To inform the story of Megadeth’s Countdown To Extinction, first it’s vital to clarify the place the world was upon its launch, on July 14, 1992.
Within the music world, the phrase “heavy” was taking a brand new kind. Alt.rock was massive information, with Nirvana’s Nevermind sitting fairly on the prime of the charts in January that 12 months, paving the way in which for his or her Seattle neighbors Alice In Chains and Soundgarden, together with the grunge explosion. In numerous methods, these bands had taken components of punk, basic rock and the earliest incarnations of heavy steel, chewed them up, and spat them out as a extra appetizing thought of what heavy music may very well be.
Thrash steel – the very style that counted Megadeth as certainly one of its “Big Four” – was present process a serious transformation itself. Only a 12 months earlier, Metallica had launched their self-titled fifth album. It slowed thrash down, gave it a business sheen courtesy of its Bob Rock manufacturing, and but retained a heaviness that, whereas extra palatable than something that they had produced earlier than, was unmistakably Metallica.
In the meantime, the opposite two of Megadeth’s Massive 4 friends, Slayer and Anthrax, have been additionally shifting gears. The latter had collaborated with hip-hop giants Public Enemy on the hit single “Bring The Noise” and their subsequent tour, and set on a extra melodic path with new vocalist John Bush. Even LA velocity retailers Slayer had switched to a midtempo tempo two years earlier on Seasons In The Abyss. So with their contemporaries slowing down, the irony was that Megadeth have been at risk of being left behind.
That includes what many regard because the basic line-up – vocalist and guitarist Mustaine, bassist Dave Ellefson, lead guitarist Marty Friedman, and drummer Nick Menza – for Countdown To Extinction, Megadeth, like their friends, opted for a stripped-back method leading to a extra targeted and streamlined sound. Realizing that Metallica had opened the door to heavy steel’s acceptance within the mainstream, Mustaine wished a chunk of the motion.
Their thrash roots are nonetheless evident on the likes of “Skin O’ My Teeth,” “Architecture Of Aggression,” “High Speed Dirt,” and “Ashes In Your Mouth,” however this time round it’s a extra simplistic interpretation of the style. As an alternative of every track bouncing between 20 advanced riffs at 1,000mph, they’re streamlined, underpinned with one fundamental hook and a extra structured supply. The place the songs differ from Mustaine’s former band, Metallica, nonetheless, is that Countdown To Extinction looks like a pure development from its predecessor, Rust In Peace. The leap Metallica produced from … And Justice For All to their self-titled album made them sound at occasions like a completely completely different band. For Megadeth, there wasn’t such an enormous disconnect; it was a groove-based thrash, with memorable hooks.
However Countdown To Extinction matches into a much bigger image. George Bush, Sr, was in The White Home; in January 1991, he launched a collection of air strikes on Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of the neighboring Kuwait, initiating the Gulf Warfare. In the meantime, The Chilly Warfare, which started after World Warfare II, got here to an finish in 1991, adopted by the collapse of the Soviet Union, whereas the sooner fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1990, paved the way in which for a extra united Europe and the signing of the unifying Maastricht Treaty. In such a politically charged time, it wasn’t simply music, however the entire world that gave the impression to be altering.
For years, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine had garnered a repute as a little bit of a motormouth, and politics is a topic on which he’s by no means been shy of creating his emotions identified. In 1988, he informed Sounds journal that if he have been president he’d construct a wall alongside the border with Mexico to curb unlawful immigration (sound acquainted?). In the identical 12 months, he upset followers at a present in Northern Eire amid the Irish battle after dedicating a track to “The Cause,” not realizing that many concertgoers took it as an endorsement of the IRA.
Although Mustaine’s lyrics have been thought-about to convey occult themes on Megadeth’s 1985 debut album, Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good, from second album, Peace Sells… However Who’s Shopping for?, onwards, Mustaine started to take a extra social and political stance, masking topics comparable to nuclear warfare and authorities conspiracies, and even going so far as to provide Intercourse Pistols’ “Anarchy In The UK” a makeover on 1988’s So Far, So Good… So What! By the point of Countdown To Extinction, politics supplied the album’s spine.
The underpinning theme is struggle – whether or not that be the inner struggle of Mustaine’s psyche or the one which was being fought midway world wide within the Persian Gulf. (Mustaine has admitted that “Architecture Of Aggression” was written in regards to the then Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein.) Elsewhere, a George Bush, Sr, speech is sampled on “Foreclosure Of A Dream,” a monitor that offers with the economic system and social inequality. Appropriately, closing monitor “Ashes In Your Mouth” is an imagined wasteland within the aftermath of fight.
Upon its launch, Countdown To Extinction debuted at No.2 on the Billboard chart and shortly reached double-platinum standing. The album was nominated for the Finest Metallic Efficiency Grammy in 1993.
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