“Dystopia” is one of my favourite Megadeth records in the 2000’s. It’s five years old right now but it feels like yesterday.

Hell, I’m writing about 2000, 1985 and 1977 releases at the moment and even those albums feel like they got released yesterday.

Time does go bye. Way too quickly.

The last few days, I was listening to my Spotify 2016 playlist. Man, so many good songs released during the year and not enough time to listen to everything.

If you are an artist releasing music right now, it’s never been easier, but if you want to get heard above the noise, it’s never been harder.

There is so much new music being released and it’s all competing with each other and it’s also competing with the history of music.

“Dystopia” is a rejuvenated Megadeth. While most of the songs are still written by Dave Mustaine, the performances of new guys, Chris Adler and Kiko Loureiro are energetic.

Lyrically, Mustaine is at his spittiest best.

The drumming from Chris Adler, who at the time was still a member of Lamb Of God, is powerful, technical and when needed an enhancer to the riffs. Kiko Loureiro on guitar, shreds with the best of em, his style a unique combination of so many guitar heroes and his Brazilian roots.

“The Threat Is Real” kicks off the album at full throttle speed. “Dystopia” has musical similarities to “Hanger 18”. I guess you can’t keep a good riff down.

“Fatal Illusion” completes the three punch knockout to kick off the album. It’s got chromatics and a sinister groove to kick it off and then the bass riff kicks in at high octane speeds and once the whole band is in, the driving double kick from Adler stands out and its circle pit time.

There is a section which I call the “Flatline” section. It starts off with the sound of a heart monitor and a beating heart, with a Motorhead influenced riff playing underneath, and once the flat line sound begins, the riff becomes dominant.

“Bullet To The Brain” starts off with an acoustic arpeggio riff which sounds ominous and then the heavy groove kicks in. It’s Megadeth at their best, working with tempo changes and grooves. It’s all 4/4 but it sounds progressive because of the tempo changes.

“Post American World” has a lot of musical similarities to “Symphony Of Destruction” and I like it. Check out the lead break from Kiko on this one.

“Poisonous Shadows” starts off with a Spanish/Flamenco like guitar intro as it builds into a metal behemoth with a Chorus that is memorable. And it ends with a solemn piano playing the chords and vocal melody of the Chorus.

“Conquer Or Die” also starts off with a Spanish/Flamenco like guitar intro before it morphs into a classical like guitar section ala “Randy Rhoads – Dee”. This goes on for about 80 seconds and then the distortion kicks in and the leads kick in. Under 4 minutes, it’s a cool instrumental.

The piece d’resistance is “Lying In State”. The speed of the song is what metal is about.

And the whole section from about the 2.30 minute mark to the end. Just listen to the riffs and how Chris Adler enhances em.

The album should have ended here, but we get another three more tracks called “The Emperor”, “Foreign Policy” and “Melt The Ice Away”.