Megadeth - Cryptic Writings |
Rating - 2/5 |
By Greg Northrup
At this point, Megadeth
just bores me. There is nothing new or exciting about what they are doing anymore and
everything they've released since Countdown To Extinction has come off as stale and
ultimately irrelevant. On Cryptic Writings Megadeth churns out yet another batch of
generic metal songs in an attempt to 'rediscover' their roots after the disastrous
Youthanasia. I must admit that vocalist Dave Mustaine's arrogant interview persona may
have biased my opinion slightly, but Cryptic Writings is definentaly not the album he
cracked it up to be through the media. Supposedly, Cryptic Writings was written as a
reaction to what Mustaine deemed to be an overly-commercial record, their previous album,
Youthanasia. Ironically Cryptic Writings contains Megadeth's catchiest and most
'commercial' song yet, the infectious "Almost Honest". However, most of the
album is marred by attempts at being unnecessarily heavier and faster than Youthanasia.
Unfortunately for Mustaine, the harder-than-thou approach falls flat, as far as speed
goes, there are plenty of black metal and thrash bands that could play circles around him,
as far as heaviness goes, Megadeth is tragically behind the times. To be fair, the album
has a few redeeming tracks, the first single "Trust" is pretty good, as is the
aforementioned "Almost Honest", and even though the songs aren't great, they're
not downright horrible either. Good for a couple listens but that's about it.