So, I am having a problem with this album. A number of
problems, honestly, on a number of levels. I love Megadeth, and I always have.
I’ve remained a faithful fan during their low points, their AOR phase(s) that
seems to come and go, their commercialization attempts and the eventual
failures of those attempts, and the subsequent attempts at returning to
original form.
Dystopia is
reportedly one of those returns to form following an alleged failure with
2013’s Supercollider. I didn’t think that album was a failure, but I
am also pretty hard pressed to recall any of the songs from it, save the cover
of Thin Lizzy’s “Cold Sweat” which I found outstanding. To be honest, trying to
recall individual tracks from the last few Megadeth albums finds me drawing a
blank, and that’s not a good segue for me to say that I’ve enjoyed most of the
post-2000 output of the band. I once hurt my shoulder vigorously air guitaring
to The System Has Failed.
Dystopia has
everything that a post-2000 Megadeth album is required to have. Vic Rattlehead
is on the cover (maybe that’s why people think Supercollider was a dud…..), there are political songs (“The Threat
is Real,” “Dystopia’” “Lying in State,” “Post American World”) and there are
tough guy, ‘I will kick your ass’ songs (“Look Who’s Talking”), there are songs
that could go either way but whose real direction is kind of unclear (“The Emperor”).
