MEGADETH: “A Time To Dry” (Capitol)

DAVE Mustaine, Megadeth main man, and for many years the person considered to be the most irritating twat in metal, has gone through something of a renaissance in recent years. Why, with his drug habit apparently kicked, and a bit of cop-on apparently acquired, he even got around to covering the US presidential election as a correspondent for MTV.

On Youthanasia, therefore, it is no surprise to find political matters jostling for lyrical prominence with more personal themes such as the pressures of being famous, life on the road, and the aforementioned drug problem. The album sleeve, depicting babies being pegged on a washing line, is inspired by the title track, a powerful comment on American government policy, both domestic and foreign. “Who’d believe with the way things are here/We’d be going anywhere telling people/How to live?” ask Mustaine, before claiming that the youth have been “. . . hung out to dry.” Makes you wonder why he didn’t call it A time to live, and a time to dry, instead of using such a terrible pun.

Seriously, though, the lyrics ( a few of which were co-written with Dave Ellefson, Marty Friedman and Nick Menza), coupled with Mustaine’s trademark snarled vocals, are probably the record’s strongest facet. “A tout le monde/A tout amis/Je vous aime/Je dois partir” (‘A Tout Le Monde’), he sings, and miraculously gets away with it. The words do get a bit ridiculous, however, on the last track ‘Victory’, which consists almost totally of old Megadeth album and song titles. “May the past ‘Rust in Peace in ‘Hangar 18’/And ‘Countdown to Extinction’/Just be a bad dream/’Lucretia’ said . . .” is the rather cornily expressed wish that ends the song.

Given the above sentiment you could be forgiven for expecting a total change of musical direction but unfortunately Youthanasia fails to deliver many shocks. Tune-wise it’s a hit and miss affair that doesn’t differ radically from the previous efforts that Mustaine now seems to want to forget. The guitar work especially is disappointing – it’s not too much to ask for some deviation from the norm from the ex-Metallica man and his experienced sidekick Friedman. Also, still on the subject of Metallica, it’s eleven years since Mustaine was booted out of that outfit, and yet three or four of these songs sound like rejects from the Kill ’Em All sessions, the most notable offender being ‘The Killing Road’, the bastard son of ‘Hit The Lights’ and ‘Whiplash’. Overall we get “the fast distorted guitar bit”, “the slow acoustic bit” and “the frankly disappointing solo bit” too often for comfort.

Thankfully, when the lads disengage timewarp mode, they manage to come up with enough decent offerings to swing the balance back, including ‘Train Of Consequences’, ‘I Thought I Knew It All’ and ‘Addicted To Chaos’. ‘Tout Le Monde’ is also among the best, despite the previously mentioned French passage and an anachronistic burst of Maidenesque twin guitar, an affliction also maiming ‘Blood Of Heroes’.

Lyrically strong, musically patchy. Not bad . . . But who’s buying?

• Graham Neilan