Band : Megadeth
Album title : EndGame
Label : Roadrunner
Distributor : Concreteweb Promotion Office - CNR
Release date : 11/09/2009
Release : CD

Since Megadeth became part of the roadrunner family it seems as if diamond Dave Mustaine has found back the holy fire. ‘United Abominations’ put the band back on the map and made us forget that Megadeth ahd become a sort of The Dave Mustaine solo show. He did a hell of a lot of touring and, if we may say so, kicked some ass here and there. Earlier this year Dave thought is was time to do like his big brothers in Metallica and took some time of form the studio and do some shows with Judas priest to get the creativity going. After listening to the end result now, witch is called ‘end game’ we must admit that is worked to his advantage, at some points. The album opens with an more than appropriate mood swing intro by the name of ‘Dialectic Chaos’. The real work starts with ‘this day We Fight’ and people that are familiar with the older Megadeth stuff will agree with us that Dave went back to his roots. Along side of him he had his new friend Chris Brodrick on the guitar and this young kid (coming from Nevermore) sounds like a young Mustaine without the drugs, very good. The next song is ’44 Minutes’ and that shows us how Megadeth sound in 2009 when they are fired up. Maybe the best song on the record, real class. Unfortunately Mega Dave can’t keep up with this quality. ‘1.320’’ and ‘Bite The Hand That Feeds’ sound colourless. Even the title track of this records doesn’t give us a hard-on. Just when you’re about to give up ‘The hardest part of Letting Go…Sealed With A kiss’ comes around. A song that, with the ‘…’, breaths the spirit of the late 80-ties. Because we live in time where internet, facebook and Titter rule the earth Megadeth gave us an appetizer with ‘Headcrusher’. Without any doubt the fastest and heaviest song on the 12th record of this band. To bad the two songs that follow, ‘How the Story Ends’ and ‘Nothing Left To Lose’ can’t keep up with this standard. ‘End Game’ is a nice record that will give Megadeth the opportunity to tour for the coming 2 or maybe 3 years but it’s very clear that the climax of this metal institute lays in the past.

72/100

Stef Maes.