Anthology: Set The World Afire

Megadeth

Capitol, 2008

http://megadeth.com

REVIEW BY: Paul Hanson

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 11/19/2008

An open letter to Dave Mustaine:

I call myself one of your fans. I have most of your releases and I enjoy listening to your music. But seriously, another collection of previously released Megadeth material?

Are you serious, Dave?

After all, you have been doing nothing but repackaging your past. Frankly, I’m getting tired of it. You recently released a fan ‘binge and purge’ of material with the Warchest collection -- which featured demos and live tracks and previously unreleased versions of material. And before that, you released the immaculate That One Night: Live In Buenos Aires. So, your next move is to release yet another collection of previously released material. Do you really think that including two tracks previously unreleased in the USmy_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250 and one other previously released track is doing your fans any favors?

Your fans, like me, demand better. That’s three songs or .08% of 35 songs that have never been heard before as the reason we should buy this release? Who are you kidding? Not most of your fans, who live in this digital age. Your fans are rabid and lap up your material as if it were hot chocolate in a cold Midwest winter. If any of those three songs were leaked anywhere on the Internet, your fans have already heard these songs.

You’re giving us a collection of songs that everyone who cares about Megadeth has heard before. The required material for any sort of Megadeth collection -- “Peace Sells,” “Wake Up Dead,” and “Hangar 18” -- are included, so thank you for that. But why did you include “Crown Of Worms,” “Kill The King,” and “Insomnia,” none of which are your best work? Why didn’t you include your awesome relationship pieces “1000 Times Goodbye” or “Almost Honest”? Your fans are out of luck.

Honestly, I don’t know what caused a song to be included or excluded on this release. Is there a hidden theme that you know about as to why things were included or excluded? I do think that deciding to include “Foreclosure Of A Dream” with Bush Senior talking about no new taxes is fitting in light of the recent election, a pseudo-political commentary if you will.

In all -- Dave, you rock. Your musicianship is second to none, and this collection, while omitting tracks, proves it yet again. Although I would have selected different tracks, you own the material so do with it what you will. I think these types of collections do serve the purpose of tracing Megadeth’s progression through the years. There is a definite difference between the thrash of “Rattlehead” and the commercially acceptable “Trust.”

That all said, as your fan, this collection doesn’t measure up. This reeks of a corporate decision to re-release songs just to generate revenue. You have always been in it for the fans, but you’re playing for some other team with this collection. You want us to pay ~$15 for three songs? That’s $5 a song, and that’s too much, even for you. 

Rating: D

User Rating: Not Yet Rated


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© 2008 Paul Hanson and The Daily Vault. All rights reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of Capitol, and is used for informational purposes only.