Megadeth - Super Collider review
| Band: | Megadeth |
| Album: | Super Collider |
| Style: | Heavy metal, Thrash metal |
| Release date: | June 04, 2013 |
| A review by: | BitterCOld |
01. Kingmaker
02. Super Collider
03. Burn!
04. Built For War
05. Off The Edge
06. Dance In The Rain
07. The Beginning Of Sorrow
08. The Blackest Crow
09. Forget To Remember
10. Don't Turn Your Back...
11. Cold Sweat [Thin Lizzy cover]
12. All I Want [limited edition bonus] [Japanese bonus]
13. A House Divided [limited edition bonus] [Japanese bonus]
14. Symphony Of Destruction [Live in Pomona, CA] [Japanese bonus]
So MegadavE is back with album 14 now (Jebus, really, that many? I stopped paying attention after
It seems across the interw3b there have been a lot of super-deriders, but the band is of significant enough stature that we really should review them and since no one else at Metal Storm Towers was chomping at the bit, I figured I'd take this on as a change of pace from Slavic doom.
Supercollider starts off well enough with
The anti-bullying campaign insists "it gets better", but in the case of Supercollider it doesn't.
Sure, there are lots of impressive solo bits to air-guitar along to and the production is a hell of a lot better than, say, World Painted Magnetic, but the tracks themselves just fell largely listless and limp.
Take the e-chugging primary riff off the first half or so of "Dance In the Rain" - it's got some rapid e-string chugging going on, just like my favorite Megadeth riff (the asphalt ripping one off "Good Mourning/Black Friday"), but the song flow around it makes the whole song feel lethargic. At least that song erupts a bit at the end.
Too much of the album just feels like it's trying to walk the line between having some sort of edge, but doing so without sacrificing playability on your average hard/classic rock station.
The album isn't terrible. It's not mortifying horrid, but it's not particularly good either. I mean it's well produced and created by skilled musicians, but it just doesn't have the grit or bite that I was hoping for. I honestly cannot imagine myself intentionally queuing this one again once the review gets posted.
And "Cold Sweat"? suffice it to say somehow Megadeth manage to do pretty much to Thin Lizzy's track what Winger did to Hendrix' "Purple Haze". (Click here if feeling masochistic.) Somehow they managed to suck all the soul and life out of the track. A lot like their "Paranoid", the notes are there, but somehow the "it" that made the original so significant is absent.
But hey, I'm sure a lot of folks will love it. At least it's not Risk, right? Then again, at least there was some risk to Risk...
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 7 |
| Songwriting: | 5 |
| Originality: | 5 |
| Production: | 7 |
 | Written on 02.06.2013 by BitterCOld has been officially reviewing albums for MetalStorm since 2009. |
Comments
Comments: 65
Visited by: 1015 users
| Nosurper Stinky Lips Posts: 442  |
"Upbeat tune, some Satriani-like wah-drenched, two-hand tapped soli? but none of the anger, venom, balls, vigor, aggression, attitude that they once had. You know what made Megadeth well, Megadeth." Prelude to gawking over the technical jargon only to highlight the essentials. Nice.
---- 
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| pazuzuovbabel Pazuzu Posts: 303  |
Its even worst than risk ,, Risk have an identity, its a rock album, here Dave doesn't know what he want to do, Metal not metal heavy with some thrash, no thrash ,, the album just sucks so hard, but you will see Megadave hardcore fans defending it saying its experimental .. All in all, this album just another proof of Dave douchiness, after turned "religious" ..
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| Dedcalm Account deleted |
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675  |
Written by [user id=108863] on 02.06.2013 at 08:53 I like a lot of Megadeth's more commercial material from the 90's (including a lot of the songs on Risk) and to me, Super Collider is for the most part, a very weak effort. So I have no problem with the lighter side of Megadeth, and never have. The problems with this album are many. Weak vocals, songs that feel like they should go somewhere, but ultimately go nowhere, generic songwriting, mostly terrible lyrics... I do love Dance In The Rain though, although I feel sure that the Dave of old would have injected more adventure and bite into the song making it a bona fide Megadeth classic. But even with it's shortcomings, it still shines brightly on this album. Don't Turn Back... features a really great riff, but it's not utilised to full effect, due to the generic songwriting, but I still think it's a decent song overall. But most of the songs are simply lacklustre, and it's not because I can't embrace new ideas and styles that I think that, to me the album is just flat and lacks life. It's not often that I agree with ultra critical staff reviews on here, but in this case, I think Bittercold's got it pretty much spot on. I definitely wouldn't rate the album any higher than 6. 5.5 is just about right.
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15288  |
Written by [user id=108863] on 02.06.2013 at 08:53 uh, my tastes are hardly in a rut - a quick, cursory glance at my album collection should illustrate that clearly. i'm quite willing to embrace new ideas. in some cases, say, Ulver, the band goes off in a way different direction and makes it succeed. In other cases, say, Megadave, well, not so much. glad you enjoy it. i wanted to. i didn't.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| AngelofDeth Cyborg Raptor Posts: 1183  |
Written by [user id=108863] on 02.06.2013 at 08:53 Lol I like how fanboys have to attack and put down others to make their opinions feel more justified and righteous. The reviewer didnt even bash this album that hard anyway, but tbh he's kinda right, although I will be replaying this album to show my friends so we can all have a good laugh at Dave's ridiculous tunes here. Idc if bands change and in fact, as others have also said, I enjoy Risk and most the other Meg albums, but this.. just wasnt executed well, theres no obvious direction where Dave was trying to take the music, so it comes off simply random, passionless and bland. And damm thats alot of references in this review! luckily I kept up with most of them... i think
---- pewpew.. gotcha
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| Dylan Posts: 93 |
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| M C Vice ex-polydactyl Posts: 3408  |
Radio stations play metal?
---- "I'm here to nunchuck and not wear helmets. And I'm all out of helmets." "I'll fight you on one condition. That you lower your nipples." " 'Tis a lie! Thy backside is whole and ungobbled, thou ungrateful whelp!"
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| qlacs "The Quaker" Posts: 1547  |
Even as Megadeth fan I'll probably skip the entire album, not that I because I give so much on other's opinion but because of the two singles were really poor and I'd rather not ruin the image that is yet in my head. However mentioning Kingmaker with Children Of The Grave I found offensive from both ends, there are 10^4 songs having the same verse rhythm.
---- 
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| AndMetalForAll kual21 Posts: 314  |
Agree with the review and the rating! It's one of the most disappointing albums of Megadeth, "Kingmaker" is the only worth listening..
---- greets, kual21
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| Zap Posts: 3586  |
I kinda liked this review, but then I kinda didn't. It's weird. But I do agree for the most part, though my eventual score would be even lower. I don't know whether it's because bands like Megadeth (and other older bands) just keep getting worse or if it's just that I get more and more tired of mediocrity with every release that I start thinking it's below mediocre. Like Testament's latest, that was really mediocre, so I gave it a 5. But this album is like a 2.5, 3.5 tops.
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| TheMAGAmvm Soycrusher Posts: 1086  |
Written by Zap on 02.06.2013 at 15:36 Don't compare it with the latest Testament output, that beats the shit of every post-2000 Megadeth album, all of them taken together. Seriously, the only relatively average album this band released was Demonic, the rest are way better than what Megadeth released after CTE and some of them on par with Rust In Peace or Peace Sells.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6105  |
Hands down the worst Megadeth album with only one decent song on it.
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| seafood Posts: 104  |
Maybe a bit off-topic (I still didn't give this one a listen, and I'm not sure if I will) , but I have to say I really dig the Winger cover 
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989  |
"Too much of the album just feels like it's trying to walk the line between having some sort of edge, but doing so without sacrificing playability on your average hard/classic rock station." And this is exactly the problem I've had with the band's post-reunion material, because nearly all of it does just that. Endgame was alright, and actually did have a few hard-hitting aggressive tracks on it, but really I don't think Dave's written any genuinely inspired material since Youthanasia. Every album after that just kinda seemed to fall into this mood of "I'm doing this because I have to, not because I actually want to"
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Boxcar Willy yr a kook Posts: 9161  |
Written by [user id=108863] on 02.06.2013 at 08:53 How have they changed? Megadeth keep pumping mediocre albums year after year.
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| tea[m]ster Au Pays Natal Contributor Posts: 5266  |
Megadeth released a new album? Oh.
---- rekt
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| Coolingsrock Posts: 229  |
Burn! baby Burn! Disco inferno! that's sad........ I hear that everytime on the song Burn lol
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| Opethian Posts: 1758  |
Written by Dylan on 02.06.2013 at 11:17 LMAO 
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| Mattybu Posts: 2589  |
Nice review, although based on its author, was expecting at least 1 Worship Music reference in there... xD
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15288 |
Written by [user id=22378] on 02.06.2013 at 14:20 From a prior review I published last month: Written by [user id=22378] on 17.04.2013 at 08:31 boy, someone really doesn't like my way of expressing myself. fwiw, though, if you are going to insult my "choice in words", it would be either "even worse" or "is the worst". While the merits of my writing style are certainly debatable, "even worst" is flat out the wrong choice of words.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675 |
Written by Mattybu on 02.06.2013 at 19:28 I'm also surprised he didn't give the album a lower score... I find it to be a poor album, and I like a lot of the commercial Megadeth stuff from the 90's, so I'd imagine someone who didn't like the 90's albums would find this album even harder to swallow than I do! 
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| sorin Posts: 18 |
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| Mattybu Posts: 2589 |
Written by Angelic Storm on 02.06.2013 at 21:54 Maybe its just the fact you wouldn't expect a whole lot out of Megadeth these days. I mean back in 1992 Peace Sells and Rust in Peace had just finished frying everyone's brains so I assume (I wasn't alive then!!) Countdown was a shock to people's systems. This is just like, meh, more underwhelming Megadeth whatever.
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675 |
Written by Mattybu on 03.06.2013 at 00:41 Well, I guess.... probably for people who don't like any of the commercial material Megadeth came up with in the 90's, "Super Collider" to them is probably just "more of the same". But to me, as someone who did appreciate a lot of that material, there is quite a big, noticeable difference in quality between an album like say, "Youthanasia" and "Super Collider". Someone who just can't get to grips with the commercial aspect probably can't see much difference, but to me it's clear one thing the former album has that the latter album doesn't, is cohesion. It feels like a focussed, cohesive effort. Also, back in the early 90's, Dave's voice was in much better shape than it is now. My only gripe with Youth is that for a long album, the lack of variation on offer can be a bit grating. But individually, I can't fault the songs themselves. Whereas on "Super Collider", it's the content of the songs themselves that is the issue. There's 2, maybe 3 songs on there that I'd say would warrant inclusion on Youth. The rest wouldn't make the cut quality wise. For me, the difference is like chalk and cheese.
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| Olli Posts: 362  |
I haven't liked Megadeth for a while either but you dont seem like the right person to this review - you seem to only be interested in 80's style thrash but we all knew it wasn't gonna sound like that
---- When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."
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| piyo Posts: 1 |
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