Call Upon The Author

Welcome to part 3 of our look at the career of Megadeth, so far we’ve covered the formation and the 80′s as well the highs and lows of the 90′s and now we come kicking and screaming into the 00′s and the bands spectacular rebirth.
As 2000 began Megadeth were still reeling from the failure of Risk, a major overhaul was needed, Marty Friedman had left the band at the end of the Risk touring cycle due to musical differences, he would be replaced by former Alice Cooper Guitarist Al Pitrelli. Megadeth entered the studio in April 2000 to begin the initial writing sessions for their ninth studio album, but an invitation to join Anthrax and Motley Crue on the road brought things to a momentary halt. In October 2000 the band’s long time label Capitol rejected the bands recordings and parted ways with them, in November of the same year the band signed with Sanctuary and completed work on the album that would become ‘The World Needs A Hero’
May 2001 saw the release of ‘The World Needs A Hero’ the album signaled a return to the bands heavier metal roots and was written entirely by Dave Mustaine. It was met with both critical and commercial acclaim and seemed to show a band that was revitalized and looking to the future.
Little did anyone know that the Megadeth train was about to come to a grinding stop. After a year on the road in support of ‘The World Needs A Hero’ things took a turn, once again, for the worse.
In January 2002, after being admitted to hospital with a kidney stone Dave Mustaine had a relapse whilst taking pain medication and landed himself back in rehab, but that would be the least of his worries, a freak accident lead to Dave Mustaine causing severe nerve damage in his left arm that allowed him unable to play guitar. In April 2002 Mustaine announced that he was officially disbanding Megadeth due to his injury leaving him unable to play.
After serious therapy and intense training Dave Mustaine found himself once again able to play guitar and began working on a solo album, that due to contractual obligations would later become the Megadeth album ‘The System Has Failed’ and would also be the first Megadeth album to not feature Co Founding member Dave Ellefson who had a vicious falling out with Mustaine, accusing the front man of faking his injury and lying to the press amongst other things.
‘The System Has Failed’ was released in 2004 and received many mixed reviews, with many people refusing to accept it as a Megadeth album and passing it off as a Dave Mustaine solo album (as originally intended) and it kind of flew under the radar. 2004 would also see Megadeth’s former label Capitol cash in on the bands re-emergence and they remastered and re-released the 8 albums they released in their time with the label (everything bar Killing Is My Business…. and The World Needs A Hero) and with that at least in name Megadeth was back in Business, Megadeth spent the next two years on the road and reestablishing themselves in the live arena, creating the Gigantour tour in the process which saw them tour with bands such as Lamb Of God, Dream Theater, Dry Kill Logic, Fear Factory and Arch Enemy. It was hugely successful and the world waited to see what would happen next.
In 2006 it was announced that the band had signed a three album deal with Roadrunner Records and would begin work on a new that would be released that year, the album would eventually see the light of day in May 2007 to rave reviews.
United Abominations, the band’s first release for their new home Roadrunner Records, was a trademark album that displayed all the bands signature songwriting traits and brought them kicking and screaming into the modern era, it was anchored by the single ‘A Toute Le Monde’ (set me free) which was re-recording of their 1994 classic now featuring the vocal talents of Cristina Scabbia from Italian metal band Lacuna Coil. The political themes that were explored on ‘The System Has Failed’ were once again prevalent on this new album and displayed a more venomous side to Mustaine that had been missing since the early 90′s. The band once again took to the road and played European festivals that summer including a main stage stint at the Download Festival, as well as world tour as well including another go around on the Gigantour.
In 2008 Glen Drover left Megadeth to spend more time with his family, he would be replaced by ex Jag Panzer guitarist Chris Broderick.
The band started 2009 touring with Testament and Judas Priest in Europe before heading out on the Canadian Carnage tour with Slayer, Machine Head and Suicide Silence, it was announced that in September of that year that the band would release their new album Entitled ‘Endgame’
Endgame rode in on a wave of critical praise with many music tabloids hailing it as album of the year in their year-end polls, it really was the album that symbolized that Megadeth were back and still even in the 00′s a force to be reckoned with, any lingering doubts about Megadeth’s relevance were put to rest with the release of Endgame. The band saw the end of 2009 out with the first round of touring for Endgame.
2010 brought with it the 20th anniversary of the bands seminal release Rust In Peace and to celebrate this occasion, the band took part in the American Carnage with Slayer where they would each play a classic album each night, Slayer would play Seasons In The Abyss and Megadeth would do a run through of Rust In Peace. In the summer of 2010 the news broke that the Big Four of thrash (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax) would be together collectively for the first time in history at Sonisphere in Poland and Bulgaria, this was a thrash fan’s wet dream about to become true and one that the band was thrilled to be a part of. It also signaled the return of Dave Ellefson to the band after nearly a decade, and with it also the news that the band would shortly enter the studio to begin work on a new album, which would be their last with Roadrunner Records.
2011 has seen the band Play further Big Four shows in California, New York and at Knebworth, UK as part of the Sonisphere Festival as well as Release their thirteenth Studio album entitled Th1rt3en; they have announced plans for a 2012 edition of the Gigantour tour and are looking ahead to the future.
To this day Megadeth has released thirteen studio albums, three live CDs, three greatest hits albums, one box set and a number of DVDs. They have sold over 20 million albums and helped to define an entire genre and generation of music.
The reasons why I love Megadeth are simple, they play fast and loud, Dave Mustaine writes lyrics I can relate to and they don’t compromise, but probably most importantly they write songs and albums that hold my attention, they are one band that I find myself easily obsessed with. I want to know anything and everything about them, I want to own everything with the name Megadeth on it and I’m proud to say I’m a fan of them, the first time I heard them they blew me away, the first time I saw them live it felt amazing due to me thinking I’d never have a chance, that little kid inside of me that saw the Hangar 18 video all those years ago was so happy and that’s a memory I’ll treasure forever. There’s a Megadeth album for every mood and every occasion and to me that’s what music is about and Megadeth deliver everything I love about music in spades and there really isn’t any more I can say about them than that.