The World Needs A Hero
Megadeth are probably one my favorite bands. After leaving Metallica in 1983, Dave Mustaine decided to form a band of his own. He named the band Megadeth because he wanted every gig they played to be as powerful and deadly as a nuclear explosion (Mega Death, get it?) By the end of the 1980’s Megadeth were one of the leading thrash metal bands and every album they released in the 90’s debuted in the top ten. In 2001 they released ‘The World Needs A Hero’.
After numerous changes in the lineup, Megadeth at the time were:
- Dave Mustaine – Guitar & Vocals
- David Ellefson – Bass
- Jimmy Degrasso – Drums
- Al Pitrelli – Guitar & Backing Vocals
1)Disconnect (5:20) - Starts with a distorted guitar riff with some little drum fills in the background. After about thirty seconds the other instruments join in and the verse starts. At around 1:03 the chorus starts, for me this is one of the catchiest parts of this song and I am constantly humming it. With lyrics like, “Turn off your conscience, leave the world outside, nothing at all can ever make you feel that anything’s real so you just, disconnect!”. At 2:18 there is a breakdown where all you can hear is the bass doing a cool little bass line with a high hat keeping the beat, after about thirty seconds the guitars come in, one just copying the bass line and the other doing a cool little solo. After this the chorus is just repeated a couple of times until the end with some guitar soloing in the background. Overall this is a good catchy song and in my opinion is one of the album’s highlights. 4.5/5
2)The World Need A Hero (3:52) – The title track for this album starts with just a drum bit on the tom toms (don’t blame me if I’m wrong, I’m not really a drums expert). After that a cool, simple almost bluesy bass line comes in. At about 0:18 Dave starts doing this sing/talking thing which is the verse. The lyrics are relatively good, ‘An iron fist quietly sits inside the velvet glove”. Unfortunately I just don’t like the way they are sung. It sounds more like Dave is talking rather than singing. At the 0:36 mark the guitars join in and you can hear a phone call happening in the background talking about putting the president on hold. At around 2:05 this really thrashy guitar part comes in, after that there are a couple of guitar solos then the chorus is repeated until the end. Overall a very average song that doesn’t really stand out like Megadeth tracks usually do. 2.5/5
3)Coming Home (2:35) – My version of this CD is the Japanese bonus version therefore it has this track on it as well. Starts with just an acoustic guitar fading in. This is the album’s first ballad. The lyrics are quite cheesy about moving away, ‘I’ll miss you, but I know, but I know I’m coming home to Arizona”. Kind of reminds me of an old country song, especially due to the fact that there is a harmonica in the background. It’s an annoying that gets boring very fast. 2/5
4)Moto Psycho (3:06) – Starts with a distorted guitar riff. Soon after all the other instruments join in to make a catchy verse. In the gaps in between there are little guitar solos. The chorus kind of gets on my nerves though, it’s annoying and sounds like a campfire song. The last forty five seconds of this song are just the chorus being repeated over and over again. Overall a good catchy song but brought down by the repetitiveness. 3/5
5)1000 Times Goodbye (6:25) – This track is about breaking up which is a subject usually covered by pop bands such as Blink-182 and Sum 41 etc. (all the number bands). Anyway apart from the lyrics this is a fairly good song, the instruments fit well together and the guitar solos are fairly good (apart from the fact that they are covered up by the stupid phone call things). The lyrics are annoying in the chorus, “Kiss your lips one last goodbye, my love one thousand times goodbye”. Overall a rather lame attempt of doing something emotional, gotta respect them for trying though. 3/5
6)Burning Bridges (5:20) – One my least favourite songs on this album. The lyrics are bland and the guitar parts are relatively boring, also the tune just annoys me. The vocals are all snarly and don’t really have any emotion apart from a vague kind of angry feeling which is pretty much in every Megadeth song. The guitar solo at 3:30 saves the song from being an utter mess, still not a favourite though. Apart from the guitar solo and the cool ending this song is very poor. Luckily the solos manage to push it up to just being average. 2.5/5
7)Promises (4:26) – Another album highlight. An amazing ballad. Starts with just an acoustic guitar with a bit of violin in the background, soon after that the vocals start, another emotional/love song but this one is much better executed. With lyrics such as, “Two hearts that shouldn’t talk to each other become close in a town much like a prison cell” in the pre-chorus the song becomes a lot fuller with lots of violins and cellos playing along. At around 3:20 there is a guitar solo from Pitrelli and Mustaine. After that it goes back into the chorus. Overall a very good song with surprisingly good vocal work from Mustaine and good guitar all round. The violins and Cellos really add to the song as well. 4.5/5
8)Recipe For Hate…Warhorse (5:19) – This is a strange song. Starts with a drum roll with a guitar riff on top of that. The lyrics are weird, “Each day my shortcomings pick my pockets”. At 0:55 there is this weird acoustic guitar solo. After that there is another verse then at 2:00 there is an electric guitar solo. At 3:36 there is this cool guitar solo which goes until the end of the song. For me this song is very hard to swallow and understand. In a way it’s more like one long verse. Overall I just don’t really know what to say about this song. 2.5/5
9)Losing My Senses (4:40) – Another very average song. Again I find it hard to get my head around this song. The chorus is catchy but apart from that I don’t really have anything more to say about this song. 2.5/5
10)Dread And The Fugitive Mind (4:25) – In for some reason this song reminds me of ‘Sweating Bullets’ from the ‘Countdown To Extinction’ especially the beginning. Starts with the instruments playing then leaving gaps where Dave does his snarly sing/talking thing. At about 0:25 all the instruments join in, soon after the chorus starts which is very catchy. At about 2:03 the songs goes into this thrashy bridge part with a simple yet cool guitar solo over the top which keeps playing the same thing except in different keys. After that another guitar solo comes in which last until about the four minute mark. After that the main riff is just repeated until the end. Overall a good song that stands out from the previous last couple of poor/average songs. 3.5/5
11)Silent Scorn (1:43) – This is just an instrumental filler track. Starts with an acoustic guitar repeating a simple pattern, after that the drums do this weird kinda rolling thing with the lead guitar soloing over the top. At some parts a trumpet starts playing in the background. Overall a good bridge between the previous track and the one coming up now. Since this is just filler I shall not rate it. N.A.
12)Return To Hanger (4:00) – This is a remake of ‘Hanger 18’ from the ‘Rust In Peace’ album. A lot of the time I don’t like remix’s or part twos of songs but this is actually really good and wins the award of my favourite song off the album. Starts with both guitars just pumping out that low E power chord. Soon after the other instruments join in and the verse starts with the most catchy lyrics off the album, “And military intelligence, is just two word s that don’t make sense, possibly I have seen too much, hanger 18 and I know too much!” There is no real chorus in this song, it just has verse 1 and verse 2 then the rest of the time it’s just guitar solos. An amazing song. 5/5
13)When? (9:13) – My CD actually has a scratch on it which pretty much just covers this whole song so I have never listened to it before. What I did hear of it I didn’t really like though. N.A.
Album Highlights:
-Disconnect
-Return To Hanger
-Promises
Overall a good album, all of the songs are very average apart from a few standouts. In my opinion, this is one of Megadeth’s weaker albums. It sounds rushed and as if they were just trying to dish out as many songs as possible for this album instead of actually writing good songs. This good points of this album are of course the guitar solos and the double bass pedal work, Jimmy Degrasso sure knows how to use one of those.
Anyway if you’re a fan of Megadeth then this is a good album to get. If you’re new to this type of music I would suggest getting ‘Rust In Peace’ first.
To conclude this album gets a well earned 3/5.
