Megadeth:Countdown to Extinction

Megadeth: Countdown to Extinction

1992

Capitol Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Skin o' My Teeth  2. Symphony of Destruction  3. Architecture of Aggression  4. Foreclosure of a Dream  5. Sweating Bullets  6. This Was My Life  7. Countdown to Extinction  8. High Speed Dirt  9. Psychotron  10. Captive Honour  11. Ashes in Your Mouth   


I know this isn't the next album I should be discussing, but  it's been so long since I talked about Megadeth, that I felt like it's time to roll up our sleeves and discuss some serious Mustaine...

Why do I enjoy talking about Megadeth so much? Because I cannot convey how important this band  was to me when I was a kid. The kind of all-encompassing obsession that only occurs when just the right thing engages your teenage chemistry and gets it really swirling. Megadeth weren't just a bunch of dudes in a band. They were fucking rock n' roll deities.1990's "Rust in Peace" was the absolute peak of my Megadeth obsession. It was the greatest album ever made as far as I was concerned and I had spent 2 full years dissecting it and pouring over every nuance.

 I was so busy obsessing over "Rust in Peace" that  it had somehow never crossed my mind that they would ever actually put out another album...So imagine my surprise when my friend Josh called me up saying that he had heard a new Megadeth song. It somehow seemed so impossible that he had simply heard a new Megadeth song. Surely a new song by the band would be accompanied by the fanfare of trumpets and a host of angels proclaiming its glory...

How could I have missed such a thing. How could someone else had possibly heard it first? But sure enough, I eventually got around to hearing the album's first single, "Symphony of Destruction," and...gulp...I didn't know what to think...

"So Jamin. New Megadeth! Symphony of Destruction! Whaddaya think?"

"Uhhh...Yea. It's awesome. Megadeth. Still the greatest band of all time...Just like I've been loudly trumpeting for the last few years. Yup"

(turn around with a deeply troubled look on my face as I bite my fist)

I suddenly had a flashback to the previous summer...

1991.

Bryan Adam's "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" is at the top of the charts, "Terminator II" is dominating the box office, and young Jamin is in his cluttered bedroom and decides to take some time off from wanking to the latest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue to listen to the latest Metallica cassette. The infamous "Black Album"...

Another album I had deeply anticipated and when it finally came, I...didn't know what to think. I mean, it's a new Metallica album for chrissakes. It must be great, right? Still, why do I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my gut when I hear all these power ballads? And why is it so slow? And simple? "Uhh...The slowness is actually designed to make the album feel heavier. And yea, it's full of ballads but they're not like Nelson ballads.Except for like..."Nothing Else Matters" which I guess is a love ballad...But c'mon, Man...It's for his wife! No. They didn't sell out and get slow and write a bunch of ballads for something as crass as radio-play....Careerism? Perish the thought!"

(turn around with a deeply troubled look on my face as I bite my fist and look at the charts, jam-packed with slow Metallica songs and ballads).

Alright. Back to the Summer of '92...

I was going to stay for a few days at Josh's house in Tawas, to record Deranged Chimpmunks' 1992 masterwork "Gods of All Meat." While I was there, I stopped at the the local record store to pick up the long-awaited Megadeth "Countdown to Extinction" cassette...

What the lump?! No Vic Rattlehead on the cover? Just some old wrinkly man?! And the logo is silver?! Why isn't is gold? What's going on?

"I'm sorry I got eaten. You can see by the expression on my face that I'm genuinely sorry that I'm a skull on a plate...I'll try to do better in the future..."

To be fair, Vic was picture in the inside cover...This made me feel a little bit better...

There was no chance Megadeth could have went "Black Album" on us, right? The slowness of "Symphony of Destruction" was a fluke. They were stretching a bit. Fishing for a hit single, to give folks a false impression. Then when they went and bought the album, BAM! They would unexpectedly be slapped upside the head with the most complex, ass-kicking thrash album ever committed to high-bias cassette...That had to be the explanation.

Once the whirlwind weekend ended, I had a chance to return alone to my dank bedroom and listen to the tape. Over and over and over to unlock its secrets and perhaps make some sense out of it...It was summer. No school in sight. I had all the time in the world...

Here was my dark secret, and one that changed the course of my music listening life forever...I was in  my bedroom cranking the album and "Sweating Bullets" came on. "Ah, sweating bullets. I should be able to relate to this," I thought to myself as I sweated profusely. Anyway, I had it cranked and was bopping along when suddenly I turned it down. I was actually embarrassed to be listening to this...Megadeth couldn't have done wrong! It was obviously me. I'll admit it. I was the problem. My God. What was I hearing? Mid tempo rockers!? Ballads? 

"Yea, but they're not, like, Nelson ballads...They're not love songs...It's like, about saving animals and losing your farm and stuff..."

So what was the final verdict? Had Megadeth gone "Black Album" on us? Uhhh. Kinda. I have a feeling a lot of this was inspired by Metallica's recent mainstream move and I cannot discount that radio-play was a huge factor in recording this album. Still, I think Megadeth were able to hold onto their thrash roots a bit more successfully than Metallica who abandoned them altogether...It would take Megadeth exactly one more album until they fell into that trap...And the band was kind enough to leave us with one final thrash masterpiece with album closer, "Ashes in Your Mouth." Whenever I reached the end of the album, no matter how many powerballads and Cool Hand Luke quotes I had to sit through, that song and its glorious riff always left me with a misguided sense of goodwill towards the album...


The album did end up being their breakthrough commercial success...Back during the "Rust in Peace" era, Megadeth sightings on TV were extremely rare. Maybe on Midnight viewings of Headbanger's Ball. But that was about it. Suddenly, they were playing on Club MTV in broad daylight. They were on late night TV talk shows. And I remember me and my friends marveling at the the week where "Skin 'O My Teeth" was played on a Soap Opera everyday during some extended bar scene (I tried to find footage of it online, but to no avail. But trust me. It exists)...

Oh, yea! I saw the band twice on this tour! Once on November 21,1992 at the Palace of Auburn Hills, with Suicidal Tendencies as the opening band (which I was absurdly stoked for, being a longtime Suicidal fan)...

 Here was the set-list for that show (courtesy of setlist.fm.com)

1. Holy Wars... The Punishment Due
2. Skin o' My Teeth
3. Wake Up Dead
4. Hangar 18
5. Countdown to Extinction
6. Foreclosure of a Dream
7. This Was My Life
8. Lucretia
9. Sweating Bullets
10. In My Darkest Hour
11. The Conjuring
12. Tornado of Souls
13. Ashes in Your Mouth
14. Symphony of Destruction
15. Peace Sells
16. Encore:
17. Anarchy in the U.K. 

(I have some vague memory of someone throwing a rose onstage and Dave Mustaine eating it and saying it tasted like pussy or something...I think that occurred at this show)

Then I saw them a second time on July 1st, 1993  on a bright summer day at Pine Knob Music Theatre (now the DTE Energy Corporate Log Music Theatre) with Pantera and White Zombie.

 Here are some recollections of the show between me and my good buddy Joe from a previous comments thread (edited for relevancy):

JoeApril 8, 2013 at 6:32 PM

 You remember when we went to that concert at Pine Knob with (Megadeth), White Zombie and Pantera? Remember we had grass seats and when Megadeth played everybody started throwing grass and sod? Dave Mustaine got super pissed and stopped playing and threatened to leave if it kept up? Then when Pantera played one of us were watching the big screen and saw Phil hitting a joint? Man as I'm writing these things just keep coming back! Didn't someone buy an iron cross and I can't remember if it was you or Josh pressed it against someone's head and it instantly broke? I can't stop laughing!

Jamin 80April 8, 2013 at 8:37 PM

I'm seriously laughing so hard I can't even stand it...It was worth starting this blog just for your comment...I totally forgot about the iron cross thing...I think Jim Sasser bought it and we were pressing it against someone's forehead to do an indentation and it crumbled apart...

So ultimately, I look back at "Countdown to Extinction" with some fondness, since I associate it with good times with great friends, although the album is kinda boring and dopey. I eventually learned to love it though. I can't deny playing "This Was My Life," "High Speed Dirt," and the aforementioned "Ashes in Your Mouth " to death...Still, this marks the moment where Megadeth stopped being my favorite band. They became increasingly fallible at an alarming rate since this dropped in the record store in that summer of '92...Oh, well. It couldn't last forever...

Here's the abso-fucking-lutely hilarious video for "Sweating Bullets." I used to have it on an old videotape and Joe and I used to bust up whenever it was on...Enjoy...