Megadeth

Although their profile has waned significantly in the 21st century, Megadeth have arguably been too big to completely fail in the rock world for a while now. As one of the few traditional metal acts from the '80s to maintain mainstream crossover appeal into the present, a storied journey is now coming to an end with their final self-titled album.It's been a long, bumpy road, with some pretty extensive rough patches over the years. Most would agree that their most vital, scene-driving work ended with 1992's Countdown to Extinction, with remaining affection left over for follow-up Youthanasia, the 1994 album that introduced a new generation to the band via MTV.This would prove to be just in time for their most poorly-regarded period, a dark night of the metal soul from which the band would emerge a hardened legacy act, destined to churn out reliably well-executed (if often uninspired) dad-thrash for a late-career string of good-to-just-okay albums (2009's Endgame and 2016's Dystopia are probably the high water marks here), featuring just enough intermittent excellence to keep fans both interested and frustrated.It comes as no surprise then that Megadeth, like so many of those latter-day albums, is an uneven affair, front-loaded with its best material in the time-honoured tradition — but when it's good, it's good. For instance, opener "Tipping Point" is a typically blazing calling card, the kind of muscular thrash the band can seemingly just pull out of their pocket from time to time; "I Don't Care" is vintage Dave Mustaine disdain, covering exactly zero new ground but doing so with snarling aplomb; and the surprisingly earnest "Dear God" is a standout mid-tempo cut featuring plenty of room for the band's mature riffing while Mustaine gets introspective about "walking these streets alone." This is all followed by advance single "Let There Be Shred," an amusingly biblical account of the dawn of Mustaine's fretboard supremacy that's only a little bit silly ("My fingers spontaneously combust into flames" — sure Dave, let's get you to bed). But things start to sag shortly after the solidly radio-ready "Puppet Parade," with the inclusion of not one, but three consecutive songs about dystopian war zones.As any Megadeth fan can tell you, one of the ongoing challenges of enjoying the band's latter-day albums is putting up with Mustaine's continued friendliness towards Infowars-adjacent paranoia and crankiness. We get the usual procession of lazy keywords and stock imagery: drones, oil, profits, lies, smoke, steel, flags and blood, all amounting to a swampy vision board fully explored long ago. While these songs are still home to some decent riffs — and "Made to Kill" even sports the album's best solo, a killer back-and-forth that just builds and builds — this is mostly the kind of unimaginative, dead-horse fodder that's been weighing down Megadeth albums since 2007's United Abominations, at least.Heading off into bold new directions is hardly the move for a farewell album, however, and it's honestly comforting, in a way, to settle into the familiar sequencing of a new Megadeth album one last time. Mustaine's acidic delivery really is inimitable, and his restless soloing style distinctive as well. That said, those seeking any profound insights on closer "The Final Note" will come away disappointed, with Mustaine simply offering up, "My final testament, my sneer," as a send-off; on-brand to the bitter end.Anyone who's been paying close attention knows that the real main event in this regard is actually the band's cover of Metallica's "Ride the Lightning," a bonus track held back even from pre-release streams. Whether a mature gesture of goodwill towards Mustaine's longtime rivals or just a savvy marketing move, many of us will no doubt be skipping straight to this, battle vests well-stocked with tissues.