Rust in Peace Live

Doing great live albums is something very difficult and most of the times, requires more than just great performing and a lively crowd singing the songs. It needs charisma, needs to be felt outside the CD. Needs to take the listener to that place, feeling it.

I always tend to think that real metal bands are made on the stage. Playing. Performing. Soloing. Drumming. Beating. Shouting. No more and no less. Studio phenomenons are for pop listeners. Metal is live, so be it.

When Deep Purple created "Made in Japan", it was like they were saying: "This is it, guys, learn from us. Black Sabbath created metal riffing and sound, we created metal performance and live dynamics". From that day on, the cited legendary record remains an inspiration for every metal performer who wants to do it right. And let me say, with the possibility of being wrong, that this album, by Megadeth, almost made me feel like that first time when I've heard Made in Japan. An uproarious and charismatic mix of banging guitars, drums and basses banging and beating heads off. There is nothing more.

The opening, simply, rashes blood to every head and prepares the circulation flux of the body for the motion. Recreating Rust in Peace in a live performance requires no less. So, from the beginning until the end, from Holy Wars to the Reprise, we find the deeper roots of power planted by Megadeth, to me, the finest thrash band of America.

Holy Wars, the Punishment Due kicks off the album and, let's say, that's a powerful one. Clean and pure, Megadeth sounds like a perfected machine, a machine that gained accuracy and finesse during all these years until today. Finally, Mustaine has found a suitable line-up for doing his thing. Nowadays, we can really talk again about "Megadeth" as a band and not just the solo project of that nice red-haired guy. Almost automatically, Hangar 18 leads us to one of the finest moments of the record. Power rages on, keeps growing, built with a thick, dense atmosphere created by the beat lines, the powerful drumming and the pumping bass. Like a powerful streak of continued and raw music, Take no Prisoners, Five Magics, Poison Was the Cure and Lucretia, nice fillers in the original "Rust in Peace" album, here sound like magnus opus of the band. Specially Lucretia, an underrated piece with nice tempo and bright singing.

Dot and apart, the finest moment comes with Tornado of Souls. The guitar riffing mixed with a thunderous singing and an unique rythmic pattern drawed by that nice society bass-drumming gives us the high point of the first part of the show. Like the tip of an iceberg, Dawn Patrol and Rust in Peace are brilliant closers of the finest album ever made by Megadeth.

Then, dropping the hits like a deluge of thunder, non stop highway in the middle of a deflagration, is priceless. For the sweet taste of many lovers of the band formed by Mustaine, Ellefson, Broderick and Drover, a rollercoaster of classic, maybe in their best shape ever in a live performance, punches us into the stomach and leaves us filled with rampage power and emotion. The second part of the show is made with Megadeth's classic hits and here we figure out how evolved has become the society of the band. Thy have proven nowhere else but in a live performance (is there other way to?) what they really are. I don't need to detail how bright and powerful sounds the second part of the show in the album. A handful of classics and that's it. The only bad critics I can make here is the kinda unpolished and non-cared sound we get. Maybe a sound mix problem? We can't tell. But we can feel how great this performance was, and this record justly belongs to that ancient linage Made in Japan started, almost 40 years ago.

20 years ago, the world heard "Rust in Peace" explode into their ears. This was and is still hailed as Megadeth's best album to date and now it's time to take a trip back in time.

This album, recorded and filmed live, is at the legendary Hollywood Palladium not far from where Megadeth formed in 1983, take it home with a entire set of the whole "Rust in Peace" album for the fans.

Not only is this the entire "Rust in Peace" album recorded live, but it is total order, but that's just the beginning. With the rabid crowd, Megadeth takes stage and the carnage begins. What takes place is a complete thrash monstrosity with "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due, and the fury lives.

We get to hear it, ALL of it. The entire Rust album from start to fucking finish. Nothing left out. Every word, every note, every riff after maniacal riff. Newcomer Chris Broderick shows incredible technical prowess and nails every riff and every blistering solo with complete ease. Shawn Drover is a monster drummer and hits it all and never shows any fatigue. Dave Ellefson's bass has tremendous power, and of course, Dave Mustaine has not lost anything as he still has the excellent vocals and shows awesome range and still can destroy the guitar at nearly 50 years old.

This is one good fucking reason to listen to this and even some added bonuses of a few Mega favorites like "Peace Sells" and "In My Darkest Hour". With Megadeth back to the metal, "Trust" sounds much more favorable, and so does "She Wolf".

This is exactly how Rust in Peace should be heard. With much better production and an incredible crowd, this is going to be the live album to beat, easily the best live recording I have heard and better than the studio version hands down.