Thirteen (written as Th1rt3en on the album cover) is the latest album from Megadeth. Their previous album, Endgame was released two years ago in late 2009. Since then Dave Ellefson has rejoined the album making this the firs album for ten years to feature him alongside Dave Mustaine. The album title, Thirteen reflects the fact that this is the bands thirteenth album. The album also has thirteen tracks.
After a career of almost 30 years and a dozen albums released so far, you could understand it if the band had lost some steam, but as soon as you listen to the album you’ll hear that this is definitely not the case – this album is hard and heavy and has all the agressive rebellious lyrics that we’ve come to associate with Dave Mustaine.
As you’d expect from a Megadeth album there’s some fantastic complex guitar work – Dave Mustaine’s speciality, but this has been integrated into some great songs rather than being the main focus. This is a really strong album from Megadeth, and sounds fresh and powerful without losing touch with the bands history.
Without going into detail on each track, here are a few comments on some of the tracks..
The opening track on the album is ”Sudden death”, a song that will be familiar to players of last years video game, Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock as the song featured in the game. The song was also nominated for a Grammy award.
Public Enemy No.1 is another excellent track – definitely a crowd-pleasing song.
Guns drugs & Money is a great kick-ass song.
New world order is old-school Megadeth with some top-notch guitar work.
Having listened to the album several times, (and probably deafened my neighbours with it), I have to say this is Megadeth at the top of their game. I’ve been listening to the band since their first album, the early albums are my favourites, and I did feel they’d lost their edge in the ’90s, but this is definitely a return to their best form.
Th1rt3en is due for release on 31st October through Roadrunner records, the same date that the Metallica-Lou Reed collaboration is released. If you’re going to buy one of the two albums then you should definitely make it Megadeth’s album.
Track listing:
1. Sudden death
2. Public enemy No.1
3. Whose life (is it anyways)
4. We the people
5. Guns drugs & money
6. Never dead
7. New world order
8. Fast lane
9. Black swan
10. Wrecker
11. Millenium of the blind
12. Deadly nightshade
13. 13
