The production is solid, the guitar tone great… but the songs just aren’t, and it becomes more apparent on multiple listens just how not-great the songs are. Dave’s backing band, for example (Ellefson, Drover, and Broderick again) are hard to fault – some of the lead guitar is excellent and the rhythm section are never less than professional. It’s hard to pin the blame on anything but the songwriting. It’s clearly a follow-up to Th1rt3en, but it seems like a collection of B-sides and offcuts from that album at best. Only a couple of tracks have any genuine thrashiness to them, the rest sticking to a sort of post- World Needs a Hero vague heavy metal-ness that is not dreadful, but it’s neither inspired nor especially fun to listen to.

After a new millennial run of albums that have mostly ranged from good ( Th1rt3en, The System Has Failed) to excellent ( Endgame) it’s easily a fly in the ointment for those of us who have been used to good new ‘ Deth metal, even if it’s nowhere near the Rust in Peaces of old. And once you’ve actually heard Super Collider, it’s hard not to agree, as this is the laziest and least inspired the band has sounded in years. Those following the internet response to this, full length number fourteen from the thrash legend that is Megadeth, will not exactly be going into their first listens with high expectations – it’s been fairly vicious.

Megadeth supercollider full album