MEGADETH — The System Has Failed (review)

MEGADETH — The System Has Failed album cover Album · 2004 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Mjöllnir
In the months before this album came out, I was pretty strongly involved in the online metal community. Reading all the news articles, watching the artwork take shape and at last sampling the sound of the album with “Kick the Chair”. A further taste after the leaking of “Blackmail the Universe” convinced me that indeed Megadeth was truly back!

After devoting a lot of listening time to it, unfortunately the album does fall short of expectations. While light years ahead of the despairingly bland “The World Needs a Hero”, the cookie cutter monotony is replaced by glaringly obvious filler. The first track does indeed harken back to “Rust in Peace” with high speed and energy, and a shifting structure reminiscent of “Holy Wars”. The following track cuts back on the venom in lieu of tame hard rocking Megadeth more akin to their mid 90s output, before “Kick the Chair” returns to more aggressive ground. All good stuff but the album very quickly becomes a mixed bag after this.

“The Scorpion” is an odd one to work out and feels a little laborious, before “Tears in the Vial” brings us sharply back to the standard ‘deth vibe with better results. “I Know Jack” is a head scratching and seemingly pointless segue while the next two tracks are just a little cheesy, “Something That I’m Not” being an obvious dig at Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, but lacking the stellar composition of tirades like ”Liar” (from the outstanding “So Far, So Good...So What!”. “Back in the Day" is a paean to the 80s metal scene, and acquits itself better but has an off putting “chanting" mid section. Things warm up again for “Truth Be Told" with another slamming number that works.

The final three tracks sadly seem to lack any cohesive focus or even a good riff or two, with “Shadow of Deth” seeing Mustaine reciting Psalm 23 with a dreadfully cheesy vocal effect bringing to mind the spoken part of “Five Magics” over some uninspired music. The successes seem to be when Dave sticks to what he does best and doesn’t veer off into uncharted territory, those songs gluing a messy album together. Dave got former (seems like another lifetime now!) guitarist Chris Poland’s to provide a few solos, and they are worth a mention. They add some much needed colour and bring in a feel of those first two albums enough to distract a little from some of the awkward material here. Not a bad album by any means, but noticeably patchy and in any case a welcome return from the band and I think Dave had stronger songs up his sleeve for the next lot of albums.
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