Disco de Megadeth: “Warchest”

At first I have to say that I usually don't buy box sets. The only one I have is from Ozzy Osbourne. When Megadeth decided to release this one...there was no doubt if I'm gonna buy it or not. Megadeth is my favourite band and defintely better than Metallica. This box-set is almost perfect. It has something new, something old, something rare...and something live.

"Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good" and "The Skull Beneath the Skin" are good choices from their first album "KIMB". Still...I would have taken more songs, at least "Rattlehead" would have been a great for this. After all...it was supposed to be the title of their first album before they decided to change it to KIMB...ABIG! These tracks remind us for the wonders of remixing and remastering.

"Peace Sells", "Wake Up Dead", "Devils Island" are the best choices from "Peace Sells..But Who's Buying?". All the songs from the studio albums are remixed and remastered.

"Set the World Afire", "Into the Lungs of Hell", "Hook in Mouth", "Liar", and "In My Darkest Hour" are all great songs but I would have taken only 3-4 songs from "So Far, So Good...So What!" for this box set. "Anarcy/Problems" is a mixture of those two cover songs. It begins and ends with "Anarchy" - in the middle there's a short "Problems".

"Hangar 18" is the only songs which is taken as an album version from "Rust in Peace" (which is the best metal album ever!). However, there's three more songs ("Holy Wars...the Punishment Due", "Tornado of Souls", and "Five Magics") as demo versions...and of course live versions.

"Symphony of Destruction" and "Foreclosure of a Dream" are taken from "Countdown to Extinction". Great songs! "Architecture of Aggression" is a great demo version. Also the four live tracks are awesome!

From "Youthanasia" they decided to take "Train of Consequences", "Reckoning Day", "The Killing Road", "A Tout Le Monde" which all are great choices. I'd personally like more "Elysian Fields" or "Blood of Heroes" but they weren't chosen.

"Cryptic Writings" is not as bad as many think. Although they chose only "Trust" (a hit single), "Almost Honest", "Use the Man", "She-Wolf" and a live version of "A Secret Place", you could find more masterpieces in it if you would give it a chance.

"Insomnia" and "Crush 'em" were great choices from "Risk" which is their most hated album - although it isn't that bad - it just different from others.

I remember when Megadeth's first collection "The Megadeth Years" were released - there was "Dread And Fugitive Mind" - as well as "Kill the King" - great songs.

"Moto Psycho" and "1000 Times Goodbye" are from "The World Needs a Hero". Well, you could say that they are great songs...but I would have replaced "1000 Times Goodbye" with "Promises".

"Kick the Chair" and "Of Mice And Man" are from their underrated comeback album "The System Has Failed". The box sets have a strange way to make songs sound better. Well, great choices!

There's two short interviews "dark themes..." and "keeping score..." which are great to make this box set (almost) a perfect one.

The songs "Go to Hell", "Angry Again", "Paranoid" (a Black Sabbath cover), "Diadems" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy" (an Alice Cooper cover) are "rarities" which have been released in soundtracks etc. and "Hidden Treasures". "Breakpoint" can also be found in "HT" but this one is a session take which haven't been released before.

"New World Order", "Strange Ways" (a Kiss cover), "One Thing", "Duke Nukem", "Never Say Die" (a Black Sabbath cover), and "Coming Home" were songs I hadn't heard before. They all are great songs!!!

Disc four is a 68-minute-live album which is great. It has made during the tour of "Rust in Peace". The players play perfectly! Mustaine's voice is great. It is well mixed. The audience is awesome! The only thing that I don't like is "It's Electric" which is sung by Sean Harris which some of you may know from a band called "Diamond Head".

The DVD is great. It includes only a 50-minute-long live gig but it is a great one. The picture quality is great. "Lucretia" and "Ashes in Your Mouth" are such perfect live acts...like every song is.

First off let me say that I am a HUGE Megadeth fan. I've seen 'em live 3 times, own every album, bought all the remasters, bought the darned VHS' and the Dvds. It's safe to say that Megadeth is my favorite band. I LOVE these guys. Their songwriting is out of this world! Megadeth is one of those bands that truely developed their own sound. Megadeth is one of the most unique bands I've ever heard. From the super angry agressive days of the 80s to the technical masterpiece of 1990s Rust in Peace to the more guitar hook driven stuff of Countdown and Youthanasia, I always loved Megadeth and loved how they crafted their songs. They were so advanced for a group that only wrote about 4 minute songs. You can go on and on about who's the BEST heavy metal band but I always thought Megadeth were something special. No one put more into a 4 minute song than these guys and their riffs and songwriting was amazing. So you get the picture, I'm a HUGE fan. So why the low score?

Over half if this DVD is stuff I already have!!! What's up with that!? The first three discs are pretty much useless. Its mostly songs from the albums I already own!! The demos are interesting but not enough to justify the cost of three CDs. I'll never listen to these. I'll just get the albums that they're already on. For that I had to knock off two stars, because there's nothing really new on the first three discs. Come on guys(Dave Mustaine) what were you thinking? Couldn't they have included one disc just with all the demos and then maybe had another live DVD on there!!!???

Although the first three discs are a major negative, let me go on to the postives: the last two discs:

Disc number four rules. A live show of Megadeth with their best lineup (Mustaine/Ellefson/Friedman/Menza) during their best years. (1990) This one is off the Rust in Peace tour so it's a killer 15 track live concert caught on tape. This one's all classic metal Megadeth and captures the band when their live set was truely worthy of the moniker: "world's state of the art speed metal band." It's awesome to hear all classic deth being played live with "The Conjuring", "Skull Beneath the Skin", and "Black Friday" all making the cut. The sound quality is fantastic here and I don't doubt that they remixed and remastered the original soundboard recording, because I know for a fact that 1990s soundrecordings never came out this good.

Disc 5: the DVD. Oh this is what I was waiting for. Live footage of Megadeth at their best! 1992 fresh off the Countdown to Extinction tour. Fantastic set list and performances by all. Great sound quality and great to see Marty Friedman ripping the solos to shreds. Only criticism is that it's PAINFULLY short! Only 10 songs clocking in at less than 50 minutes! Ouch! Just barely enough to satisfy the hardcore fan. Still other than that its what you'd expect. A great concert from the band during arguably their best years.

All that said, it's too hard to see this as a complete box set for Megadeth. As I said before the first three discs are a wash pretty much although the last two will please any long time fan. Still this is FAR from the definitive Megadeth collection that i thought it would be. I felt kind of jipped by the Arsenal of Megadeth as well and I can't help but feel a little cheated by this one. No live footage from the 1980s? Only one DVD with only 10 songs? A great live CD yes, but not enough. And way too much of the same stuff. They could've cut it down to three discs and lowered the price to around $30.00 and then you would've had a great collection. Either that or they should've added another live concert DVD, but given the material of the disc, honestly it barely makes the grade. I probably would've graded it lower but I'm too much a Megadeth fan to rate it any lower than three stars. Still, you have my thoughts on this. If you're a really hard core Megadeth freak you'll probably like it. But I'm a pretty big Megadeth fan and I still can't help but feel a little jipped...

The Good

Back in 2004 Capitol Records and Megadeth's Dave Mustaine teamed up to remaster and remix the group's back catalog. Each studio album under Capitol was re-released with bonus tracks, b-sides, and demo material. The final piece of that project is the 4CD/1 DVD release Warchest. The most notable additions to this package are the long sought after tracks from Megadeth's out-of-print EP release Hidden Treasures (with some minor exceptions), two killer live performances (one audio, one video), and some additional unreleased material.

Disc 1: Megadeth's debut album Killing is My Business was not re-released by Capitol, due in part to the fact it was originally released on Combat Records and later on Sanctuary. However, for this collection, Capitol was able to get a hold of two of the Sanctuary tracks (from other albums too), "Killing is My Business..." and "Skull Beneath the Skin" The rest of the disc plays out as a best of for Peace Sells...but Who's Buying, So Far, So Good...So What, and Rust in Peace. The unreleased material contains an alternate mix of "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due," and demos of "Tornado of Souls" and "Five Magics." The remix is almost of the same caliber of the final product, and the demos give you and idea where the tracks started. Megadeth's covers of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" and "Problems" are combined into one track as a studio session take.

Disc 2: This disc combines the best of Countdown to Extinction and Youthanasia, plus quite a few more sought after gems. "Go To Hell," "Angry Again," "Paranoid" and "Diadems" from Hidden Treasures are here, and so is "Breakpoint." However the later is a session take. Four of the tracks from Countdown are live performances from 1992. The live version of "Skin O' My Teeth" is simply awesome. A cover track "Strange Ways" is also included, but for the life of me I can't figure out where it came from (all I have is promo copies - no booklet). Look for the infamous B-side "New World Order" as well.

Disc 3: Trust and Risk hits are featured here, plus Capitol scores some more material from Megadeth's time with Sanctuary with tracks from The World Needs a Hero and The System Has Failed. Rare and unreleased material includes a live Woodstock '99 performance of "A Secret Place," B-side releases of "One Thing," "Duke Nukem," and "Coming Home," and Megadeth's contribution to a Black Sabbath tribute album, "Never Say Die."

Disc 4 & 5: The fourth CD is a classic liver performance from 1990, right around the release of Rust in Peace, which showcases the band at the pinnacle of their career. The DVD is a live performance from two years later that revolves around the release of their biggest selling album Countdown to Extinction. Both performances are a perfect example of Megadeth's signature thrash metal style.

The Bad

There was no reason to include to two brief interview bits with Mustaine. They shed absolutely nothing new in the world of Megadeth. Also, this is said to be the last of all the Capitol years Megadeth material. Where is their version of "Schools Out" from an Alice Cooper tribute? Where is "Capitol Punishment" from their greatest hits album? And one final point that I touched upon when I reviewed the remasters, when you change history you diminish people's memories of how they remember the music. Music is the soundtrack to our life. A new/remixed version of a song that means so much to me is worthless and insulting to me. The original versions of Megadeth's back catalog are gone.

The Verdict

Megadeth's Warchest is the perfect complement to Capitol Records' remasters of the Megadeth back catalog. Even though I believe only fans will rush to check out this one, its still an impressive collection from a heavy metal legend that's sure to live beyond there most defining years.

This box set is the ultimate collection of MEGADETH from beginning to end.

You have over 20 years of music on 4 CD's & 1 DVD.

From the days of "Killing is my business" to the "System has Failed".

MEGADETH stands alone atop of the metal world with their return to basic speed metal.

DAVE's back and he's pissed off as ever and everyone will get the punishment due.

If you are a MEGADETH fan this box set is a must have!!

I rate this box set a 10 from 1to10!!

Megadeth,

What do you expect? this whole set, dvd and cd's rock!! Buy it at once!!!!!!!!