MEGADETH
Cryptic Writings (1997)

Rating: 8/10.
Metalliwho??



Boy, does Dave Mustaine owe us, the Heavy Metal Faithfuls big-time for last year's major stinkeroo, that dry hump that was his MD .45 side-project. Aren't enough people saying that heavy metal is dead without coffin-nailing efforts like that? Were it not for Ozz-Fest, all might have been lost. Trust Dave then to be his own redeemer, coming back this year with a stunningly focused Megadeth album, CRYPTIC WRITINGS.

Musically, it manages to break new ground while pulling up long-buried roots to the surface, so the album segues through atypically slow, orchestrated numbers like "Trust" to strangely groovy ones like "Mastermind" and at the end, to a trio of frenetic thrash work-outs, "She-Wolf," "Vortex" and "FFF." Throw in the Mercyful Fate homage "Sin" and you've got yourself an album that quite perfectly masters its inherent tensions, just threatening to fly apart at the seams with all its different moods, atmospheres and ideas.

The head-trip that CRYPTIC WRITINGS takes you on is pretty much your requisite Megadeth fare. Equal parts emotional paranoia, misanthropy, obsessive insecurity, and punk rage. What tends to set Dave Mustaine apart from your everyday topical ranter is that the personas he adopts on each song is that of a psychotic comic book anti-hero: half-thug half-philosopher, totally oblivious to (and probably not caring) how crazy or ridiculous he may sound. Who else could pontificate about social ills over a catch phrase like "have cool will travel" or begin a song with a line like "The mother of all that is evil, her lips are poisonous venom." You know you want to laugh, but the music's pounding too hard, and you're too busy singing along.

CRYPTIC WRITINGS is easily Megadeth's most powerful album since 1990's RUST IN PEACE, and it even sounds better. More significantly, its an example of what a band can be capable of long after its original genre has been exhausted. Yeah, Dave Mustaine's doing okay for a guy who got himself kicked out of Metallica (and what has that band done for you lately), seems to be only just learning how to play guitar, and still writes silly lyrics. Very okay, in fact.

Rating: 8/10


Gerald Tan 1997

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 Visitor's Comments:

FROM: primus-fan@webtv.net (steve p.)
DATE: Tue, 1 Dec 1998
SUBJECT: megadeth cryptic writings review
COMMENTS:i love this album. people diss it and put it down FUCK THEM! this album is filled with great metal, punk thrash, it is way better than Youthanasia, witch i liked at first than i relized it wasent all that good. Cryptic writings is awsome it is my 3rd fav album, i luv RUST IN PEACE AND COUNTDOWN MORE, BUT THIS ALBUM iS UP THERE WITH EM. it gets a 9/10!


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