The year is 1988, and Megadeth's in a rough spot. Guitar master Chris Poland and speed drummer Gar Samuelson haverecently gotten the boot for being drug-addicted dickheads, even though Dave is the same at this point. Peace Sells...But Who's Buying was easily one of the most well-received albums of 1986, and for good reason. Unfortunately, it's gonna be hard for Dave, David, and the new boys to live up to what the Bills and Teds of the world are expecting. Enter So Far, So Good, So What!, a title which gives the impression that at this point, Dave thinks he can do no wrong, having released two classic records already, and maybe zonked-out crackhead Dave just didn't give a damn. In hisdefense, judging by his thrash contemporary's releases of the same year, (State of Euphoria, ...And Justice For All, etc.) it seems that no otherband in thrash gave a damn that year either.
But the thing is, this album's not THAT bad. It made the mistake of being trapped between classics, much like many other albums throughout the history of rock, such as Magical Mystery Tour, Led Zeppelin III, or Exodus's Pleasures of the Flesh, just to name a few. It is the sound of Dave Mustaine trying to take his band in a tighter, more technical direction, and while the band would perfect the sound on their next record, 1990's Rust in Peace, on SFSGSW, Dave and company are merely getting their feet wet.
Despite Dave's insane drug use at this stage in his career, he's still the finest riff-master in the thrash world, and let us not forget, he's still pissed off. And he has every reason to be! He had to kick two of the best thrashers in the game, Poland and the late Samuelson, out of his band, and replace them with two average musicians. Chuck Behler, the new stickman, is an average, passable thrash drummer, but lacks the chaotic edge of Gar Samuelson. And the newly recruited axeman, Jeff Young, does a decent job at playing solos and such, but there is absolutely no chemistry between him and Dave. Poland and Mustaine were a dynamic duo, playing off of each other. Jeff Young just sounds like any other metal guitarist. And where is David Ellefson, bass jesus? As I look in the cassette booklet (that's right, I own this on tape) I see his name, but I only hear his godly bass skills on Mary Jane and In My Darkest Hour! Don't tell me he was zonked out on heroin too!!!
While the whole band (except Dave) is musically unfocused and rather sloppy, the actual finished product is...pretty good. Mustaine still snarls like a madman doing speedballs, most likely because he was on speedballs during the recording. The songs, for the most part, are all pretty sweet thrash, which is what we expect from Megadeth. In fact, the album even holds two Megadeth classics, Set the World Afire and In My Darkest Hour, both of which are still regularly performed at 'Deth shows to this day. And Liar, Hook in Mouth, and 502 are all passable thrash jams, despite all three sounding astoundingly similar. But hey, it's thrash! But with good, there must be bad. Into The Lungs of Hell is an unneccessary instrumental intro which is quite bland, and their cover of Anarchy in the UK sounds like one of those cover tunes they use in movies when they can't get the rights to the original song. And Mary Jane is just TOO much of the same-old-same-old.
However, even on the more lackluster songs, I still find myself banging my head, thrusting my walkman into the air like it's, well, 1988. So overall, what we have hear is a damn fine heavy metal record suffering from Led Zeppelin III syndrome. But unlike on Zeppelin III, the band as a whole is not up to par. It's not just the fact that more was expected from Dave and the boys. This really is your average thrash record. But the average thrash record still rules more than most things in existence. However, five good songs is not a full thrash album, so for So Far So Good So What, it's best to just pretend that this is Megadeth's first EP.
