American thrash metal band Megadeth has reached its “Endgame” and will be left to “Rust in Peace,” after nearly 43 years and 17 studio albums. Last Friday, Jan. 23, Megadeth released their final, self-titled album, and began their final tour. After this, Megadeth will permanently disband and band leader Dave Mustaine will go into retirement after a mythical music career, while the band’s other members will presumably move onto other projects.

Megadeth started in 1983 after Mustaine was kicked out of his lead guitarist role in Metallica for his rampant drug and alcohol abuse and personal conflicts with lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield. After being booted out of Metallica, Mustaine vowed that he would create a “heavier and faster” rival thrash metal band to Metallica, meaning he would choose to focus on heavy and faster riffs, and faster and shreddier solos. However, he was unsure of what to call his new super-heavy band. While on a bus back to his Los Angeles home following his expulsion, Mustaine saw a political pamphlet on the floor with the line “The arsenal of megadeath can’t be rid no matter what the peace treaties come to.” Mustaine liked the term megadeath, and he changed the spelling slightly, removing the second “A” to make it into the name of his new band. Megadeth created its own unique sound by having flashy and harmonic solos in a genre that is usually defined by fast riffs and fast solos by playing drawn out and harmonic solos, focusing less on the riffs and more on the solos, creating powerful songs in its own right. Along with Mustaine’s unique vocal style, focusing more on the guitar work rather than flashy vocals, the vocals are often simple and to the point, and Megadeth lets its flashy guitar riffs and shreds sing more than the vocals. Megadeth released its debut album “Killing Is My Business… and Business is Good!” in 1985, and its next album, “Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying?” in 1986, which thrust them to mainstream success in the metal scene. However, in 1990 Megadeth would make history with its fourth studio album “Rust in Peace,” which became one of the greatest, if not the greatest, thrash metal albums of all time. It was praised for its fast and technical riffs, powerful shredding and otherworldly solos that compel a strong force over the listener, with the deep shredding and long harmonic bends of the solo that pierce deep into the listener’s brain and tap into the desire to get up and dance. Megadeth continued to release timeless thrash metal albums, going through highs, such as “Rust In Peace” and “Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying,” and lows such as “Risk” and a temporary breakup in the early 2000’s. The band made millions of fans around the world until August of 2025 when its members made a surprise announcement that they would be permanently breaking up, releasing one final album and going on one final tour.

As for the album itself, I found it to be quite enjoyable. I must say up front that it isn’t anything amazing like “Rust In Peace” or “Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying?,” but it was still a very fun album to listen to. The guitar work on this album is quite good, as this is the first album for young lead guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari who joined after Megadeth’s last album “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!” when previous lead guitarist Kiko Loureiro left, stating that he chose to focus on his personal life rather than having to focus on the band constantly. Mäntysaari’s work here is fairly impressive. He has a very technical and fast yet still clear and comprehensible style to his solos. In this album, Mäntysaari follows closely to Loureiro’s playing style, with his solos being very fast and shred-heavy. The only real difference is that Mäntysaari focused less on bends and more on shreds compared to Loureiro who had more bends in his solos. Mäntysaari’s riffs are definitely not bad. The riffs on this album felt melodic, yet still chuggy and aggressive, and I believe that Megadeth achieved a nice balance in regards to the riffs, as they don’t feel too overpowering but don’t feel too underwhelming, and the solos felt harmonic when coupled with them while still being fast and butt-kicking. All of the former is complimented well by drummer Dirk Verbeuren’s fast and pounding double-kick drumming. All of these factors instrumentally work well in the album’s favor. Another thing that I must compliment is the guitar tone on this album. I felt the tone to be very crisp and satisfying, with the riffs feeling juicy and crunchy, and the solos feeling clean and ambrosial to the ears.

However, there are some flaws with this album. As with many Megadeth albums, Mustaine’s voice feels grinding and sickly, and this album is no exception. I’m not surprised that this is Megadeth’s final album, as Mustaine has been suffering from declining health for years as he reaches his mid-60s. Mustaine was diagnosed with Dupuytren’s Contracture, a medical condition common in older adults which reduces fine movement in the fingers. This condition would make guitar playing for Mustaine nearly impossible as the disease progresses. Mustaine’s voice on this album is very raspy, not to the point where it makes me feel icky to listen to this album, but it definitely sounds to me like Mustaine’s throat was sick when recording this album, and it could definitely be uncomfortable for some listeners and is definitely distracting to some of the music on the album.

The sickly vocals weren’t the only thing that threw me off; even the mixing on some tracks of the album fell short. While it’s not terrible, it’s definitely not perfect. There were points where I struggled to hear the lead guitar’s solos over the rhythm guitar’s riffs. The worst case lies in the final track “The Last Note,” where the acoustic guitar in the mid-section was extremely difficult to hear. If I were doing something other than actively listening to this album in a quiet place on full volume there’s a chance I wouldn’t have even noticed it. My other big complaint with this album is that it feels very repetitive. Most of the songs sound the exact same, with most of the riffs and solos sounding very similar to each other. This isn’t a huge complaint for me, as even though it’s repetitive, the tracks are still fun. In my opinion, “Hey God?!,” “Puppet Parade” and “The Last Note” almost manage to capture the feeling that classic Megadeth albums had with its vocals and lyrics, yet still feel unique and refreshing, though this feeling only really applies to these songs and isn’t felt elsewhere throughout the album.

There was one aspect that turned me off the most, though: the bonus track, a cover of Metallica’s 1984 song “Ride The Lightning” from the album of the same name. The vocals on this track are comedic, with Mustaine throwing his vocal pitch around in almost a mocking tone that doesn’t work well with his raspy voice. When I first heard them I was incredibly confused as I held back laughter while also questioning what the heck Mustaine was thinking with this. Vocally the song sounds like a cheap parody of the original. However, the solo and drumming on this song are, in my opinion, better than the original, which Mustaine contributed significantly to during his time in Metallica and was given writing credit for. The guitar feels more emotive and squirelly, with Verbeuren adding some extra fills that made the song feel a little less repetitive.

This album felt like a decent-enough send off to Megadeth’s 43-year long career, though they could’ve done a lot more with this album creatively. It’s fine as it is, and is definitely nothing terrible. It’s an enjoyable album to turn your brain off to and just rock out to the heavy riffs and harmonic solos, with my favorite tracks being “Let There Be Shred” and “I Don’t Care.” If I had to rate this album on a scale of one to 10, I’d probably have to give it a seven — even with many negative reviews, artistic choices I wouldn’t have made and some short-comings with the vocals and variety, this is an album I still found very fun and good to turn your brain off to and just enjoy the sound. This is something I can definitely see myself listening to in my day-to-day life.