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

First, let me point out that I am not a big Megadeth fan, and that five minutes before writing this review I found out that the neoclassical Marty Friedman joined this band right after the release of his debut solo album.  And the Friedman shows in guitar-driven songs like "Hangar 18."  The real reason to check this album out, however, is that incredible metal atmosphere, switching the severity from pure heavy metal like "Lucretia" to some of the thrashiest thrash metal like the short and sweet "Take No Prisoners"and "Poison Was the Cure" and some very prog/tech moments scattered through the whole.  Lyrically, much of the album deals with post-apocalyptic dystopianism, the kind of thing you'd expect from movies like Twelve Monkeys or Dark City.  But there's always a little room for that cheesy fantasy stuff, like in "Five Magics," which switches from slow fantasy metal to thrash pretty quickly.  And sometimes we get unbelievable speed-based jammers like "Tornado of Souls," the most appropriately-named song on the album.

But is this album perfect?  NOT QUITE, but it is close.  The problem is that it's TOO unique.  Sometimes the experimentation gets in the way.  The progressive behavior of the opener, "Holy Wars," was fine, but why does "Hangar 18" even have two lyrical verses if the other 80% if going to be tech-speed wankery?  Why bother acting like a sing-along song (this is heavy metal we're dealing with)and then go "PSYCHE!?"  It's because of that that I find the best songs to be "Holy Wars" and "Five Magics."

Honestly, the production, quirkiness and Friedman solos are so damn good that I really want to say this is absolutely perfect, but there's that one flaw with the overplayed and overrated Hangar 18.  But it's still an incredible album in every other way, and I'd go as far as to say any metal collection would be incomplete without this.  Megadeth proved themselves to be a forward-thinking band before they ended up becoming a straight heavy metal band on the next album over, the same way Metallica did.  And Megadeth aren't quite as good as Metallica, but this album deserves its well-earned special recognition.