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METALLICA vs megadeth


Moombz

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Rust in Peace is the greatest technical thrash album of all time. No one could match Dave and Marty's chops then. So much speed and aggression. Dave was best when he was pissed off and strung out. The riffs on that album still blow my mind 30+ years later. The only other thrash album that does that is Coroner's No More Color.

I've always been a Megadeth guy, but I'd never argue they were the better of the two. Metallica's body of work for the first 4 is unfuckwithable. What could have been if they kept Dave and got a real drummer....

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Not to be any more of an asshole than absolutely necessary, but No More Color is at least two or theee times the album Rust in Peace is.

 

Not meaning to hate on Megadeth, I was nearly as big of a fan back then 30 years ago as any typical metalhead of that time was, and of course I had all their records. But I mean "chops" aside they were so fucked up on drugs back then, and Dave was so full of himself and just such a huge fucking dick 24/7 that for me anyway that shit really takes away from their overall appeal and tarnishes their legacy. Add in the whiney vox and that puts it over the edge imo, I have no more use for MegaDave. 

 

I get that they were great, talented players technically speaking when Dave was sober, certainly better musicians than Metallica and most other thrash bands and I would never dispute that. But I need more than that. I need that visceral adrenaline thing that gets the blood pumping and the head banging from my thrash, and I just don't get that from them.

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I've always been a Metallica guy, ever since first hearing Enter Sandman in high school. The first 5 albums are untouchable and all fill different roles (KEA=raw, mindless, youthful, RTL=blossoming songwriting skills, huge influence from Cliff, sharp chops, MOP=the GOAT, AJFA=technical, sophisticated, experimental, TBA=surgical precision songcrafting, incredibly strong individual songs, commercial in the best possible way).

Megadeth has never interested me. The vocals are awful, and the wank-factor was always too high for me, and when I got around to appreciate instrumental wizardry there were more interesting bands than Megadeth to listen to.

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Well if I were to make a blueprint of how to break into the mainstream as a metal band without loosing (most of) my metal fans and still being radio friendly and melodic, TBA is what I would create. We don't have to like it to acknowledge that they and Bob Rock knew exactly what they were doing, every step on the way.

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Compared to the efforts that followed, the Black album is the best thing they've done post AJFA. Haven't listened to it in 25 years and have no plans to do so in the future, but it did what they intended it to do, break them into the mainstream. Had they continued in the thrash vein, doubtful they would have been nearly as successful.

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I respectfully disagree.

First of all, One and the video they made for it broke them into the mainstream. Sandman and the success of the TBA just put them over the top and kept them there.

Genre whinging aside, I really don't care that like plenty of other 80's thrash metal bands Metallica moved away from thrash metal in the early 90's with TBA. There is more to life than thrash metal, and I don't believe a band needs to be locked into a given sub-genre forever. That's not the problem I have with that record. Fact is that while it doesn't make up a huge part of my regular listening these days I do still listen to and am able to appreciate some hard rock and generic (non extreme) heavy metal. (as long as it doesn't have high-pitched screechy vox) I grew up with this kind of music and I feel I'm as qualified as anyone to judge these types of things. 

So forgetting for a moment their first four 80's albums, even when taken as standalone generic hard rock / heavy metal albums I think overall Reload (but not Load!) had much better songs and was far catchier and commericially viable than TBA. As far as I'm concerned TBA was two really good songs (Sandman, WIMR) surrounded by a bunch of weak forgettable garbage. And I mean weak as in weak, bland, uninspired, lacklustre songwriting, I'm not referring to their heaviness quotient or whatever. Those two specific songs aside, I find absolutely nothing appealing about anything on the rest of that black album. I hate Sad But True, I hate Nothing Else Matters, I hate the Unforgiven, and I have no time for anyone trying to tell me these are high quality songs. Would those songs have been enough to propel them to the exalted status they occupy today without the first 4 albums and without Sandman? Looking over the rest of the track list I can't even remember how any of those other tunes go.

I do of course realize that there have been a generation or two of rabid Metallica fans whose initial exposure to the band was via TBA. But I chalk that up to accessibility enabled by media promotion, not by quality songwriting. Outside of the massive success of Sandman of course. The music industry much like politics is driven primarily by name recognition. The obscure tend to stay obscure as the mainstream darlings generally become more and more popular over time. To me TBA sounds very much in line with their subsequent output throughout the rest of the 90's and 2000's (I admit I haven't heard Lulu or Hardwired all the way through and I have no plans to but I think I've heard enough to get the gist) which has seen them going through the motions of recording new albums that are guaranteed to sell on name alone, and which have ranged in quality from boring to abysmal so they can continue to seem relevant and to tour and rake in hundreds of millions of dollars. 

I believe that if those first four 80's albums had never existed and Metallica the corporation had to survive on just their body of work beginning in 1991 with their self titled "Black" album that they'd be one of those one hit wonder bands trying to make a living off Sandman. I believe most people would have lost interest and stopped buying their recoords and going to see them live years ago as without the tunes from their first 4 albums I imagine their live set would be pretty anemic and they'd be struggling to fill small clubs.

 

metallica Memes & GIFs - Imgflip

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My inherently worthless opinion is that:

 

1. Metallica had 3 phenomenal albums that are unmessable with and helped change metaldom.  They then had a couple of good/OK albums (including AJFA and Black) and then progressively lost the plot and never regained it.  The last decent album Metallica put out was Load (Death Magnetic was slaughtered by its production and lack of editing, Hardwired is mainly cardboard flavoured filler).

2. Starting with Peace Sells and finishing with CTE, Megadeth wrote some classics too albeit lesser classics than 1st 3 Metallica.  Megadeth consistently writes good albums.  They have very few clunkers and only 1 I find to be irredeemable garbage (Risk).  

3. Personally I love Megadeth.  Dave Mustaine has a knack for writing catchy tunes, great solos, cool riffs.  He generally manages to maintain some sort of intensity too.  

 

So the winner is Megadeth

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Sorry to bring up an old topic but ya know Dave needs defending sometimes. Bob Rock, the producer for the black album, did his album style and radio sound, Like Dr Feelgood. Sonically really solid albums. But Megadeth has the guitar players jaws dropping, Dave specifically, Wake up dead, he is doing the riffs and the solos in the same takes on stage. If Bob Rock had been involved with Risk it might have had radio tracks, but instead of the top 40 producer Dave with a more artistic choice. Also his solo players have been pretty amazing, Marty Friedman with the egyptian sounds on the holy wars album, Chris Poland, amazing. Also, as a guitar player about Kirk Hammet, For a guy that knows one scale he did really well with it for 5 albums, in Metallicas defense Death Magnetic is a bad ass thrash album and Kirk has started solo'ing really well on albums, finally doing improv. And Metallica did tour the country for ten years with zero radio airplay paying dues and doing thrash, but Megadeth always makes thrash albums (Outside of Risk) so they win by a hair.

 

One thing no one mentioned, Dave is just that kind of jerk you love to hate really:

 

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I like both bands, although I don't listen to much Metallica after the black album. I listen to Megadeth a lot more but again tend to ignore the later stuff a bit. Dystopia was a reasonable album but still not to the same level as those 80's and 90's albums. However I'm loosing interest in the new Megadeth album as the days go on, Dave has not released a great Megadeth album without Ellefson and I don't see that changing now.

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Nah Megadeth definitely made bad albums after Youthanasia

Dave's voice is relatively unique* and does help make Megadeth stand out from many other bands....but so does his ego and bullshit.

(* relatively unique because the guy from Mechanix does a pretty damn good copy of Dave on Sonic Point Blank)

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Really tough choice. Think theyve both wrote 3 "classic" albums. Metallica Ride, Master and Justice and Megadeth Peace, Rust and Countdown. Beyond them mainly indifferent. Its so close but if i had to choose one to watch again before i die it would prob be Megadeth (as long as they played the setlist of my choosing lol)

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