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Megadeth
Capitol
OK, the title of Megadeth’s sixth album is really dumb, but on Youth anasia, frontman Dave Mustaine and his employees manage to produce a better product than 1992’s Countdown to Extinction. Mustaine, indulging his steadily intensifying delusions of lyrical grandeur, examines various global woes on transparently named tunes like “Reckoning Day” and “The Killing Road,” as well as, of course, the title track. And yes, there is a ballad. Still, the rasping vocalist’s songwriting is beginning to catch up with his epic mind set: Occasionally, Youthanasia‘s tunes are anthemic enough to support Mustaine’s overwrought lyrics. Furthermore, the spry chops of “Victory” and “Train of Consequences” serve as comparably lighthearted antidotes to Mustaine’s gloom, recalling the days—exemplified by ’86’s seminal Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?—when Megadeth’s social outrage was tempered by a smirking fuck-it-all attitude that made the quartet a smartass alternative to the assiduously somber Metallica.