Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Megadeth - Rust in Peace (1990)

I have never understood the praise and lauding of this record.  I will go on record at this early stage of my review as stating that I do not feel it a bad record, just a very overrated one.  Four records into their career Megadeth had certainly progressed from their 1985 debut and five years showed well on their fourth outing, the album is very mature with well developed structures for sure.  The main issue I have always had with Rust In Peace isn't actually much to do with the record itself.  More the fact that the attention it receives bills a far more exceptional record than you actually get.

As a Megadeth record, in comparison with the rest of the their discography it is most certainly the band at their peak.  With a superb combination of Mustaine, Ellefson, Menza and Friedman there was little excuse for the band to make Rust In Peace anything other than the jewel in their collection of gems over the years.  As a unit they all do their share to make the likes of Hangar 18 an absolute triumph with the musicianship and talent being obvious throughout all five minutes and fifteen seconds of the track.

Unfortunately this is where the album peaks far too early.  From track three onward we are firmly on a downward spiral with this record.  Somehow managing to not lose any of the attack of the album the song quality deteriorates track by track, rendering the opening two tracks as distant memories of the real promise of this album.  I repeat, it never gets terrible or even particularly bad though, it is just not worthy of the adoration and adulation afforded it in seemingly every review or conversation with peers about it. 

There's all the consistency in terms of talent shining through for virtually all the album but it is not frequent enough to get the blood continuously pumping through these veins.  There's also some very odd decisions been taken during the writing of tracks like Five Magics with its dreary and drab chorus and annoying spoken word repetitions of the sung vocals.  Then there's the suspenseful build of the drama for Poison Was The Cure which ends up in a clumsy and clunky track with little in the way of direction or memorability.

I know I am in the minority here in not heaping shovel loads of admiration on this record but to my ears it is just an average thrash album with a couple of standout tracks.