There have been some excellent reviews for Megadeth's ENDGAME. Some have called it the Best Megadeth Album Ever.
But can you select from what you admire?!! For the admirer everything is precious. Then , there could be a difference between Fan and Admirer. In some sense Mustaine himself has made that distinction - Real Fans & Fair Weather Fans. Fans do not often know the worth of what they follow. In fact, they tend to dilute all the great elements and characteristics of Megadeth to the pale urine which composes the fans.
Anyways, without deviating from the matter this is what reviews have said about ENDGAME (and certainly this too must be going over the head of a typical fan controlling & trimming the mediocrity that appears in the Official Megadeth Forum).
No one is going to be clamoring for “Rust in Peace Part 2” anymore – this is now the album against which all other Megadeth albums will be judged.
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No one is going to care because this is better than that album or any other album in their discography. While some may see this as a bold statement, it will only seem that way to those that have not yet heard Endgame. This album is classic Megadeth from start to finish featuring some of the strongest songwriting of their career. The band has managed to mix the balls-out aggression of their earlier albums with the catchy accessibility of Countdown to Extinction. Within that framework, they’ve also returned a bit of the progressive edge that has been missing since the mid-nineties. This has lead to songs that feature aggressive riffing, blazing solos, dual guitar harmonies, biting social commentary, and a tendency to go off on quick tangents. This is all delivered in a slick production that eschews the muddy sound of United Abominations in favor of a razor sharp delivery that definitely compliments the music better
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There’s an old poster that features a previous Megadeth line-up with a caption underneath that reads: The World’s State-of-the-Art Speed Metal Band. Somewhere along the way they deliberately gave up that title, but with the release of Endgame they have easily regained it.
The easiest way to explain exactly how good Megadeth’s twelfth album is to say what it doesn’t do, rather than what it does. Endgame crushes everything else released in the name of heavy metal in 2009 because it doesn’t fail to meet expectations. It doesn’t pretend to be a return to the good old days. It doesn’t miss out any of the stuff that fans of the band are desperately hoping will be significantly represented. It doesn’t sound like the work of a band that have lost their cojones or their grasp of what metal is supposed to sound like, feel like or look like. It doesn’t cave in to the overfed egos of its creators and end up sounding like a compromise or a sloppy rehearsal given a bit of post-production gloss. Most of all, it doesn’t do anything except be a brilliant Megadeth record. Because, after all, that is all that a band as important, enduring and well-respected as this should be doing. Endgame is an album full of brilliant songs. Well-written, crafted songs that bulge to breaking point with amazing riffs, irresistible hooks, blazing lead work and lashings of Dave Mustaine’s customary lyrical bite and bile.
They may never be the biggest metal band in the world – that honour will always belong to their perennial rivals Metallica – but Dave Mustaine’s Megadeth have long sought to be the most respected. And with Endgame, their twelfth studio album, they are once again asserting their right to be considered one of the best and most consistent heavy groups on the planet.
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Mustaine’s personal life has been the subject of much attention (he has, relatively recently, renounced debauchery and declared himself a Christian) but throughout Endgame he sounds almost terrifyingly feral. He is the impetus that gives his band the fuel to stay at the top of the metal tree two-and-a-half decades after their inception, and has once again proved himself to be one of the alternative music’s most important and prolific figures.
The release of 2009's Endgame brings with it a startling realization: if first-generation thrash metal fans had been polled about which of the genre's "Big Four" — Metallica, Slayer,Anthrax, and Megadeth — would prove to be the most resilient and consistently prolific over the next quarter century, the only sure-fire consensus would probably have been "well, anyone but Megadeth!" And yet, 12 studio albums and 150-plus songs later — more than any of the other three have managed — that's exactly what's come to pass.
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Indeed, the only song here that breaks entirely from vintage Megadeth templates is the elaborately named "The Hardest Part of Letting Go...Sealed with a Kiss," which surely owes its orchestrated string backdrops to the European metal perspective afforded by producer Andy Sneap, and tells a "love story" about entombing one's beloved behind a brick wall à la Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado.
More than a quarter century after their formation, Megadeth is still at the top of their game.Endgame has some old-school moments, but also modern ones. 2007’s United Abominationsgarnered a lot of critical praise and was on many year-end best of lists that year (including number 7 on this site). Endgame is even better.
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