If the beginning of this song wasn't so *lame*, "Youthanasia" would be one of the album's best. Good.
I Thought I Knew It All- A Thrash song with a melodic chorus, "I Thought I Knew It All" begins like any other Megadeth song, with a remorseless and dark riff, not to mention "gloom-and-doom" vocals from Mustaine, but the emotional chorus finds Megadeth doing a melodic song not unlike "A Tout Le Monde". Nonetheless, the musicianship is good and the song rules!
Black Curtains- Think of the heavy, dark, Thrash qualities of 80's Metallica and mix that with the duel-guitar attack and creepy lyrics of Iron Maiden and you get "Black Curtains", a dark thrasher that finds every musician playing their heart out. One of the album's highlights.
Victory- A parody of Megadeth itself, "Victory" looks back at all of the songs in Megadeth's career(The lyrics talk about "Holy Wars" and "Countdown To Extinction"), and Ellefson's punchy bassline and Megadeth's punky vocals make "Victory" a very interesting track.
The 2004 'Youthanasia' remaster contains three new tracks, "Millennium Of The Blind", "New World Order", and "Absolution", and a new version of "A Tout Le Monde". These tracks are icing on the cake, and they add to the album even if they are short!
Overall, 'Youthanasia', while not being as good as Megadeth's 80's material and 'Rust In Peace', is definitely an improvement over 'Countdown To Extinction'. It's a very good album, showcasing some of Mustaine's best vocals and showing that Mustaine and Marty Friedman can still spit out solos worthy of honor. While not being a perfect record, it's still a great choice for Megadeth fans, and certainly better than anything Metallica, Anthrax, or Slayer put out around the same time(1994-1995).
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO FANS OF THRASH, HEAVY METAL, AND MEGADETH! IF YOU'RE A NEWBIE, GO FOR 'RUST IN PEACE', BUT IF YOU WANT TO WIDEN YOUR COLLECTION, PICK UP 'YOUTHANASIA'!
Killer Kuts- "Train of Consequences", "A Tout Le Monde", "The Killing Road", "Family Tree", "Black Curtains", and "Victory".
Also Recommended-
Rust In Peace- Megadeth
Souls of Black- Testament
The Black Album- Metallica
In most ways, heavy metal foursome Megadeth is a more intelligent and musically flexible version of Metallica; this is not made surprising (or derivative), as guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine was the former's original lead guitarist, and his writing influence was even felt by Metallica to their second album--all after he had been fired from the band. Relevant comparisons aside, Mustaine, Nick Menza, Marty Friedman, & David Ellefson continue to prove their dominance of heavy metal (and give Metallica a run for their money when it comes to merit) with their 1994 masterpiece, the inventive, yet underappreciated, "Youthanasia."
The tracks contained on this disc are pure heavy metal, and still hold a powerful musical and lyrical element of classical arrangements, as heard in the intro of 'Blood Of Heroes' (which also displays great vocal mixing) and the harrowing 'A Tout Le Monde.' 'Train Of Consequences' sounds like an updated rock version of Alfred Noyes' poem "The Highwayman" while other songs like the title track, 'Family Tree,' and 'Addicted To Chaos' are so genuinely real they are nearly heartwrenching.
"Youthanasia" remains a surreal heavy metal accomplishment, though slightly obscured by some of Megadeth's more often-noted albums. The band attributes its label as "below standards" to producer Max Norman's theory that the tracks had to be 250 beats a minute in order to get on the radio (as they contend in an interview with the magazine "Maximum Guitar"). Nonetheless, "Youthanasia" is solid, and its heavy metal foundation is both blistering and gutwrenching.
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