Review by Michael on January 28, 2026.

Sometimes the time has come to finish a thing for good. And so, after 40 years with a lot of ups and downs in the career, Dave Mustaine finally decided to disband Megadeth. Okay, with an age of 64, this sounds reasonable, nevertheless for a huge fanboy (and yes, I even liked "Risk" to some point) there will be a gap in the thrash metal scene from now on.

But before we say farewell to Dave and Rattlehead, he delivered his 17th studio album and the exceptions were pretty high. The previously released singles "Tipping Point", "I Don't Care", "Let There Be Shred" and "Puppet Parade" already sounded very good so there was some space for some more to come.

And at least in my opinion Megadeth haven't written a single track that lacks quality on "Megadeth". Of course you cannot expect anything new on their swansong but it is what it is and that is a cool accumulation of all stuff they have done before. Tracks like the previous mentioned "Tipping Point" or "I Don't Care" have the impetuous and wild appearance as the band on early works up to their all-time classic "Rust In Peace", offering fast and aggressive thrash metal paired with some fuck-off punk attitude ("I Don't Care").

The slower, more pensive tracks such as "Hey God?!" or "Another Bad Day" have the typical riffing and melodies they had during the "Countdown To Extinction"-era and these two especially are super melodic, catchy and a great retrospective of what once was.

And with the stomper that kicks off with some balladic guitars "Obey The Call" we all gather around the camp fire to cheer the farewell of the band. Actually here Dave tries his best to do some harmonic chants. As I said, he tries. We all know he never was the best singer, maybe also not the worst though but it sounds authentic. Also here we can get some punk influences so that there is some roughness to find though.

What is necessary to mention are his musician fellows. Drummer Dirk Verbeuren (also active in e.g. Kill Divison and Project Hate MCMXCIX) already proved on "The Sick, The Dying…And The Dead!" that he is a superb drummer and with Wintersun guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari he found a great duet partner.

The last regular track is a personal goodbye to us all from Dave:

"One More Spotlight Starts To Fade To Black
One More Winding Road That Won't Come Back
The Roar I Lived For, It Starts To Die
And Now It's Time For Me To Say The Long Goodbye"

So, take care, Dave, those were cool, unforgettable years with Megadeth. Oh….I forgot something. I said regular track. Sorry, I forgot the last one. Just like everyone forgot that Dave was in Metallica and wrote together with James Hetfield, Cliff Burton and Lars Ulrich "Ride The Lightning". So he thought that covering that one would be a good idea. Em well, theoretically it truly is but nevertheless it sounds a little bit weak and not as powerful as the original does. Also the vocals...I already said something about Dave's singing abilities. But that is my only point of criticism for "Megadeth". That album has a hot seat for my album of the year.

Rating: 9 out of 10