Back in September, during an interview with Megedeth frontman Dave Mustaine, the interviewer asked if Dave had heard the new Metallica song. At the time Dave said he had and when the interviewer asked Dave's opinion, the Megadeth frontman responded "I’m not going to say anything."
So, I guess Metal Hammer must've asked really really nicely because today, they published a review from Mustaine of Metallica's bestselling new album, Hardwired…To Self Destruct. So what did Dave think?
It sounds like he likes it. He starts out the review by saying "I’ve always been able to appreciate the talent in Metallica." So far, so good (so what?). "Every band has its strengths and its weaknesses." Uh-oh. "Personally, from everything I’ve heard so far, I think the new album is a good one." Would this suggest that Mustaine hasn't heard the entire album?
Mustaine then goes into a tangent about how he's bummed that Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo didn't contribute anything to the new album, something Kirk has gone on the record as saying was "a very bitter pill to swallow". Mustaine said he enjoyed Trujillo's bass lines in his previous bands and Kirk's contributions to Exodus. Dave does realize Kirk has since contributed to Metallica tracks like "Enter Sandman," "For Whom The Bell Tolls," and "One" to name a few.
On the production end, he takes a moment to say while he respects Rick Rubin's work with bands like The Cult, it doesn't translate as much on metal, which is fine except Rubin didn't work on this album, he worked on the last one. Ultimately, when it comes to production, Mustaine says that Hardwired "sounds pretty good to me."
He then ends the review by using it as a platform to campaign for more possible Big Four shows, since all four bands have new albums out:
To have all of the Big Four releasing great new records within 12 months or so, that’s really cool. Now the big question is whether or not the powers-that-be are gonna allow for the four of us to go and do some more Big Four dates. We’ve got a lot of great stuff going on and we’ve got some stuff we’re setting up for Asia and the United States for next year, but if Big Four stuff presented itself we’d probably yield to that because it’s a lot more fun and it’s such an event that it takes precedence over just another tour, so to speak. When fans get to have four of the greatest heavy metal bands of all time on the same stage, that’s something you can tell your grandkids about.
The Big Four shows were very exciting to watch and it's interesting that Mustaine is lobbying for them, when all signs pointed to him being the reason it was held up with Tom Araya saying "the politics of character in one particular band" were holding up more shows a few years ago, although at the time Mustaine denied he was the one holding them back, but rather he was not the one to ask. Either way, more Big Four shows sound good to me. And kudos to Metal Hammer for pulling such a scoop.
Do you want to see more Big Four shows? Here is our recap of the Big Four event that happened at Yankee Stadium:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA11i0Olnaw[/youtube]
