Megadeth - "The World Needs A Hero" (Sanctuary)

Does it? Megadeth’s ninth album features exactly one song about finding a hero (the title track), but many more about exposing the villains: cold-blooded thieves, countries that hang their soldiers out to dry, or just ex-girlfriends who still want to be friends. Judging from the evidence, the world doesn’t need a hero so much as it needs a purge of anyone singer/guitarist Dave Mustaine doesn’t like.

In Megadeth’s world, that could be anyone, although given the quartet’s recent history, a few concrete examples come to mind. The label that supposedly gave them a raw deal (Capitol, abandoned for Sanctuary). The management that didn’t understand the band’s needs. The guitarist who, according to Mustaine, was the driving force behind Megadeth’s recent radio-friendly output (Marty Friedman, replaced by ex-Savatage man Al Pitrelli). But everything is hunky-dory now, says the band, or will be if the metal masses receive The World Needs A Hero with an open ear.

Some context: having failed to achieve commercial success with the much-maligned but well-crafted Risk (1999), Mustaine seems to have finally reconciled himself to the hard truth that massive, umpteen-platinum record sales don’t generally happen to bands named Megadeth. Least of all, we might add, when said band features a singer whose voice can be politely termed an acquired taste (read, Geddy Lee with nasal congestion). At this stage in the band’s career, then, The World Needs A Hero becomes a survival record with a survivor’s goals: put Megadeth back on the metal radar, erase the memory of Risk and reconvert old-school fans who probably stopped listening to the band after Countdown To Extinction (1992).

Surprisingly, the pressure to destroy isn’t immediately obvious at the outset: "Disconnect", a fairly placid power-metallic number, glides smoothly through its five-odd minutes without doing more than whetting the listener’s appetite. After a few tracks, though, the engine heats up. The bass-heavy "Recipe For Hate…Warhorse" builds up tension slowly and malevolently before kicking into the sharpest thrash assault this side of Rust In Peace (1990). "Moto Psycho", with its effortless, road-raging locomotion, transitions seamlessly into "1000 Times Goodbye", which finds Mustaine blazing out an ‘80s-style guitar solo with the joy of a man breathing fresh country air after years of city living. And Pitrelli shows he can keep up with the Joneses on "Return To Hangar", a new-millennium update of "Hangar 18" that rides out on Mustaine and Pitrelli trading scorching leads over a brutal, hyper-sonic riff.

So what keeps this album from becoming a classic? Mustaine, or rather, his voice. Too often, he stays out of harm’s way, rarely delivering the vocal performances that turn good tunes into great songs: witness the play-it-safe mentality that sabotages the chorus to "1000 Times Goodbye", or the palpable indifference in the verses of the otherwise-excellent title track. When Mustaine attempts his infamous sneer, it sounds strangely lackluster, an echo of the man who once spat venom with ease on cuts like "The Conjuring", "99 Ways To Die" and "Mary Jane". Add the embarrassingly childish content that’s characterized his lyrics of late ("We watch…as the living…all die," he mumbles hilariously on "Losing My Senses"), and it’s hard to avoid shutting out Mustaine’s voice and concentrating on the music.

Two cuts also fail unequivocally on musical grounds: "Promises", overwrought, cliché-riddled proof that Megadeth should never, ever write ballads, and closing track "When", which postures theatrically for over nine minutes without really taking off (besides borrowing liberally from Diamond Head’s "Am I Evil?"). But as a whole, the songs on The World Needs A Hero motor along fiercely, more likely to sidestep into instrumental riff/solo carnage than to repeat a chorus ad nauseam. Which, in the end, is what redeems The World Needs A Hero, a strong outing that proves that, after almost 20 years, killing is still Megadeth’s business. And business is still good.

Reviewed by: Jay Rajiva