:: Megadeth - Rust In Peace - Live (with DVD)

Megadeth

On the twentieth anniversary of the release of their critically acclaimed thrash masterpiece ‘Rust In Piece’, legendary outfit Megadeth decided to dedicate all twenty-two dates in March on the North American leg of their world tour (in support to their ‘Endgame’ album from 2009) to playing the classic 1990 release in its entirety. As expected, with all of the shows selling out, Megadeth decided to seize the opportunity to capture one of the shows on film for those unable to witness the important event, with the last show of the tour presented here on Megadeth’s latest live CD/DVD package ‘Rust In Peace – Live’. Despite twenty years since the release of ‘Rust In Peace’, and the fact that only half of the original line-up that recorded the seminal album still remain within the band, ‘Rust In Peace – Live’ is a powerful live recording that more than does justice to the classic album. With virtually no introduction or extended fanfare, Megadeth get straight into the forty-seven minute show with a particularly crushing rendition of ‘Holy Wars…The Punishment Due’. Despite having played the song countless times over the years, the current line-up of Megadeth still manage to belt out plenty of venom within the song, which is a credit to Megadeth’s ability to keep things sounding fresh some twenty years down the road. The performance of the song itself is note perfect to the original, which gives the concert a real air of authenticity in terms of revisiting of the band’s milestone releases from their long storied career. From here, the band virtually never let up, with the remaining eight song set list seeing them deliver their classic ‘Rest In Peace’ album in its entirety in near perfection live. ‘Hangar 18’ is an early favourite, with the crowds chanting of ‘ME-GA-DETH!’ heightening the clashing lead breaks between Mustaine and Broderick, while the pulverising duo of ‘Take No Prisoners’ and ‘Five Magics’ only reinforce the band’s reputation as one of the thrash scenes true leaders. ‘Poison Was The Cure’, ‘Lucretia’ and ‘Tornado Of Souls’ follow in quick succession, and prove themselves to be as every bit as impressive live today as their they did in their studio form some twenty years ago, while the title track ‘Rust In Peace…Polaris’ brings to a close of the album tracks in devastating form.

Despite having already run through the album in its entirety, the band do come back for an encore by way of a reprise of ‘Holy Wars’, before Mustaine eventually finishes up the show with the introduction of the members of the band with what little is left of his voice. But while it would appear that there’s little to fault on ‘Rust In Peace – Live’, there are some elements with this latest release from Megadeth that I did have some issues with. First of all, there’s the band’s performance of ‘Dawn Patrol’. Although near impossible to reproduce in the live arena, watching Ellefson and Drover playing over the backing vocal track isn’t quite how I envisioned the band would pull the song off. It would have been cool to see Mustaine lead the crowd vocally through the track, or have some visuals carry the song through. But as it is, it’s a little underwhelming and one of the weaker songs on the main set. Another problem is having the additional six songs from the set (‘Skin O’ My Teeth’, ‘In My Darkest Hour’, ‘She-Wolf’, ‘Trust’, ‘Symphony Of Destruction’ and ‘Peace Sells’) placed on the DVD as part of the bonus features. It would have been ideal to have them as part of the main feature, with the option of playing ‘Rust In Peace’ as opposed to playing all of the songs. Also disappointing is the fact that both ‘Headcrusher’ and ‘The Right To Go Insane’ (from ‘Endgame’) have been dropped from the DVD, despite having been played on the same night. Perhaps they’re saving those for another DVD. The so-called ‘Backstage Footage’ doesn’t really amount to much either. Running for a mere eight and a half minutes, we do get to see the band rehearse ‘Tornado Of Souls’ briefly in the dressing room, and Mustaine (with his wife Pam in tow) politely thanking the crew for their hard work, but the remainder is pure filler footage of fans outside the venue. I personally would have liked to have seen a bit more interview footage of the tour leading up to the show, or something along those lines rather what is actually offered up here. Sound wise, you’d be hard pressed to find a fault with ‘Rust In Peace – Live’. The current incarnation of Megadeth is in killer form, and certainly firing on all cylinders throughout the DVD. Visually however, the concert doesn’t fare as well, with the concert looking fairly stripped back, and the camera work failing to capture the intensity of the show in quite the same way that 2007’s ‘That One Night: Live In Buenos Aires’ did. But overall, despite its flaws, ‘Rust In Peace – Live’ is a great live representation of one of Megadeth’s true classic releases, and certainly a worthy release for diehard fans who regard the album as one of the band’s finest releases from the 1990’s.