The Sick, The Dying... And the Dead＜限定盤/Blue Opaque & Green Transparent Vinyl＞

2022年リリースのMegadeth16枚目のアルバム。
Dave Mustaine と Chris Rakestrawのプロデュース。
ルー・オパーク&グリーン・トランスペアレント・カラー・ヴァイナル仕様。

The return to form that began on 2016s Dystopia continues with The Sick, the Dying...and the Dead!, the 16th studio album from metal institution Megadeth. As with Dystopia, Megadeth ringleader Dave Mustaine and his bandmates focus on precision thrash, this time around turning in a tighter, cleaner batch of songs that feel both intently focused and streamlined for maximum intensity. The time leading up to the album wasnt an easy one for the band, however, and the six years that passed between the last record and this one stand as the longest time between new material in the bands nearly 40-year history. The turbulent time spent working on The Sick included not just Mustaine being diagnosed with and aggressively treated for throat cancer but also Megadeth co-founder and bassist David Ellefson leaving the band due to his involvement in a sex scandal. The hard-fought nature of this particular chapter in the bands development can be heard in the songs, which are, for the most part, no-nonsense ragers marked by the kind of technical perfection the band made their name on in the 80s and 90s. After the title track opens the album with a somewhat conceptual, meandering arrangement, Megadeth gets right down to business with the speedy and powerful "Life in Hell," a song that matches the snarling menace of anything in the bands catalog. New drummer Dirk Verbeuren makes his debut on The Sick, and his economical but relentless playing is a huge factor in the direct force that defines the album. Six-and-a-half-minute mini-epic "Night Stalkers" is a swarm of riffs and Mustaines well-established war imagery, with an unexpected voiceover cameo from Ice-T. The band stays primarily in full-on mode, with sinister blasters like "Well Be Back" and "Celebutante" giving way to only slightly less brutal workouts like the creeping "Killing Time," which includes one of the albums most masterfully constructed breakdowns. Mustaine has sounded angry and irritated on almost every song hes ever recorded, but the bile is a little thicker on The Sick. Its a tense and impatient record, even by Megadeths standards, and re-affirms the bands status as completely essential metal deities who are still operating on a level of excellence most of their peers fell from decades ago. ~ Fred Thomas

デイヴ・エレフソンの解雇、デイヴ・ムステインの咽頭ガン治療といった難局を乗り越え、新体制で作った16枚目のアルバム。これがリフの嵐で攻め立てた豪放作である。〈野獣〉と〈知性〉が同居した初期インテレクチュアル・スラッシュ期を彷彿させる場面も多い。また、アイス・Tを迎えた"Night Stalkers"の鬼神の如きリフ、その後にラップとアコギ/ストリングスで味付けした曲展開も見事。英米チャート3位を獲得。
bounce (C)荒金良介