A quick one today to recap some news that hit yesterday about a massive new box set chronicling the earliest part of Ritche Blackmore’s career in Rainbow. A set called Temple Of The King will release on March 6, 2026 and features an insane NINE cd’s of music.
Now -this set is not a deluxe album collection, something even some casual collectors might jump all over. This is the first of several sets intended to cover Blackmore’s career, which I’ll presume will cover all of Rainbow’s long run and possibly also his other projects. Though do note that this format likely won’t extend to Deep Purple, which Blackmore would not have sole control of.
What we get across these nine discs are the first two Rainbow albums – Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow and Rising. The remaining discs are loaded with live shows and the final disc offers up a series of rough mix and alternate rarities.
Given that the crux of the content is live stuff, I decided to go ahead and pre-order this monstrosity. I do have these first two albums hanging out in my cd collection but I saw this and said “what the hell, why not.” I haven’t often been one for the deluxe box set covering just an album or so kind of thing, but this one seemed fine at nine discs for a $100 price point. Add in the fact that this set covers the years 1975 and ’76, which means Ronnie James Dio would feature as the singer on all of the content and I was sold.
The layman might view the tracklists with skepticism, as the live concerts only feature three or four songs per CD. Rest assured that when Blackmore and Rainbow played live in the ’70’s, Blackmore showed up to play his damn guitar. Many songs from the live shows of this era run over ten minutes. And while I don’t know the exact run times of the offerings here, there were some jams that went on for over twenty minutes back in the early Rainbow days. While each disc might only feature roughly thirty minutes or so of music, the sets might have been too long to fit on one CD, with a generally given run time of 80 minutes. Or maybe they could have each fit on a single CD and this presentation is a bit excessive. I don’t know, I guess I’ll find out in March.
Time will speak to the exact worthiness of this set, but overall I think it’s in good shape with two albums, three live shows and a rarities disc. It also clearly opens the door to future installments that would run past Dio’s time in Rainbow and cover the more commercial rock era that featured Graham Bonnet and later Joe Lynn Turner. And the list of other players who were in and out of Rainbow over the years could honestly fill a book. We’ll see how the overseers of this material, assuming Blackmore is among them, choose to present future offerings. But we are off to a running start with two mega classic albums, the immortal tones of Ronnie James Dio, and enough Ritchie Blackmore guitar to fill a planet with soundwaves.
It is Thanksgiving here in the United States and today I’d like to give thanks for having a few days off of my damn job and also for this new Megadeth song to dig into.
I Don’t Care was thrust upon the world a few weeks back on November 14th. Thanks to the aforementioned job, I am just now getting to making a post about it. The song hails from the self-titled album due to arrive on January 23rd, 2026. This is slated to be the final Megadeth record.
This song is the upcoming album’s second single and this one caused quite a stir when it hit. The song is a snarling, punk-based track that recalls the early influences of thrash while still very much being a 2025 Megadeth song. It is an interesting combination of styles, with the punk-rooted ethos combining with the clinical precision that typically defines Megadeth. The production strays clearly on the side of Megadeth’s typical sound, which might detract a bit from the punk edge but I do think it works well enough for a Megapunk song 40 years into the band’s career. And, regardless of the song’s tone and style, we do get a fair few guitar solos even in this fairly brief jaunt that just touches 3 minutes.
The lyrics here are extremely simple, it’s basically just a chorus of “I don’t care” about various things as well as a short, quietly almost-rapped verse that says quite a few bad things about someone. While the target of Dave Mustaine’s diatribe is unknown, many speculate that it might be a prominent ex-member of Megadeth. I don’t know and I’ll leave it at that until or unless more information becomes known later.
This song caused a fair bit of chatter when it was released. Some enjoyed it and others found things to dislike, whether it was the Megadeth style clashing with the more raw punk theme or the lyrics that aren’t the most mature that Mustaine has ever offered up. I personally enjoyed the song, I don’t have a problem with the slight stylistic departure from typical Megadeth. While the band’s stock in trade has usually been clockwork precision and massive amounts of guitar solos, I think it’s fair for Dave and company to branch out a bit, especially this far in and on the swansong album.
I also very much don’t care if the lyrics aren’t profound existential statements. While I enjoy plenty of metal that does have a more intellectual sheen to it and Megadeth has been a band to offer that up at times, I am also quite fine with heavy riffs and caveman bullshit coming out of someone’s mouth. A song called I Don’t Care doesn’t need to usher in a philosophical thesis, it’s allowed to be dumb. This to me isn’t so bad that it needs to be sneered upon, it’s simply fitting a theme and some songs can be fun and dumb.
I am on board the I Don’t Care train, and I’m looking forward to this album’s arrival in the dead of winter early next year. And even if I wasn’t, I am quite sure that Dave doesn’t care.
Today is a special occasion as we have been granted a new Megadeth song. This isn’t just any song, this is the lead single from what is billed as Megadeth’s final album. We now have this new song to get into as well as more specific info about the album to go over, and we also have a few, uh, curious points that have come up the past week or so to also swing with.
This is obviously, BY FAR the biggest thing going on in music today so let’s get into all of this.
First up we have the new song called Tipping Point. The song has been on streaming services since midnight in various regions, but the music video dropped just a few minutes before I wrote this. This one opens up ferociously and plows on for the first few minutes before the requisite Megadeth guitar solos and then a breakdown section before a more mid-paced finale. While any reactions of mine are very quick at this point, I will say I do very much enjoy this song. It does sound in keeping with the better parts of Megadeth since their 2004 renaissance.
In addition to the new single, we also now have more information about the upcoming album. The album will release on January 23, 2026 and is simply titled Megadeth. The image we got of Vic Rattlehead in flames from the prior retirement announcement is the album’s cover. There was no new press information released when pre-orders went live, the press is mostly reusing the statement Dave Mustaine made in August when announcing the band’s final album and farewell tour.
Now, as I said there are a few things to discuss beyond the song and album info. Tipping Point has actually been in circulation for over a week now. The song was leaked and very briefly uploaded to official streaming platforms. It seemed to hit Spotify in a few international territories but I don’t recall it making the US list. I caught a snippet of the leak but I did not pursue the full song leak, I figured like many that the leak was a mishap and I just waited for the official drop today. Music leaks are a very early 2000’s thing that really hold no true bearing in the modern streaming marketplace.
In addition to the song leak, we actually were also “treated” to an early info drop of the album name and cover. The music retailer Rough Trade had posted pre-order info for the new album a few days ago and their listing did accurately portray the cover and title. Rough Trade did pull the listing and re-list just a bit ago along with the wider retail offerings. Also, having nothing really to do with this post, Rough Trade’s website is so slow that I was waiting for the nostalgic dial-up Internet noise while things were loading. Anyway…
It does seem as if there’s some ill coordination in Camp Megadeth. Music does leak, sure, but like I said earlier, music leaks aren’t a massive deal like they used to be in the download and piracy era. But it does look either like a “planted” leak or some unintentional screw up. I’d personally bet on the latter. The album pre-order going live on one site early is probably a mess up on the part of the retailer and isn’t a massive issue but again, we’ve now had two screw-ups regarding this hotly anticipated final album and it has caused a bit of a buzz in die-hard Megadeth circles. It all probably doesn’t mean much of anything in the end but it’s a semi-interesting side note of this press push into this farewell cycle.
And that pretty well does it for the new Megadeth news. It will be interesting to see how the farewell tour plays out, but the early focus will be on the final record and if it fits well within the Megadeth pantheon. Early returns are promising and we have something to look forward to just a hair into 2026.
A bit of a quick one today to pay futher tribute to Tomas Lindberg. Today’s song is a cut from At The Gates’ debut album The Red In The Sky Is Ours, released in 1992.
Windows is the album’s fifth song. Nothing was released as a single, this was the band’s very early days and everyone was running on shoestring budgets. Band members have retroactively lamented the album’s production due to those financial constraints and having a producer that was not familiar with heavy metal. While I do agree that production here does leave something to be desired, it’s an album I can still get through and enjoy. Many of the underground metal albums of the early 90’s did not have the best in sonic technology.
The music of Windows was composed by guitarist Anders Björler. The lyrics were penned by vocalist Tomas Lindberg and are, at their simplest, about someone going insane. There is possibly more to it, as the song might be a eulogy for Per Yngve Ohlin, aka Dead, the singer of black metal band Mayhem until his suicide in 1991. Dead’s suicide brought a ton of attention to Mayhem and many were on hand for the wild and infamous ride that the second wave of black metal would go on during the early 1990’s.
I do not know if Lindberg was singing about Dead here, the lyrics do indicate it could be so, but I can’t readily find any actual sources corroborating this. It has been a widespread rumor for years and perhaps there’s some long lost interview with Lindberg that confirms this theory. But for the purposes of this brief post I’ll have to leave it as a loose thread.
Windows is a very heavy, crushing track that fits its disturbing subject matter. The song became an early favorite of fans and endured as one of the band’s signature tracks, even after the career and genre-defining Slaughter Of The Soul was released in 1995. Windows does have placements on a few live sets both audio and video, and is also a live bonus track on the band’s 1994 album Terminal Spirit Disease.
While we wait rather sadly for the final At The Gates album to feature Tomas Lindberg, it is nice to go back to the beginning and hear At The Gates crushing it right out of the, uh, gate. From very humble beginnings, At The Gates shaped the blueprint for metal that would come for decades afterward.
This past weekend we received the gift of the new Spinal Tap movie – Spinal Tap II – The End Continues. Along with that we got the inevitable “soundtrack” or music album to accompany the film. I’ve already given my thoughts on the movie here, so today let’s go over the record.
Spinal Tap – The End Continues
Released September 11, 2025 via Interscope Records
This album is straightforward and doesn’t have a ton of background info to go over. The album was recorded by the band’s three principal actors – Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer. Guest and McKean are also the album’s producers along with CJ Vanston, who also plays keyboards for the group in the movie. Joining in on drums is Valerie Franco, the actress/drummer who portrays the band’s new drummer Didi Crockett in the movie. There are also a wide array of guests on this album, Phil X and Greg Bissonette are a few noteworthy ones beyond the mega-star headliners.
We’re about ready to dig into the album, but there is one oddity as it relates to streaming services. If you look this up on Spotify, you’ll get 12 tracks – 9 new songs and 3 re-recorded Spinal Tap classics with very distinguished guest musicians. This should also be true of other streaming services, well, except for one.
If you have Amazon Music, or if you purchase a physical copy of the album as I have, you will find one additional track – the band’s classic Big Bottom, with guest musicians Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. This does not appear on any other streaming service because Brooks has an exclusive deal with Amazon and is otherwise dead set against streaming music services. Since I do have it on record I will cover the widely-celebrated collab in this roundup.
Nigel’s Poem
This is a small bit from Nigel with sparse atmospheric keyboards behind it. As a song it is quite short, as a poem a minute might as well be an eternity as far as I’m concerned. This vaguely calls back to his spoken word intro to Stonehenge, but not really. I’m not sure what this is doing here. Grade: D+
Let’s Just Rock Again
This first proper song is a decent enough cut of old-school epic rock with the annoying sort of keyboard sound from Eurpoe’s The Final Countdown. The verses on this one have all three band members trading off vocals, it’s very slow and doesn’t always work. The chorus builds up in ok fashion. It’s not a horrible song but it isn’t all that great. Grade: C
(Listen To The) Flower People, featuring Elton John
We get are first guest shot here, with the legendary Elton John making his first of two appearances. Here the band tackles their first proper hit from the 1960’s as Spinal Tap, this jam is also in the film. It was a hilarious song back in the first film and it’s only made better with Elton John contributing to it. It will become quickly apparent that the entire value of this record is in these marquee guest appearances. Grade: A
Brighton Rock
A pretty nice classic rock track here. The lyrics are absolutely pointless but I guess the song needed something. Not a bad song overall though. Grade: C+
The Devil’s Just Not Getting Old
The music here is quite good. What I believe are Harry Shearer’s vocals are not. I could live with his super gruff vocal style, but this lyrical output is totally ham-fisted and not amusing. I honestly don’t know what the fuck this is. Grade: D-
Cups And Cakes, featuring Paul McCartney
Here is another early Tap classic, actually pre-Tap as the band were the Thamesmen at the time. This silly sweet track has the one and only Paul McCartney on it, Macca also jams this out with the band in the movie. It’s short and sweet and, while not the greatest song ever recorded, you can’t really fail with Macca joining in on your jam. Grade: B+
I Kissed A Girl
So I’m not gonna bother with even a surface level analysis here – this song sucks. End of. Grade: F
Angels
This doesn’t fit the movie or Spinal Tap’s style at all but it’s also a pretty decent song that sounds good and has something of a point so have a Cfor your trouble.
Big Bottom, featuring Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood
In the film, a short clip of Garth and Trisha covering Big Bottom comes up. It’s pivotal to the story and is also absolutely hilarious, one of the best moments in the film. In keeping with the theme of the album, we get a full version with the couple as welcome guests.
Garth and Trisha completely handle the vocals here, they trade off lines and Trisha’s subtle twists to reflect the gender ramifications of her singing certain parts are hilarious. The pair are also the focus of the song as the music does seem to sit in the background a bit more than in the original version. But what is widely hailed as the best Spinal Tap song is handled very well here to accommodate two A-list guests and everything comes off in great fashion. Again, you must either have a physical copy of the album or Amazon Music to have access to this song. Grade: A
Judge And Jury
This one comes in with an R&B style jam, or at least it’s in that vein. It’s pretty awful but it does sound clear and better executed than some of the other stuff on the album. It is further evidence that the group had no real creative direction when putting this record together and were just throwing shit at the wall. The biggest problem with throwing shit at the wall is that it’s shit. Grade: D+
Rockin’ In The Urn
Holy shit, we actually get to a new song that has a bit part in the movie and has some semblance of a point to it. This is handled by Derek Smalls/Harry Shearer as it was a proposed solo tune of his. Harry’s vocals are the weak point of the song, the music itself is honestly quite good. This is about the only glimpse of the old classic Spinal Tap that could crank out surprisingly good songs. The verses here are too slow for my tastes but the song is pretty decent overall. Grade: C+
Blood To Let
This album is a slog to get through but it’s oddly picking up steam in its final moments. This is an upbeat rocker with some keyboard and horn accents and is honestly a pretty good track. It’s probably the most well-formed of any of the new original songs and doesn’t really suffer at any point in the song. On most any other rock album this would be a passable secondary track, but on this bomb of an album it’s a highlight. Grade: B
Stonehenge, featuring Elton John
We close things out with Elton joining in on the band’s epic power metal-ish song. The track was pivotal to the first film and is integral to the new film’s climax as well. This new version does have some differences to the original but is generally faithful in execution. This always was one of the better Spinal Tap songs and it’s only enhanced with the presence of the great Elton John. Grade: A
The End Continues is a soundtrack album, though beyond the guest shots and the one original song that gets a bit of play, I’m not sure what film this album is soundtracking. It’s very odd that another Derek Smalls original that gets featured in the beginning of the film wasn’t recorded for this. This album has a few highlights with the mega-star guests and then has maybe one song that’s possibly worthy of any future listens. The rest of the album is very throwaway and holds no replay value of any sort. Even the few songs that do come together as decent tracks really don’t offer a reason to be revisited.
Spinal Tap was able to compose a shockingly good soundtrack for their first film, and then in 1992 they gave up an original album Break Like The Wind that had the excellent single The Majesty Of Rock on it. The band reconvened in 2009 for a collection of re-recordings Back From The Dead that didn’t offer up a ton of new stuff but was very good sounding. But here in 2025, with what is likely the final Spinal Tap musical release, the band hacked up a hairball. The record did chart very modestly in the UK and Scotland, but beyond that and the excellent guest appearances on well-known Tap songs, this album is dire and honestly better left forgotten.
Album Grade: D
It is a shame that we didn’t get something more with this album. The movie was worth the time and it’s been nice to see Spinal Tap get one more push in the limelight. But this time they brought an album that sadly doesn’t pass muster. I can certainly forgive this and move past it, there is plenty enough in the Spinal Tap lexicon for me to enjoy. But it would have been nice to have a little more something to what is most likely the group’s musical swansong.
Today’s news is a tragic update to revelations we were privy to last month, when At The Gates announced they were preparing a new album and that singer Tomas Lindberg had a rare form of cancer. Sadly, that cancer has claimed Tomas’ life. Tomas was 52 years old.
Lindberg was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in October 1972. He would get started in music in the late 1980’s and joined up with the band Grotesque. A bit later Grotesque disbanded and Lindberg teamed up with several others to form At The Gates. From 1992 through 1995, At The Gates released four albums and became one of the beacons of melodic death metal, a movement largely centered on the Gothenburg area. Their fourth album Slaughter Of The Soul is hailed as one of the best albums of the 1990’s and was a massively influential album on heavy metal from the 2000’s, especially death metal and metalcore.
At The Gates unexpectedly broke up in 1996. After this, Lindberg spent the next decade-plus fronting a wide range of bands. He would join up with Disfear, The Crown, Nightrage, LockUp and many others. He also formed his own band The Great Deceiver, showcasing a unique blend of death metal and other styles. And he provided guest vocals to a dizzying array of bands all over the metal spectrum.
In 2008, At The Gates reunited for a series of tours. The band did not expand much upon the touring for several years, but then in 2014 they became a fully active band again and offered up At War With Reality, their first album in 19 years. At The Gates toured regularly and released two more albums in 2018 and 2021.
The information provided in Lindberg and At The Gates’ statement last month outlines the final few years of Lindberg’s life. In 2023 he was diagnosed with a rare form of throat and mouth cancer, which required major surgery. In early 2025 some remnants of the cancer were found, requiring very sensitive treatment that left Lindberg isolated. While we don’t have any further details regarding that, Lindberg died on or around September 16th.
Lindberg’s death has hit the metal community hard. At The Gates are revered as one of the of pioneering forces of the heavy metal that came about in the 2000’s and basically saved the genre from the extinction that almost occurred during the late 1990’s. Lindberg was well-respected among metal fans and artists, as evidenced by his miles-long list of guest contributions and the wave of tributes that have flowed in since the news of his death.
For me, At The Gates has long been one of my favorite bands. I was entirely taken with the concept of melodic death metal and have been on board for over 30 years since I first heard them. Slaughter Of The Soul is one of my favorite albums of all-time and the entire discography is one I go back to with frequency. It took me forever to see At The Gates live, which finally happened in 2018. Seeing them live essentially crossed off the final name on my “concert bucket list.”
Tomas Lindberg’s death will be felt as we go forward, especially given the news that At The Gates do have one final album with his vocals nearly ready for release. Condolences to Tomas’ family, friends, bandmates and fans worldwide.
This past weekend was the theatrical release of Spinal Tap II – The End Continues. This film is the sequel to the 1984 cult classic mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. It’s not common to get a sequel film 41 years after the original, but a long-standing battle over rights issues and a simple desire to find the “right” story for a new film held things up for a long time.
This new film involves the four main characters – band members David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls, as well as documentary maker Marty Di Bergi. There are also a number of new people involved, a handful of cameos from characters in the first movie, and several new guests.
The movie is quite short by today’s standards, going for 1 hour, 22 minutes. I was fine with it, there was more than enough to fill the screen and I didn’t see a reason to have a super long movie.
The plot is very simple and, to be honest, barely even there. Spinal Tap are contractually obligated to have one more show after 15 years of not playing together. The rest of the film is the lead-up to the show and then it caps off with the show itself. It’s extremely simple and doesn’t carry any excess baggage or dense weight to process.
This does make for easy watching but does also have a downside – there isn’t a ton of real tension or anything in the film. The first movie had a huge sense of wondering just how far the band was going to fall, as well as a true antagonist with Jeanine fouling up the band. Spinal Tap II doesn’t have much adversity going on – sure, David and Nigel have issues with each other and there’s an antagonist with a slimy concert promoter, but the film moves from “they’re reuniting” to the reunion in pretty short order. No one needed a crazy movie with twists and turns, but this is super, super light on plot.
We do get several guest appearances. A handful are small cameos that let us know how characters from the first film are doing, and a few others are new guests. Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood appear in one of the film’s most hilarious scenes and Paul McCartney makes a decently-sized appearance as himself. Elton John spends a bit more time on the screen and is pivotal to the film’s conclusion. There are a handful of other brief guest shots that come during an important story scene and I won’t spoil it, but they do make the joke that everyone thought they were going to make based on the pre-announced guest list.
One thing the movie gets right and probably the central thing they needed to get right is the humor. There are a few outright moments of gut-busting laughter, but most of the jokes are the same kind of faux-British, deadpan delivery that made the first movie so charming. Nigel especially is as full of nonsense as he was in the first movie.
Another thing done very well is honoring Spinal Tap lore. This movie fits very easily in alongside its 41 year old sibling film. The band’s long-running issues with drummers play a huge role, and the actual reunion show and aftermath are very much tied to incidents from the first movie. There isn’t a ton of new original music on offer in contrast to the first film, but Derek Smalls does air out a few bits of solo material. And while David St. Hubbins does seem a bit different as he’s gotten older, Nigel and Derek are almost straight-line continuations from the original flick. It’s very cool to catch up, albeit briefly, with old characters like Bobbi Flekman, Jeanine and Artie Fufkin. And the film honors the departed Ian Faith with a brief flashback before introducing his daughter. While the plot may be light, the story connection to the first film is rock solid.
I don’t feel much need to keep going with dry analysis so I’ll go ahead and wrap it up here. Spinal Tap II – The End Continues is a fitting sequel to the classic film of decades gone by. While it doesn’t offer up a lot in the way of story, it does great service to its lineage and offers up an entertaining array of laughs. It was nice to see the band back together for one more ride and the movie was more than worth the time.
Grade: B+
So now we have what seems to be a fitting conclusion to the Spinal Tap saga. I presume this is the final film, anyway. And in usual movie tie-in fashion, the band did offer up an album to accompany the film. I have since covered the album in this post.
I’ve just returned home from work and heard the tragic news that Tomas Lindberg has died at age 52. I will have a post honoring his memory in the coming hours. That tribute post is now live and available to read here.
There were two pieces of significant news last week. One involved the announced farewell album and tour of Megadeth, which I covered yesterday. Today’s post regards pioneering melodic death metal act At The Gates, who announced a new album but also an ominous update.
At The Gates have been back at it for a long time now since reforming in 2008. They have released three studio albums in that span and toured extensively. Things with the band have been pretty quiet since 2021’s album The Nightmare Of Being. For those who don’t recall (everyone but me, I’m sure), that album was my pick for 2021 Album of the Year.
Sadly, we’ve found out why the band has been so quiet the past few years. Singer Tomas Lindberg announced last Friday that he has been in a battle with a rare form of oral cancer. This blabbermouth.net article outlines the issues. He underwent major surgery and radiation therapy for it, and a reoccurence of the cancer was found earlier this year. Lindberg has been largely isolated through this time due to his treatments, and this obviously affects his ability to perform.
Clearly it is troubling times in the At The Gates camp, and Lindberg has stated he will remain secluded and not give interviews or any further information regarding his illness or treatment. This does also preclude the band from being able to perform.
One thing it won’t hamper, though, is a new album release. The band have been working on things for a few years and have a series of demo takes Lindberg recorded before his cancer saga. The group had hoped to wait until Lindberg was on the mend to release new music but with this updated news, they will go ahead and release the new album.
The album is also significant in that it marks the return of guitarist Anders Björler, a founding member of the group who had departed in 2017. This reunites Anders with his twin brother, bassist Jonas. Everyone in the band and fans were all looking forward to Anders’ return.
The news about Tomas Lindberg is harrowing, and hopefully he will find eventual healing as he goes along. There is some solace in us getting a new At The Gates album, which at this time we don’t have any details or time frame for. It is hollow in comparison to a cancer battle, but all there really is to do is hope for the best, respect Lindberg’s wishes for privacy, and jam out to the new album when it arrives.
Special report time this week, as we got a few pieces of huge news a few days back. The first of which that I’ll cover today involves the impending end of thrash titans Megadeth.
Last week, Megadeth posted a countdown to something on their website. The countdown was only a few days long, it was not some super weeks-long saga. Most people figured the announcement would have to do with a new album, which Dave Mustaine has talked about recording over the past year. Others thought it might have to do with the seminal Rust In Peace record, which was referenced in the countdown announcement and is nearly 35 years old.
But the announcement, that came on August 14th, was far more significant than just a new album. Such an album was indeed announced and is tentatively slated to release in early 2026. The band also announced they would head out on a world tour in ’26.
None of that is shocking or even outside the realm of routine. But the notice that this album and tour would be Megadeth’s last was definitely not anticipated. A video from Megadeth’s mascot Vic Rattlehead announced the album as being the band’s last and Dave Mustaine also released a statement confirming that Megadeth were engaging in a farewell tour. The details of the tour are not prepared yet and it is expected to last a few years.
I was a bit taken aback at the announcement. I honestly wasn’t expecting Dave Mustaine to pull the plug or even entertain the concept anytime soon. But, he is currently 63 years old and has had a share of health battles. He could be 65 or 66 years old by the time this farewell tour wraps up, so it does make some sense when reflecting upon it. Of course it’s also useless for me to speculate on it, as the decision is clearly in the hands of Dave Mustaine and I don’t know a thing about any of it.
This news generated some buzz, obviously, and not all of it was good. One aspect people didn’t like was the use of AI in the Vic Rattlehead video. I do think AI sucks but I also don’t have the same sharply ideological stance against it that many do. There is nothing I can do to halt its spread, as much as it sucks that it’s forcing its way into the art world. But it’s not a massive part of this topic and is very much a conversation for another time.
The other cynical part of this farewell announcement is obvious to any music fan who has been around long enough to see “farewell” tours, and then see the same bands show up again a few years on. We have no way of knowing if Megadeth will “honor” this farewell statement, or if Dave will change his mind mid-stream and keep things running to some degree. It’s especially a point of thought when a band only has rough plans for a years-long world tour instead of a solid list of farewell dates already planned.
The only thing we can really do is wait and see. I really have no reason not to take Dave Mustaine at face value here. Sure, Dave has said a LOT over the years and running him down is one of the heavy metal Internet’s favorite hobbies. But I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that this plan holds and Megadeth truly is bowing out in a few years’ time. The truth is that it really doesn’t matter to me that much even if he doesn’t stick to it. My life will go on whether or not Megadeth retires in a bit or if they press on in some form.
Megadeth has been a vitally important band to my musical fandom. Rust In Peace was THE album that cemented my interest in heavy metal and sent me on a quest to find faster and heavier music, a quest that still rolls on to this day. All of the real and perceived negative stuff surrounding Dave and Megadeth pales in comparison to how significant Megadeth has been to me.
So I will do the only thing there is to do – wait, check out the new album and see if Megadeth truly are done. I may take in a show on the upcoming tour, that will remain to be seen. I’ve only seen Megadeth once and that was as an opener for Iron Maiden in 2013. The set was excellent but I would like to take in a full Megadeth show so I’ll keep an eye on upcoming tour dates.
If the end is near for Megadeth, then I salute them for the contributions to this fine form of music over the decades and thank them for everything. And if it isn’t the end, I salute them for the contributions to this fine form of music and thank them for everything. And that’s about all I can really say on it.
So my post is late, big shock I know. This was actually due to an IT issue. I thought I had killed my trackball and I couldn’t find another mouse so I was navigating my PC with keyboard shortcuts and wasn’t having a grand time of it. I somehow got the trackball going again but everything got pushed back a little bit. No biggie.
I am now up to 1994 on this series. I was either a junior or senior in high school, depending on the time of year. I was still a fairly directionless, dumb teenager, though at some point in this year I did commit to joining the US Navy, which I would go through with a year later. But that’s a story for 1995, a post that’s coming tomorrow.
1994 was a big year for music. Grunge would symbolically “die” with the suicide of Kurt Cobain. New strains of alternative music were popping up. Alt-rock was really taking shape and was becoming the default version of rock on the radio and MTV. Heavy metal saw its older and more traditional forms fall off hard, but new, more extreme variants were having a field day around this time. Death metal was about as big as it would ever be, though it would have a short shelf life in the “almost mainstream.” And many of us in the pre-Internet USA were getting word of a crazy ass murder that happened in ’93 surrounding a form of music called “black metal.”
But neither of those forms of music are represented on today’s list. I was entrenched in death metal around this time, but the format doesn’t always lend itself to big, noticeable singles. And I wasn’t quite ready for black metal quite yet. I was fine with the music I had access to. I was still keeping an ear to what mainstream music had to offer, at least for the next few years. So with all that out of the way, let’s get into 1994.
Nine Inch Nails – Reptile
It’s fair to say The Downward Spiral has a handful of my favorite Nine Inch Nails cuts. One that’s really stood out to me when I’ve played it in recent years is this later into the album track that is, simply enough, about getting an STD (or STI now, I don’t know). Fine enough in itself but this dark and twisted musical accompaniment makes it almost desirable to engage in this chase. Conceptually this song is either a continuation of what happened in the big hit Closer, and/or it’s just some shit that happened to Trent Reznor. Musically it’s a titan of industrial metal.
Oasis – Live Forever
Britpop was big in ’94 and the eventual world leaders of the movement showed up with their debut album Definitely Maybe. Live Forever is a song I’ve gushed about several times before and I’m most likely going to do so several times again. Today I’ll do so, but briefly. This song is a beautiful account of the unbreakable bond between family, friends and other loved ones. The song can suit the most special of occasions like weddings and funerals, or simply sitting and contemplating those special bonds in life. This is easily one of the greatest Oasis songs.
Corrosion Of Conformity – Seven Days
Up next is a somber, powerful quasi-doom ballad from the long-running North Carolina noise merchants on their album Deliverance, a stark turn into southern rock and metal that redefined the band’s legacy. The song is a powerful statement that entwines the religious symbolism of Christ with the minefield of personal interactions. Hard not to get swept away in the emotions and desolate nature of this masterwork.
The Cranberries – Zombie
When The Cranberries hit I did not exactly go wild for them. Linger and Dreams didn’t connect with dull, disaffected teenage me. While I will gladly report that I am very into The Cranberries as a whole these days, our topic today is a whole other matter.
Zombie is a haunting, wretched heavy metal masterpiece about the woeful decades of The Troubles that plagued Ireland and England through a lot of the 1900’s. It isn’t just a case of a lily-white alt-rock darling going “metal” for a gag – this is full on the real deal, and with it a vocal performance from Dolores O’Riordran that goes down in immortality, and has already sadly outlived her.
For any song I’ll ever discuss on here, this is one I figure damn near everyone who might read would already know. And if you don’t, well, stop whatever you’re doing and educate yourself now.
Bruce Dickinson – Tears Of The Dragon
Bruce Bruce took a huge, frightful step in the mid 1990’s and left Iron Maiden, the band that made him and that also he made, or at least he helped put on the worldwide map. His second solo album Balls To Picasso was his first statement since leaving and it offered up this insane, massive power ballad.
This is an immense song about facing the fears of stepping out, which for Bruce was leaving Maiden, but the song is universal and everyone can find solace in its message. Bruce was able to explore space not available in Steve Harris’ vision of 1990’s Iron Maiden. While their paths would reconnect for one of music’s most electrifying reunion sagas, Bruce did acclimate himself very well on his own.
That wraps up 1994, which was a huge year in music and honestly a lot of songs I love are missing from this list. But hey, that’s the nature of picking five from each year. Up next is 1995, which was one of the most significant years of my life. And you, spoiled reader, get the goods tomorrow.
The Crooked Wanderer 