10 Metal Bands That Changed Their Sound

10. Risk - Megadeth

Half of the reason why Megadeth became a band in the first place was for Dave Mustaine to prove Metallica wrong. After being the lead guitarist for the thrash titans and having a hand in some of their classic riffs, Mustaine was sent packing due to his drinking problem, and decided to make Megadeth a big enough band to rival his old bandmates. Mustaine has said that he doesn't like not being No. 1 in the eyes of thrash fans, but things started to really unravel when he decided to follow Metallica down the pop rabbit hole.

After The Black Album tore up the charts with songs like Enter Sandman, Dave was determind to make his own version of a pop crossover album, with Risk being the absolute worst pivot that the band ever made. While you can still hear the traditional Megadeth vocals on most of these songs, hearing the pop flavored production against Dave's snarly voice doesn't match well at all, almost sounding like he's trying to write songs that would make a decent heavy metal Saturday morning cartoon show on tracks like Breadline.

When he's not leaving his thrash roots behind, songs like Crush Em are some of the most basic songs that the band would ever make, with even Dave calling the song Ecstasy terrible in retrospect. For all of the envy that Dave has of Metallica getting everywhere first, he does have this one going for him. Before Metallica bludgeoned our eardrums on St. Anger, Dave was already testing most metalheads' patience a few years earlier.