American Warmonger

Review: Megadeth - Greatest Hits - Back To The Start

How does one go about reviewing a "best of" or "greatest hits" album? Doesn't everyone already know what the songs sound like? Sure, you could go on about which songs the band chose. You could even give your opinion on which songs "should have" been on the album. That is not the case with this album. Dave Mustaine did something I don't think I've ever seen before. He let the fans decide what songs were on the album.

Since the fans know best what they want on an album criticizing the song selections would be like explaining how we all voted for the wrong singer in American Idol. It would be like biting the media hand that feeds you. What I can do is give you a run down on the album art, copy quality and pretty much anything else that pops into my head.

Before we get to that we should provide the song list. This list is all-important since the Megadeth fans did it:

1. Holy Wars...The Punishment Due
2. In My Darkest Hour
3. Peace Sells
4. Sweating bullets
5. Angry Again
6. A Tout Le Monde
7. Trust
8. Kill The King
9. Symphony Of Destruction
10. Mechanix
11. Train Of Consequences
12. Wake Up Dead
13. Hangar 18
14. Dread And The Fugitive Mind
15. Skin O' My Teeth
16. She-Wolf
17. Prince Of Darkness

Did everybody get that? They packed seventeen of the best fan-picked songs into one single disk. I was expecting more like 12-15 but 17 of Megadeth's greatest are well worth it. I was impressed with how strong they have stayed throughout the near twenty years in the industry. I can think of another band that started in the same timeframe that wasn't able to keep their sound nearly as well as Megadeth has. They've stood strong through it all.

To get into the history of the band one needs only to look at the band member list for these tracks. Most of the band members in Megadeth tend to be expendable. Only two band members have stayed to full course, Dave Mustaine and David Ellefson. For an example of how rocky the band employment is I provide this list from the CD's liner notes:

Dave Mustaine: vocals, lead & rhythm guitars [all tracks]
Chris Poland: lead & rhythm guitars [tracks3, 10 & 12]
Jeff Young: lead & rhythm guitars [track 2]
Marty Friedman: lead & rhythm guitars [tracks 1, 4-9, 11, 13 & 15-17]
Al Pitrelli: guitars [track 14]
David Ellefson: bass & bkg vocals [all tracks]
Gar Samuelson: drums [tracks 3, 10 & 12]
Chuck Behler: drums [track 2]
Nick Menza: drums [tracks 1, 4-7, 9, 11, 13, 15 & 16]
Jimmy Degrasso: drums [tracks 8, 14 & 17]

A different band member for each one of their albums. I guess this guarantees the lineup will always stay fresh? I'm sure there's probably a long, rock & roll soap opera explanation for each of the rotating band members but I'm not going to speculate as to exactly what transpired. I will speculate that this will probably be the last album you see from Megadeth. From what I hear this album completes the contract with the Capitol Records and, since injuring his arm in 2002, believes it better to pursue other options in the music industry. Of course, I could be mistaken on all of this. It's just rumor-mill stuff.

Anyway, back to the review.

Listening to the album one thing stuck out about it. There was little to no digital remastering done on any of the tracks. Every extra high or low pitch on the original song was in this album. Although I believe they could have stood a bit of volume and warble fixing on a few of the tracks it was entirely for the fans. I would guess that they had this in mind when they decided not to monkey with the original recordings. The people voted on the original songs and that's what they got.

Now, most reviews would end here but I believe there is another factor to reviews that people tend to miss. Album art can be as important as the album itself. I can say without a moment of hesitation that this had great and fitting album art. From the Photoshopped "Megadeth Skull" in the nuke blast on the cover to the beautiful rendition of "the bomb" on the back the album art is not only excellent but sticks to a motif. There is excellent album art throughout.

Reviewing this album was more of a pleasure than a task. It is definitely going to be one of my favorites for a while. It might be an even bigger favorite if the Gigantour Megadeath is headlining were to come to my neck of the woods, but some things just don't come to pass. Maybe they could just swing by Hampton Roads and make it 34 dates instead of 33?

Now I must provide a numerical verdict for this album. You know, that trusty old "out of ten" scale everyone looks for. Well, it's not really a requirement or anything, it's just good to have. Anyway, I give this album and 9.5. The only detractors I found was the album sound had some problems with the first note of some songs and a few others sounded as if they had a slight warble to the volume.

This post is also available at Blogger News Network.

In The Global War On Terror Time Is Telling

The last Islamic terrorist action on American soil was 9-11-2001. Taking the fight to the enemy has and still does prevent casualties on our own shores. It has been said many times since 9-11 that time will tell if Iraq was the right war at the right place at the right time. This has been a "wait and see" scenario for many Americans. It has been two long years since we invaded Iraq and it is time to make an assessment.

Do we have bombed out buildings on the streets of America? Are we afraid of large groups for fear we might be attacked? Are we afraid to fly for fear of terrorists? No, we are no longer afraid. Air travel is pushing ever onward. America is going about its business.

Keep on saying Iraq was a bad plan. Protest the war and believe the price the servicemen and women are paying is in vain. Complain about how the rice pilaf in Gitmo is so cold as to be torturous. Remember your freedom from terror when your wife goes out in a bikini instead of a burkha. Time is telling the tale.

What you see on the television every day has to do with another improvised explosive device and another soldier dead. They are not dying in vain. They are dying to keep terror away from home. They are doing an incredible job. We should be proud of how well they are doing, not calling it an unwinable quagmire. We have been winning since war was declared.

So why do we not hear it on the radio and read it in the newspapers? Why aren't people making announcements that we are safer than we were two years ago? Quite frankly it's because a lack of story tends to wind up as no story at all. Would you listen to a news report stating that JFK International Airport still hasn't been bombed? Probably not. It's easier to look at the active than the passive. Only time is telling the tale.

Something else that was queued up as potentially the "bankruptcy of America" was the national debt and the economy. Our economy plummeted and national debt skyrocketed after 9-11. We were disparaging a very horrible catastrophe and hit rock bottom. Many people felt that we were going to fall into some sort of pit of oblivion. People thought we were going to lose this great nation.

Here we sit, nearly four years later. The jobless rate is at the best it has been since George W. Bush took office in 2000. Although the stock market has not reached the levels it had during the tech boom this is nowhere close to a bear market. We have slowly pulled our economic selves together over time. The best part is when you grow the economy over time there is no inflation. Have you seen any inflation? Neither have I. (Except at the pumps, but that's a different matter.) Time has again told the tale.

Our national debt is still high but is no longer growing. It has stabilized and may even begin to fall, as the economy grows. Since we have the added costs of the war on terrorism it should be blatantly obvious that the slowdown has come from increased tax revenues by reducing the overall taxes. I've explained it before and no one, particularly the liberals out there, believed me when the law of diminishing returns is explained in a tax example. We are now closer to our tax equilibrium point and therefore able to collect more in total tax revenue. Time is providing the economic proof.

Remember these words the next time a short-sited senator, congressman or other individual claims we're in an unwinable war. Reflect on our long realized accomplishments the next time someone erupts about our horrible quagmire in Iraq. Know in your heart that we are winning, and have been winning for nearly four years now. Know that time has told the tale, and nothing else.

This post is also available at Blogger News Network.

Need an ad in a hurry?

Yes, that's what I've been doing this weekend...and last night. Here's the fruits of my labor:

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Pumping Pixels

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging...

Reasons For Clothing Rules At School

I don't know about your community, but some of the schools in this area have strict "no baggy pants" rules. The punishment for this is expulsion in some cases. So, what makes them so strict about it? Maybe all those fuddy-duddies just hate that gangsta' rapper fly stylin'. More likely than that is the chance they've seen this video:

VIDEO LINK

NOTE: This might not run normally on your computer. You may need to download the Divx Player/Codec.

There were a total of 12 guns and a clip in the boy's pants. Reason enough to ban baggy pants?