United Abominations [PA] - Megadeth

...albums megadeths 11th studio album united abominations is released. After the impressive the system has failed, with technical riffs, and solos it would be hard to beat it in terms of quality and originality.

Stand Out Tracks for good and bad reasons:

Sleepwalker - a song where the vocals are the strong point, the riffs are simple but the lyrics are interesting, and its quite clear Mustaine's lyrical skills have improved ...
...the song.

United Abominations - This song has a given taste. Mustaine goes overboard with the political point in this song that is clear, the riffs are good but listening to this feels like a history lesson to some extent.


Blessed Are The Dead - As much as I love megadeth this just isn't a good track for the average megadeth fan. Unfortunately Mustaine cant help but express his love for Christianity, a song about ... more

After several awards and some famous groundbreaking albums megadeths 11th studio album united abominations is released. After the impressive the system has failed, with technical riffs, and solos it would be hard to beat it in terms of quality and originality.

Stand Out Tracks for good and bad reasons:

Sleepwalker - a song where the vocals are the strong point, the riffs are simple but the lyrics are interesting, and its quite clear Mustaine's lyrical skills have improved as he has progressed with Megadeth. The song sleepwalker is a good opener and at almost 5 and half minutes it keeps the listener engaged with vocal layering, a catchy main riff with a memorable solo.

Washington is next - This is personally my favourite track off the megadeth album, where I feel Mustaine is most focused, the opening riff gets your attention immediately, and here is where Mustaine's political mindset gets working, and it works well, its not too heavy politically and it suits the song structure.

Never Walk Alone - Another Strong track off the album, however Mustaine's new found Christian faith takes a front seat in this song, as the lyrics talk about faith, life death , and being alone , the riff is catch and the solo is good it gets boring at times but its still a good song.

Gears Of War - The first track that was released on the album is here, slow chunky riffs and catchy lyrics, this is a good solid song, perhaps a little to long, but it ticks all the boxes, simple yet catchy mustaine immerses himself well lyrically and at the same time doesn't ruin the song.

United Abominations - This song has a given taste. Mustaine goes overboard with the political point in this song that is clear, the riffs are good but listening to this feels like a history lesson to some extent.

Blessed Are The Dead - As much as I love megadeth this just isn't a good track for the average megadeth fan. Unfortunately Mustaine cant help but express his love for Christianity, a song about the apocalypse, this is very questionable, and mustaine's luck for relying on his memorable lyrics to gel well with the simple riffs in this album just doesn't hold, it gets boring quickly and after 2 minutes ive had enough.

Burnt Ice : This is just plain bad.

Unfortunately for this album Mustaine has let his personal beliefs impact too much on Megadeth and sometimes this album just makes me wonder whether Mustaine is just using Megadeth and the other 3 members as a way to hide his solo career. Its clear here the other 3 members haven't played much into influencing the style of this album, it matches Mustaines, beliefs and ego well. Mustaine is a very good musician but he doesn't shine as well as he could in this album. This is definitely reflected in the system has failed where his song writing skills are top notch, and considering he wrote all the songs in that album himself I expected more from this album with Mustaine and Megadeth's new and permanent members.

In the beginning Megadeth used to be about metal, speed, aggressiveness and fun with a dose of very complex riffs. Although all musicians only have so much creative punch Mustaine has used to many simple song structures and runs out of lives very quickly in this album, Megadeth are supposed to be a creative metal band, but this is just too simple compared with what Megadeth could achieve.

However this isn't a bad album by any means, just don't expect a new Peace Sells, or Rust In Peace, this is a pretty average effort, and I know the band can do better, if you don't believe me go check out the system has failed.

Maybe Mustaine is just getting to grips with his new members, and having not had a stable line-up for a while I can understand that, the ideas are good Mustaine shows enthusiasm but he needs to let the other members of megadeth show what they can do for the band and not let his own ideals and beliefs take over it.

My main criticisms
Too many simple songs, overly political and religious lyrical content, lack of personal expression from other members, the album is just average

My main Praises
Good solos, Mustaine's voice is as strong as ever and it's not as bad as some of the other Megadeth albums

Song structure: 7
Lyrics: 6
Originality: 7
How well it all fits together: 6

My score: 6.5 /10 

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