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.In Concert: Megadeth, at
"92 KSJO Day On The Green"
October 10th, 1999 San Jose,
Ca.
Megadeth; though; like all other metal bands that survived the 70's and 80's
intact, has found new ideas and different types of musical influences to
provide us all with music that stands the test of time. Playing tracks from
almost all of their 7 albums, and pleasuring us with tracks from
"Risk" the 8th CD released 8 /31/1999. On top of all of this, they
recorded a Black Sabbath song for the upcoming "Nativity In Black 2",
due this winter. I am not as fluent in Black Sabbath as I would like to be, so
I do not know which one was recorded. As well as covering "Paranoid",
what better praise than to be covered by a band on the same level of influence
to Metal Culture. 90+ minutes of Megadeth is always worth the price of
admission, even if a weak band opens. Critics and rock fans alike tend to
classify Megadeth as an 80's band. But as any good metalhead will tell you,
Dave Mustaine and company hit their stride in the early 90's, going
multiplatinum with the seminal "Rust In Peace." The early 90's saw
the death of many heavy rock and metal bands mostly because people got tired of
mindless thrashing, and it was exactly Megadeth's ability to combine searing
riffs with melodic hooks that pushed them to the top while everyone else
 plunged. Their live performance shows that
off in spades. Megadeth burst open with "Holy Wars" and "Hangar
18" and crashed through blistering versions of "Sin" and
"Reckoning Day"--all songs that revolve around catchy guitar lines
and crunching choruses. It's this honed combination of euphonic weave and metal
swirl that captures the attention of all levels of rockers, and when Mustaine
asked how many of the fans were there for the first time, nearly half cheered
in response. That's a testament to the strength of their new material, notably
"Almost Honest" and "Use the Man," songs a bit more on the
harmonious side yet still attached to that seething crunch drive only Megadeth
can reproduce. That's not to say Megadeth didn't honor their roots: here too
were truly head-banging renditions of "Darkest Hour" and
"Anarchy," which saw the theatre transformed into a sea of whipping
hair. Unlike most of the heavy rock bands that are "resurfacing"
these days (with the same old sounds), Megadeth are maturing with age,
remembering the whining growls and sweet guitar lines that set them apart in
the first place. I'll be surprised--and, honestly, disappointed--if they don't
continue to rock through the next decade. By Randy
Cohen
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