Here it is—the impossible dream. Metallica with Dave Mustaine on lead. From before the first album, when they were really thrash. They slowed down and mellowed out with each album after that amazing blast-off. Terrible video and sound, recorded from behind the audience, but just an insane burst of intensity and talent like the world has seldom heard. From 1983, doubtless recorded on a full-size VHS camcorder. But hey, no hands up in the air with little blue rectangles everywhere.
Tough to see, but it looks like Mustaine is playing some kind of double cut Gibson-esque guitar. Don't think I've ever seen him without a V.
It's a trip to see him as the front man of the band too, doing all the talking. I mean, he does that in Megadeth, but it's always James in Metallica. I guess he had to step forward when they booted Dave.
Pound for pound he's a slightly better vocalist and a significantly better guitar player than James. However, he's nowhere near the songwriter. James has a lot of catchy pop star to him. Kind of like the metal version of Madonna or Billy Joel... particularly in his riffing. You can hum 2 bars of a Metallica riff and everybody can instantly recognize the song. That is really hard to do in that genre.
That's my own diagnosis as well. Metallica songs stick in your head for days, like Beatles songs. There are only a few parts of a few Megadeth songs I can even remember. That puts Mustaine for me into the category with guys like Yngwie Malmsteen or Steve Vai, who are technically excellent and can shred like crazy, but aren't good songwriters. Also a lot of reading lately and a lot of youtube has shown me that Hetfield is an amazing rhythm guitarist with the most amazing timing in the world, and who always down-strums apparently, even as fast as he plays.
And as a fairly good guitar player myself I can tell you that that is NOT easy. I can play all of his parts but I have to alternate pick, and even then Battery or Master of Puppets will put me in a sling.
Metallica certainly put out some quality material early on--I'll extend that to their first five albums. Megadeth has been more consistent in quality, in my opinion, but with nothing as memorable as those early Metallica offerings. At this point, it has been 30 years since Metallica put out anything I liked very much.
I didn't mind the black album, even though it took a much more commercial turn. I did not like Load, and once Reload came out I gave up. Even if they'd switched to a more commercial style, I'd have continued to listen if I thought it was any good. Some bands can manage that kind of a drastic change--take Genesis, for example. Their best work is their early prog output but even after they left that behind for more commercial fare I still liked them. Metallica just wasn't able to hold my interest as they evolved.
Wow, I always thought Mechanix was originally The Four Horseman and Mustaine had to change it, but I guess it was the other way around?
Yeah, apparently it was called The Mechanix on their demo No Life Till Leather and Metallica changed the name when they released Kill Em All. I think they changed some lyrics too? Not sure.
