Megadeth - Countdown To Extinction

Well... call me insane but I like this one more than Rust In Peace.

My favourite Megadeth album.

Hard to judge if nowadays when we have million of metal to chose from. When I listened it as teenager it was one big killer, now, nothing special, it dont gives me what I am searching in metal anymore. Whats wrong?

Wow the remastered version is quite detrimental to the drums and atmosphere, now that I'm comparing the two

I have never understood why this album is supposed to be so big thing. There's handful of memorable songs, like Symphony of Destruction and Sweating Bullets, but the rest is just mediocre and forgettable. I'll take any of their previous albums over this. However, the production quality of the original version is insanely good. And I mean top notch, couldn't be any better.

This used to be my favorite album of all time, not quite sure what went through my head at the time. This release has some pretty good tracks, symphony of destruction, foreclosure of a dream, sweating bullets and high speed dirt being my favorites, but it's still overall pretty alright, nothing mindblowing and a big letdown from Rust In Peace, but I mean it wasn't really possible to beat that one.

This is just the Black Album but better

Sweating Bullets is the most ridiculous thing they've ever released

Written by nonZero on 07.11.2022 at 15:33

Sweating Bullets is the most ridiculous thing they've ever released

The video too
"Hello me, meet the real me"

Written by Nate612 on 09.04.2022 at 21:27

This is just the Black Album but better

They're equally good imo

Written by Jack_Torrance on 09.08.2023 at 21:18

Written by Nate612 on 09.04.2022 at 21:27

This is just the Black Album but better

They're equally good imo

I enjoy Testament's Ritual more than both Black Album and Countdown...

I like this one more than Rust In Peace, honestly.

Written by A Real Mönkey on 09.08.2023 at 22:37

I like this one more than Rust In Peace, honestly.

That is one rare opinion. But hey considering how different the two are, even in terms of production, the appeal is understandable. Its a very good album too.

Wow this is so much worse than I remembered

Late to vote but full marks is less for this album.

Written by Guib on 27.09.2012 at 05:51

Man I don't get the hate some older metalhead have for this album. Oh yeah right considering when it was released, considering that its not thrash as it was anymore and all... sure I get that. But a bad album ? Nah, it is not bad, in fact its so good that you hate to love it because its not thrash as it should be. But hey ! It is catchy, it is awesome and easy to get into... I mean yeah sure there are a few fillers (This Was My Life *Cough*) for example. But man, you can't deny the talent in this. Anyways you can't stop the haters. But I liked this album and I still do. This was probably a transition album for alot of young metalheads... leading to discovery of less known bands and albums.

Written by Vinther1991 on 10.07.2018 at 23:14

Phenomenal metal album. After Metallica ended the speed war with the excellent 'The Black Album', Megadeth followed with the equally terrific Countdown to Extinction, they traded some of the speed and technique of Rust in Peace for some tighter, more consistent song writing, and created an even better album in my opinion.
The album is packed with terrific and catchy songs, some are kind of goofy, but in a good way.
Thrash metal purists will never understand this album nor The Black Album, they will call them the meaningless word 'sell-out', that is their loss.

Went for a spin of this album again after seeing its placement in majormalfunction's Megadeth ranking below Risk.
And instead of naming all the great songs on this album now, and how much I enjoyed this re-spin, plus arguing how much it doesnt matter for me that this clashes so much with its predecessor, just as the Black Album does, I am just going to quote these two ancient comments above, which already nailed it to the point.

Holy shit you went digging Redel, my 2012 comment bahahaha.

Written by Guib on 24.05.2024 at 22:59

Holy shit you went digging Redel, my 2012 comment bahahaha.

Sometimes you need to dig deep to uncover the truth.

Written by Redel on 24.05.2024 at 22:42

Written by Guib on 27.09.2012 at 05:51

Written by Vinther1991 on 10.07.2018 at 23:14

And instead of naming all the great songs on this album now, and how much I enjoyed this re-spin, plus arguing how much it doesnt matter for me that this clashes so much with its predecessor, just as the Black Album does,

Oh, boy this album got traction more for the comparison with s/t than for album itself. For me, CTE was decent yet failed and fall flat when Dave could have capitalised and bring radical shift in the thrash scene.

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 25.05.2024 at 08:32

CTE was decent yet failed and fall flat when Dave could have capitalised and bring radical shift in the thrash scene.

I don't think he could have done anything, not back then and in the early 90s when the scene was forcibly changed by alternative and groove. The whole metal scene of the 80s was put together with the glam scene, it got bad press and little to no support from labels who were happy to milk the next big thing that could make them a ton of money.

Also in Dave's case, it was the competition with his former band, so nobody back then was surprised by Megadeth trying to do their own "black album" with CTE.

Cool album. High speed dirt and skin o my teeth are the same song though.

This is more of a heavy metal album than a thrash album. The thrash here is really subtle, if it exists even. I like the album though, but that's probably because I have been growing up listening to the singles here and there and the sense of familiarity with the songs makes me like it.

Written by tintinb on 26.02.2025 at 03:49

This is more of a heavy metal album than a thrash album. The thrash here is really subtle, if it exists even. I like the album though, but that's probably because I have been growing up listening to the singles here and there and the sense of familiarity with the songs makes me like it.

It's a hit or miss with new fans; it gets on the nerves for the oldies...it's as simple as that. As I said above(last year post), Dave could have stuck to its original plan rather than trying to tailor the-then famous mainstream scene of hard rock or heavy metal per se, and it fell into the face severely. Still, it is compared to Metallica's s/t, and rightly so for the reasons we have known.

A lot of really good songs that just don't feel like they should be on the same record

My personal Top 3 songs from the album:

Symphony Of Destruction
Skin O' My Teeth
This Was My Life