MEGADETH
Countdown to Extinction
ALBUM REVIEW
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Released on July 14th, 1992, COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION, the 5th MEGADETH album (and the 2nd to feature “the classic lineup” of Dave Mustaine, David Ellefson, Marty Friedman, and Nick Menza) would become the follow up to “one of the most perfect thrash albums of all time”, featuring a more streamlined, simplified, straight forward approach which served as a sonic palette cleanser to the progressive thrash complexity of 1990’s masterpiece, Rust In Peace. Simply stated, COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION is complex in its simplicity.
Released: 7/14/1992
Label: Capitol
Producers: Max Norman & Dave Mustaine
TRACKS
Side One
1 Skin o' My Teeth
2 Symphony of Destruction
3 Architecture of Aggression
4 Foreclosure of a Dream
5 Sweating Bullets
6 This Was My Life
Side Two
7 Countdown to Extinction
8 High Speed Dirt
9 Psychotron
10 Captive Honour
11 Ashes in Your Mouth
singles
Symphony of Destruction
Released: July 21, 1992
Foreclosure of a Dream Released: October 13, 1992
Sweating Bullets
Released: February 16, 1993
Skin o' My Teeth
Released: April 12, 1993
SKIN O’ MY TEETH:
Very punchy right out of the gate with a nice thick mix on the guitars, drums, and bass. Sonically, very similar to Rust In Peace (in terms of production), but with the edges a bit more smoothed out and polished.
Marty Friedman has a ridiculously fat lead sound with some serious meat on it.
SYMPHONY OF DESTRUCTION:
A very iconic intro. Anyone who hears this knows what’s coming next…
The interesting thing about this song (and really, the whole album) is that it still has the classic, complex Megadeth sound and sonic palette as the previous albums but with a bit of refinement and control.
It’s amazing how clean and crisp everything sounds, especially considering this was released 33 years ago. To put that in perspective, 33 years before 1992 would have been 1959, just a mere 5 years after Elvis Presley began his illustrious music career and a year before The Beatles were formed.
“The earth starts to rumble,
World powers fall,
A warring for the heavens,
A peaceful man stands tall…”
ARCHITECTURE OF AGGRESSION:
Now we’re talking. This sounds more like your typical, classic, Rust In Peace style Megadeth, albeit more refined. There are definitely layers to the complexity that continue to make this album an enjoyable listen, 33 years on.
FORECLOSURE OF A DREAM:
The intro has a certain epic atmosphere to it that sounds very progressive and intricate, adding a nice counterpoint offset relative to the chorus.
“Read my lips…”
SWEATING BULLETS:
The original version starts with the drums, but the remixed 2004 edition has a guitar only section prior to the drums coming in that completely changes the entire dynamic of the opening.
“Hello me…meet the real me…”
Talk about insanity…back then we all just thought “Oh, it’s just Dave being Dave…”, but when you think about the context of the lyrics and the general anxiety drenched tone of the song, the madness becomes a bit clearer.
If you’ve lived under a rock for the last 33 years or are just now learning about Megadeth and this album, be sure to go check out the video for Sweating Bullets…it’s a doozy.
“Well, me…it’s nice talking to myself…”
THIS WAS MY LIFE:
This has a mainstream, crossover “hit” vibe to it. Actually, this track and the title track go well together, back-to-back.
The part going into the solo and immediately following the solo are the real “payoff” relative to the first half of the song.
“In our life there’s if,
In our beliefs there’s lie,
In our business there’s sin,
In our bodies there’s die…”
COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION:
This album truly is one of Megadeth’s crowning achievements, with enough simplicity to attract mainstream appeal paired with enough complexity to satisfy the most diehard fans of Dave’s ultra-technical riff wizardry.
The spoken word part in the middle is haunting, and in 1992 it was a bit of a left turn, perhaps because we as humans don’t generally acknowledge our own “extinction”, even though one day, WE too will become extinct.
The final acoustic guitar part at the very end seemed odd…almost like a nod to “In My Darkest Hour” (and also, very similar to the intro of Black Sabbath on Live Evil…weird).
HIGH SPEED DIRT:
If you go back and watch the MTV Headbanger’s Ball episode called “Mission: Megadeth” you can see where the inspiration for this song comes from, namely Dave’s affinity for skydiving. In truth though, High Speed Dirt sounds more like a euphemism for some kind of narcotic drug, the kind you buy by the bag on the outskirts of Dangol County.
That weird bluesy guitar solo before the end seems weird and completely out of place, yet it somehow fits perfectly (mark the time).
Hmmm, makes you wonder if perhaps he was inspired by that scene in Point Break where Johnny Utah jumps out of the plane without a parachute.
PSYCHOTRON:
In listening to the intro, it would seem that Psychotron must actually be a high-end Polaroid camera built by Skynet. Given that this album came out the year after T2: Judgement Day, it’ reasonable to assume that’s where the inspiration came from.
The call and response between Dave’s vocals and Marty’s guitar during the verse is a nice touch and a little off the reservation, as it were.
CAPTIVE HONOUR:
Okay, so the obvious joke here is that in America, Honor has no “U”…only the British spelling of Honour has the U in it. (For example, humor vs humour, rumor vs rumour, etc.)
Clearly the lyrics to this song are about our absurdly criminal and wickedly corrupt “criminal justice” system. There ain’t no “honour” when you’re locking up people for low level victimless crimes while letting the real criminals roam free in the halls of Congress.
The guitar solos at the end are the treat here…a nice tradeoff between Dave and Marty.
ASHES IN YOUR MOUTH:
This is easily THE best song on this record. There’s a LOT going on, from the opening to the verse to the chorus to the guitar solo to the harmonized triumph metal section after the guitar solo.
“If you’re fighting to live,
Then it’s O.K. to die!
The answer to your question is…
Welcome to tomorrow!”
That twin guitar section after the guitar solo is pure perfection. Even 33 years ago, this was the favorite track on the CD, mainly because of that entire section.
“Where do we go from here?
God have mercy…”
The drum solo at the outro is outstanding…as is the incredible weight of that final blast of guitar, bass, and kick drum, echoing off into the distance.
Even though this might be the most offensive episode we’ve ever made, we’d like to remind everyone that we’re still all about “rainbows and peaches” even though we’ve emphatically stated for the record that “we’re not gonna talk about it”.
Remember proper cell phone etiquette to avoid being bothersome to others, prepare yourself for “The Average Double-Team”, head on down to Dangol County for some “High Speed Dirt”, and last but not least, find out “how to get out of offending anybody” when you “go pick up some honkies” and JOIN US as we start the clock and begin our analysis of MEGADETH’s COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION.
“We can’t ever talk about this so let’s talk about not talking about it when we’re talking about it…”
Show Notes:
(00:01): “We’re not gonna talk about it…but you always wanna talk about it…” / “We can’t ever talk about this so let’s talk about not talking about it when we’re talking about it…”/ “Rainbows and peaches, dude…”/ #buttstuff / “It’s more peach-like in flavor…”/ #KoolAidMan / “Is she a #Redskin?” / “Is it the Washington Nationals?” (NOTE: It’s the Commanders.) / #RacistReflections and using your phone in public (where EVERYONE can hear your music, your conversations, etc.) / “So is it racist…?” / “Do you know where #honky comes from?” / “Why don’t we have better slurs?” / #beeroftheepisode / “Let’s go pick up some honkies and go out and do some stuff…” / ***WARNING: #listenerdiscretionisadvised
(07:27): ***WELCOME BACK TO THE METAL NERDERY PODCAST!!!*** / #DreamReflections / “Has anybody caught the new #KingOfTheHill…?” / #RussellsReflectionsNostalgiaEdition / “He LEANS into it…”/ #onmicburp / “King of Hill…”/ #InMemoriam / “There’s some conspiracy…”/ “They’re selling their #voicerights to AI…”/ #DangolCounty / “Dude…the Average Double-team…that’s our new podcast…that’s this side of the table…”/ #TheAverageDoubleteam
(14:44): ***JOIN US on the Socials at #Facebook #Instagram #YouTube and #TikTok at #metalnerderypodcast and EMAIL US at metalnerdery@gmail.com and VOICEMAIL US at 980-666-8182!!!*** / ***PATREON US at patreon.com/metalnerderypodcast *** / #BunkerpoonRequestLine / #PatreonShoutOut / “We’ll do 3 solo episodes…kinda like the solo albums…”
(17:11): #TheDocket METAL NERDERY PODCAST PRESENTS: MEGADETH – COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION / “Can you believe it’s been 33 years!?” / July 14th, 1992 / #wisdomteeth and #drysockets / “I remember I had these tea leaves…”/ “When they pulled it out…it was purple…”/ “Do you hear that? I hear a lot of gay…” / “This was the follow up to probably one of the most perfect thrash albums of all time…”/ SKIN O’ MY TEETH / “Slurps?” / #rrrrrollthoserrrrrs / “Let’s get to the meat…”/ “It’s very old school…”
(26:26): SYMPHONY OF DESTRUCTION / “Watch him become a god…” / “Complex in its simplicity…”/ ARCHITECTURE OF AGGRESSION / “That’s a bazooka…”/ “Time to pay with your ass…” / “In 2004, they went back…and fucked up the drums…”/ FORECLOSURE OF A DREAM / “I’m not hungry dude, but thank you…”/ “It’s their #BlackAlbum…”
(34:00): “This was the fun one…”/ SWEATING BULLETS / “It’s an extra 24 seconds long…”/ “Remember the video for this?” / #WAYUPFRONT / “Twenty Daves talking to Dave…”/ “Now I just jump out of airplanes and do kung fu…”/ THIS WAS MY LIFE / “Hey…”/ “That was the end of side 1…” / NOTE: CD’s do not include Side 1 and Side 2. Russell could not have been more wrong. / “Here’s how you can get out of offending anybody…”/ “I don’t identify with that unless it can get me free food…” / “Finish the story…Russell…”/ #WaylonSomething #WaylonJennings #WaylonSmith / #Edgelord / “My wife does not have #toethumbs she has nice thumbs…”
(41:11): COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION / “There’s a #Nirvana song that has a similar progression…it might be In Bloom…”/ “She’s talking about sushi…”/ “I know it’s gonna be an unpopular opinion…the problem is the mix…”/ “How pissed off would you be if you put on #MasterOfPuppets and everything sounded different?” / “The drums on this are completely different than the original…”/ “It sounds like a shitty drum machine…”/ Remixing vs Remastering / HIGH SPEED DIRT / “Doesn’t High Speed Dirt sound like a drug?” / “Dave was ahead of his time because he was singing about AI back then…Psychotron is apparently a #Polaroid camera…”/ PSYCHOTRON / “What did #whatshisdick say to #SarahConnor before he banged her back in 1984?”
(51:00): CAPTIVE HONOUR / “It’s like a clean scoop…” / “The last one is the most proggy…”/ ASHES IN YOUR MOUTH / “This sounds like it could have been on Rust In Peace or Peace Sells…” / “Asses in your mouth…”/ “It’s after this next part…”/ Potential future #DeathMatch episodes / “If we do that, that’s a bloodbath…” / “So it has aged like fine wine for you guys…”/ “It sounds as different as putting bass on #AJFA and making the drums sound like #StAnger…” / THANK YOU FOR JOINING US!!! / #untilthenext #outroreel