I just listened to the new Megadeth album. Apart from the opener, Kingmaker and the cover, Cold Sweat from Thin Lizzy, I don’t really like it. For me to say that, is a big thing. If anything, you can call me a Mustaine Fanboy. I still cop flack for liking Risk.
The idea of the album has evolved since Megadeth released Killing Is My Business in 1985. In this day and age, the fans want more. Our time is valuable. TV shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead can take us away from listening to music. Gaming can also limit our time. We live in a world of choice. If something is not good enough, we just move on. It could be another band, a movie, a TV show, a game, a book, a magazine, a holiday and so on.
I still purchased the physical CD of Super Collider, so that I can have it as part of my Megadeth collection, however I cannot recommend it. I wish I could. What disappoint’s me is that Chris Broderick is still utilised purely for his lead breaks. Is that all he is capable off? I don’t think so, however that is how it remains in Megadeth. Dave Mustaine is the riff meister. He is the songwriter, however in this case, I believe that the songwriter of the band has gone missing. It’s not a bad album and it’s not a good album.
Going back to the meaning of the post. Why did Megadeth and Dave Mustaine follow the old way? He could have recorded and released more frequently and still toured behind Gigantour?
For example, he could have recorded and released Kingmaker one month and then released Cold Sweat from Thin Lizzy the next month. During that two month period, the band could have fine tuned the other songs, written better ones or just kept them as the same, if the initial songs connected with the fans.
There is no need to follow the “spend six months creating and recording an album”, release it, watch it fade away from the minds of people’s within weeks and then go on tour of the world and hope that the tour will rekindle sales.
Don’t get me wrong, the above format still works for great albums. Five Finger Death Punch released American Capitalist in October 2011, and it is still selling. They got five singles out of it. The fans spread it via social media. They have a new album coming out in July and then another album scheduled for either a November 2013 or February 2014 release. I really liked how Coheed and Cambria did the same thing with The Afterman releases and Stone Sour did the same with House of Gold and Bones. The bands need to be here today, everyday. If you are gone tomorrow, in this day and age, its game over.
Megadeth in this case didn’t have enough material for a great album, and that is all we have time for these days. I still love the band, I will still purchase tickets to Gigantour if they bring it to Australia and I will be hoping that Megadeth return to writing great songs.
Keeping with the creators following the old way theme, there is an interview doing the rounds at Loudwire, with Shinedown singer Brent Smith. Basically, back in April, Shinedown allowed their Facebook fans to vote on which songs the band should cover. So after the results came in, the band went away and filmed themselves playing the cover songs. They have no plans to sell the songs. All they want to do is release the video’s of them performing the cover songs on YouTube, so that they releasing content each week. However, they cannot release the songs due to licensing issues.
The licensing part of music, is the old way of thinking. This the way it works in two sentences. The creators write the songs and then sell the songs for a fee to a publisher. The publisher then licences the songs to advertising, TV shows and collects monies for them. In my view, Publishers should be all shot and buried.
If anything, Shinedown will bring more attention to the original versions of the songs they cover. I know that I am keen to hear them do Nothing Else Matters from Metallica.
Shinedown is trying to do things the new way, releasing content more frequently. Amaryllis came out in March, 2012. It’s still in the minds of the public. As at last week, it was sitting at 410,000 sold in the U.S. alone. Now they are going to be involved with the Carnival of Madness Tour. In between they also released the Warner Sound’s Live Room Sessions EP and Brent Smith has been very vocal about getting fans to speak up and stand up for rock music via social media and the hashtag (#theriseofrockandroll). They also have the covers YouTube clips up their sleeve.
The game is changing every day. The old wayers’ need to get in bed with the new wayers’ and start thinking differently. It’s not all about the initial pay-day on release day. It’s about staying in the minds of the public and the fans.
destroyerofharmony 