10 Awesome Thrash Metal Bands With One Terrible Album
3. Megadeth (Super Collider)
In place of the crew's once iconic thrash sound is a dreary, sterile, colour-by-numbers approach to commercial rock. It's about as deflating a release as a metalhead could find in this regard, inexplicably removing any edge or signature style from the proceedings.
The first sign of trouble here is the album cover. In place of anything brash is a stock photo. It's a clue to just how much care and effort the group put into the LP. From there, the album cumbersomely stumbles through a myriad of overblown, classic rock tropes to a backdrop of cringeworthy, corny lyrics. Mustaine's voice had not aged all that well by this point and was woefully ill-suited to lyrics like "Burn baby burn, 'cause it feels so good". That being said, it's doubtful anyone could've pulled off words like that...
Longtime fans of the group were crushed at the time by the lackadaisical output on display. In composition and style, the closest album to it stylistically is the similarly maligned 'Risk' from 1999.
The key difference between the two is that the aptly titled 'Risk' was an adventurous experiment. While the move into alternative rock ultimately garnered backlash in '99, the effort and energy to do something exciting was there. In 'Super Collider', it felt more akin to being forced to record an album, stripping the group of their typically ferocious attitude and stylings.