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...

The Vic Collection

Oh, man...Do I have a treat for you today...I've been going through a bunch of old storage bins and I ran across an unassuming purple folder...

...Openening it up, I was happy to find THE VIC COLLECTION!!!

I think I went over this in the previous Megadeth posts, but I was obsessed with Megadeth in the late 80's-early 90's, and one of the by-products of this obsession was the Vic Collection... I used to make everybody in my school draw me a picture of the band's mascot, Vic Rattlehead...For those of you unfamiliar with Vic Rattlehead,  he looked  like this...

Anyway...Without further ado, here's the complete Vic Collection from circa 1992 (minus a couple exceptions which border on bullying and we try to avoid any negative vibes here...The Friday Night Record Party blog strongly discourages bullying and if I catch anybody doing it, I'll take away their lunch money and give 'em a swirlie so quick they won't know what hit 'em)...

 Pink Paper Vic by Katy Weber

This was the first entry into the series...The one that kicked off the whole endeavor..I know this because if you look at the back of each drawing there was a number that indicated what order they were drawn in..I took the whole thing that seriously...

Bruse Vic by Jason Trevarrow

Jason is my brother, although back then he was affectionately known as Pinhead... I don't know if I fully understand this one...I don't know if Bruse means "bruise" or "Bruce"...We have a friend named Bruce, but I don't know if I understand the connection between this picture and Bruce...

 

Salvador Dali Vic by Josh Timlick

I consider Josh to be a genius on many different levels... Great musician, great writer and as you can see a brilliant interpreter of Vic Rattlehead...I think Josh gets the award for largest number of contributions to the Vic Collection....He was as big a Megadeth fanatic as I was...

 

Heavy Lines Vic by Artist Unknown

Hmmm, no signature..It's a nice scribbly take on the classic Vic... 

Pinhead Vic by Me

Haha...This is where I turned my younger brother into Vic Rattlehead...At the time Pinhead had one o the greatest Turbo-Mullets known to man and I think I did it justice here..I think the best part has to be the Orlando Magic T-shirt and my signature which substitutes an anarchy sign for the "A" and the Flipper "X" over the letter "I"... I was a real Barney Bad-ass...

Why the Long Face, Vic by Josh Timlick

When I was singing Josh's praises earlier it's for stuff like this...A Vic with his head stretched to various lengths...The meaning of this abstraction is probably lost forever to time...

Stunt Rock Devil Vic by Joe Weber

It's difficult to overstate the impact that the film Stunt Rock had on me and my circle of friends...And we loved the performances by Sorcery whose band line-up included a Wizard and Ol' Scratch himself (not to mention a masked, munchkin-voiced keyboardist)... 

Vic Hitler by Artist Unknown

Anybody wanna take credit for this one? 

Hot Dog Head Vic by Johnny Rection

Johnny Rection was an alias of the late Corey Russel whom was my friend and band-mate in the Deranged Chimpmunks...He was definitely a unique guy...He had the ability to write lyrics so offensive that I've personally witnessed Mothers scream in terror as they heard them...

The Vicar by Jens Heronemus

Oh yea, Jens is my Brother-in-Law now...But he wasn't back then...He's a great artist and you may have seen his work on some of our TA-80 albums...This one almost seems like it could be a real Megadeth shirt or something...I would've bought one for sure...My favorite aspect is if you look to the far right you can see this was drawn on that old school computer paper with the perforated edges like they used on that Judas Priest album cover...Do they still sell that stuff?

Witchcow Boarder Vic by Kevin Davy

Kevin is my cousin! We used to hang out all the time back in the day...So many good memories...I really enjoy  "Witchcow Boarder Vic"...I believe it's what they refer to as "High Concept."

Crinkled Vic by Joe Weber

This may be the most crinkly, yellowed, overly-folded piece of paper I own...This was drawn by my good friend Joe (who made that Mix Cd that I reviewed a day or so ago), who was also a member of D.C....His depiction of Vic is excellent...The glasses have a very high rivet count...

 

Classic Vic by Artist Unknown

This isn't signed...Did Josh possibly draw it? It's very good...The quintessential Vic....

 Thick Vic by Jason Trevarrow

Love Jason's portrayal of Vic...Normally Vic is depicted as being wholly skeleton, but this one seems to have only a skull-head and a thick, fleshy body...

No Laws Vic by Kevin Davy

This is one of my favorites...It kind of looks like his head is on upside down...I want to make a sign like the one Vic is leaning on here and put it in my front yard...Alas, I live in a third-floor apartment...

Bicep Bic by Signature Illegible (it may possibly say Jason Trevarrow)

Highpoints: The Anarchy sign with the veiny wings, and  Vic's gigantic biceps that look like delicious chicken legs...

A Black Vic by Signature  Illegible

I'm not really sure what the intention of this was...Maybe the artist was attempting to add a little ethic diversity to the Vic Collection? Who knows....

The Black Vic by Aaron Ranger 

This whole black Vic thing really caught on....

Scribble-Framed Vic by Aaron Ranger

This appears to be a trace of the "Classic Vic" that Josh drew, framed by some scribbles...

Spell-Check Vic by Scott Grant

"Cool Dud, Ausome." I grew up in a generation that didn't really have spell-check...

Shiny-Headed Vic by Tony Jansen

I swear to you, Tony Jansen was maybe the greatest cartoonist that ever lived...A highlight of my pre-teen and teenage years were the countless hours Tony and I spent drawing D.B. & Slice cartoons...We would crack each other up so hard we could hardly breathe...His absurdly cold and manipulative Slice character was his most brilliant creation...The world has no idea what's it's missing with this guy...Just look at that Vic drawing above...

Picasso Vic by Josh Timlick

A good companion piece to his earlier Salvador Dali Vic...

Valentines Day Vic by Scribble Timlick

I'm not 100% sure who drew this...The Timlick part of the name is clear but the first name is seriously just a big scribble...Could be Josh, could be Dennis...I know a lot of Timlicks...This is great though...Our first Holiday-themed Vic...Maybe there's a Pumnpkin-Spice Vic coming up...

Vicky Rattlehead by Scribble Timlick

This is cute, I like this...I'm thinking Scribble Timlick must be Josh...The happy-face iconography strongly bears his stamp.... 

 Mafia Vic by Josh Timlick

I like that the only thing that distinguishes regular Vic from Mafia Vic is that he's a little wider...Pasta is high in carbs, after all...

Watcher Vic by Illegible Signature

I'm not sure who drew this..I'm thinking Josh...I don't really know many other people who knew who the Watcher is...

Ghost Rider Vic by Josh Timlick

Alright, these scribble ones have to be Josh...He had a real thing for Ghost Rider...They were both Skeletons, so turning Vic into Ghost Rider is a perfect fit...

Shrunken Head Vic by Josh Timlick

Close Up Vic by Josh Timlick

I choose to see this as the camera suddenly zooming in on Shrunken Head Vic....

Moses Vic by Josh Timlick

Easily one of my favorites...We used to refer to Charlton Heston as "Charles Intestine" so much that one day I couldn't remember Charlton's real name anymore...I was like, "I know it's Charles something,.."

 

Computer Vic by Josh Timlick

Computers were a pretty far out futuristic thing back then...It used to seem like their only practical purpose was to play Carmen Sandiego in Mr. Marr's class...

Halloween Vic by Kevin Martin

A pumpkin-headed Vic smoking a doob in honor of Halloween...I wish I would have had this pic a few days ago when I was doing the Halloween post...

Phallus Vic by Name Withheld

I probably shouldn't say who drew this one...After all a prospective employer might try googling his name and come across a Skeleton with a dick for a nose, hairy balls for his eyes and a backwards swastika glasses/earrings combo...To be fair and balanced, he does have a Star of David for his other earring (although I'd lay money down that Star of David was supposed to be a Pentagram)...Teenage boys can be pretty dumb...For a contrast, here are a couple dick pictures I drew back in the day...

Hulk Hognuts and Jake "the Wiener" Roberts...

Thundernuts, Ho!

Random Vic by Illegible Signature

I can't make out who drew this...John Goodman, maybe? It appears to be a variation of the Katy Weber Vic...

Vick Rattlehead Bathomet by Artist Unknown

Don't know who drew this but I dig the Baphomet where the pentagram in the middle makes it look like it has an extra "O"...

 Vic 1 Tribute by Suprina Harrod

This appears to be another variation on Katy's inaugural Vic...That was pretty common...A lot of the people drawing these had no idea who Vic Rattlehead was, so they'd just look at what someone else had drawn previously and based their design on that...

Rattle Off Your Goddamn Head by Brett Wesley

Alright...I like this...After the other artist took the concept way past its stretching point, Brett brings the whole thing back to its roots with a simple bad-ass Vic and a paraphrase of a Megadeth lyric...Brett was a real-deal metalhead...I greatly admired him...Look, he had two pentagrams in his signature...

Disco Vic by Kevin Davy

These Disco-Man drawings were pretty popular in my school...During the early 90's no form of music seemed more absurd or outdated than Disco...It's easy to forget that, now that disco is fashionable again...

Basketball Vic by Artist Unknown

I don't know who drew this, but they have the lightest pencil line I've ever seen...When you see the actual drawing it looks like a blank sheet of paper until you squint and hold the paper an inch from your eyes and suddenly a Vic Rattlehead in a basketball uniform magically appears...I had to go through a lot to get this to scan properly...

African Dying Vic by Name Withheld

Alright...This is just messed up...lol...This is by the same gentle, artistic soul that gave us Phallus Vic...Damn, this is really crossing a line...I actually think I remember the genesis of this drawing...We were in Science class thumbing through a pile of National Geographics and stumbled across this horrible photo of starving people swarming with flies...Our teenage minds weren't able to sufficiently grasp such a terrible idea and this teenage boy did what teenage boys do...He attempted to find humor in the horror, cos there's not much else you can do about it...It's not pretty, but that's the dark side of growing up...

Disco Rattlehead by Me and Aaron Ranger

Another Disco Vic. I know the signature says Aaron Ranger, but that's clearly my drawing and handwriting at the top...I believe he just colored it in with pencil, drew the table with the boom-box, wrote "Disco Mania" and signed it...

Stunt Rock Vic by Josh Timlick

Another Stunt Rock themed Vic, this time it's by Josh and he's depicting the Wizard...

Obease Vick by Jason Trevarrow

LOL LOL LOL!!! I love the cake!!

Long Headed Vic by Me

Zero idea what this is about...

Cooleo Vic by Josh Timlick

Manoman, is this funny...I remember Josh used to loudly boom, "I'M COOLIO, YA STANKIN' HO!!!" and we would always crack up...

Bruse Simpson Vic by Jason Trevarrow

Now I'm even more confused over the whole "Bruse" thing...Was he possibly busting on Bruce's drawing style? I'll probably never get an answer on this one...

"Don't Think I'm Shittin' Ya, Folks..." Vic by Me

The exact details of this are hazy, but here's how I remember it...Josh was telling me that there was a substitute teacher in one of his classes who had a giant forehead and was trying to be the "cool teacher" by swearing in front of the class constantly...Apparently he repeatedly used the phrase, "Don't think I'm  shittin' you folks..." at the end of every sentence...

Robot Vick by Norah Timlick

 This is a new addition to the Vic Collection that I just received today, done by Josh's daughter Norah...Which means the Vic Collection has now spanned two generations...In more than two ways, because I'm choosing to see Norah's Robot Vick as the offspring of Josh's Computer Vic...

Vampiry Vic by Norah Timlick

by Norah Timlick

He's gonna bite 'cha!

 Alright...That's enough Vics for today...Thanks to everyone who drew these and to send us off let's listen to some Megadeth...