Megadeth - Rude Awakening
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Free Music Notes for Rude Awakening
Free Music Review: Rude Awakening
Hit: 5 Stars
This is a great cd or dvd for any megadeth fan. It gives you a little taste of Megadeth Live! Must get for any hard rock fan!Free Music Review: She Wolf
Hit: 5 Stars
She Wolf rules, If She Wolf were the only song on this album I would still buy it. Get it today and listen to SHE WOLF.Free Music Review: Outstanding
Hit: 5 Stars
Outstanding Band... Outstanding DVD... worth the every $. Buy it!Free Music Review: Can we curse here?
Hit: 5 Stars
2 words... f**king awesome. repeat? f**king awesome.Free Music Review: Reckoning day?
Hit: 4 Stars
Musically, this album is good. Very good. Perhaps too good?The guitars, bass and drums all have a good clean sound, but hey, after so many years in the business, Megadeth and their roadcrew must KNOW a good live sound. The riffs, soloing, leads, fills, and acoustic guitar parts are note perfect. The drums are aggressive, and Jimmy De Grasso shows he was more than just a hired gun, adding extra kick to some of the songs. Dave Ellefson's basswork has oft been ignored, but a good balance on the mix lets many of those fat, tasty bass lines rumble up through the sound. It all sounds good so far, so where's the problem?
It's Megadeth's Achille's heel, Dave Mustaine's vocals, which sound too good. There have been a number of reasons given as to why Mustaine stepped up to the microphone and stayed there. The official line was Megadeth couldn't find a good vocalist. Many other suspect it was Dave Mustaine's ego. Whatever the reason, Megadeth always managed to recruit excellent drummers and second guitarists, but never a singer.
Even loyal Megadeth fans have to admit, Mustaine does not have the greatest vocal range in the world. The music has always been written to accommodate his vocals, but sometimes even that is not enough. At times, Mustaine sounds flat, off key, strained, and just downright out of place. Reckoning Day, for example, sounds very strained, with the correct notes seemingly just out of reach. He regularly misses the top note on Devil's Island.
Mustaine sounds his best when he sings with a sneering growl, like on In My Darkest Hour, Hook In Mouth and Angry Again.
Is this a fair indicator of Megadeth live? The answer is no, it isn't. The vocals have been tampered with, tidied up and enhanced in the studio. While they're less than perfect on "Rude Awakening", they're considerable worse on any other Megadeth live recording.
Moving away from the sound debate, this double album collection was never intended to be Megadeth's swansong, but it's a fitting tribute to a sparkling career. While many old school fans have been disappointed with the band's direction in recent years, Megadeth have always done what they wanted, and done it well. While some of the newer material has a more commercial, slightly bland feel in the studio, dropped in alongside some of the old classics here it fits flawlessly. 1000 Times Goodbye sits very comfortably next to Mechanix (still superior to Metallica's Four Horsemen after all these years!), and the Hangar 18 story is revisited on Return To The Hangar. Perhaps the best indicator of Megadeth's quality is that although this is a double live album, it seems to be over too quickly, but has a very satisfying feel to it.
All in all, it's a fitting requiem for one of the greatest metal bands ever to emerge from the thrash scene.
Um... and does anyone else think the guy in bed falling from the skyscraper on the cover is supposed to be James Hetfield?!