Reviews list for Megadeth - Capitol Punishment: The Megadeth Years (2000)

There's always going to be an issue for compilations that they quickly become outdated and nothing more than fodder to be snapped up by elitist fans that need to own everything (do these people still exist?). As far as such releases go, 2000's 'Capital Punishment', which was also the first "greatest hits" album Megadeth released, is a bit of a mess.

I mean, the bulk of the music is fine, and covers most of the bands major early hits, but at the time of its release, with 15 years and nine albums worth of material to choose from, it's certainly an underwhelming collection. Made even more bizarre by the backwards order of its track list. You know something's not right when you're listening to 'Use the Man' four songs into the bloody thing!

Regardless, it's probably dirt cheap these days, so could be an easy starting place for newcomers. It's got the bulk of the important songs, including 'Holy Wars... The Punishment Due', 'Hanger 18', 'A Tour Le Monde', 'Peace Sells', 'Trust' and 'Crush 'Em', but overall, it's just an outdated release that is mostly irrelevant today, except for a weird montage hidden at the end of album in which a load of tracks are all mashed together to form a brief retrospective of the bands career. It's interesting, but nothing overly memorable, or listenable.

The album is also notable for two new songs, 'Kill the King' and 'Dread and the Fugitive Mind'. The former would appear on later compilations, while the latter would appear on the bands next studio album. Again, rendering this release obsolete.

'Capital Punishment' is an album I'll probably never listen to again, and the CD will spend the rest of its days collecting dust on the shelf (I'm one of those collectors, damn it), but still, back in the year 2000, at 13 years of age, this was my third Megadeth purchase, and the fact I'm still here today shows that the album did its job well.