  | Blog author: Alex Stojanovic Today we celebrate another huge milestone in metal history. We're celebrating the 25th anniversary of the release of Megadeth's Countdown To Extinction, released on July 14, 1992. Some sources say the release date was July 6th, while other sources say July 14th. However, on Megadeth's Facebook page, they posted the album cover and said that it was released today, 25 years ago, so I guess it's gotta be July 14th then. This album was my introduction to Megadeth when I was 12 years old. However, the first time I learned about them was after seeing a picture of Dave Mustaine in an October 2004 issue of Guitar World magazine. |
By that time, I was already obsessed with Metallica, but I didn't know that Mustaine used to be in Metallica until a few months later. I remember going through my dad's CD collection one day and I found two Megadeth records in there. Those were the Capitol Punishment greatest hits album and Countdown. I popped in Countdown into my CD walkman and the intro to "Skin O' My Teeth" got me hooked. Then I heard "Symphony Of Destruction", "Sweating Bullets" and so on. However, I will fully admit that while I liked the album, it didn't instantly grab me to where I was going gaga over it, but I loved the first two tracks. It was when United Abominations came out in 2007 that I started taking Megadeth more seriously and that's when I listened back to Countdown and where I fell in absolute love with the album as well as the rest of the catalog.
Unlike the album's predecessors where a majority of the songwriting was handled primarily by Mustaine, with a few contributions from David Ellefson, this was the first album where all four band members contributed to the songwriting. This was also the first Megadeth album that had songs played on the radio and on MTV and it turned them into an arena headliner. However, it still sucks that this album was beat by Billy Ray Cyrus' Some Gave All (gag) for the #1 spot on the charts, but hey, #2 is pretty good for a metal album, right?
The tour for the album saw Megadeth open for Metallica on some shows in Europe. For fans and the press at that time, that was a big deal, and if that were to happen again today (not counting the Big Four shows), it would still be a big deal. The amount of coverage that tour would receive would be astronomical.
When it comes to the songs, obviously the big hits are "Skin O' My Teeth", "Symphony Of Destruction" and "Sweating Bullets". However, how can you forget about the underrated gems like "Architecture Of Aggression", which is in my top 5 favourite Megadeth songs ever, "High Speed Dirt", "This Was My Life", "Psychotron", "Captive Honour" and "Ashes In Your Mouth"? The only time some of these songs were played live was in 2012 on the album's 20th anniversary tour where the band played the entire album. A couple of songs were also played at a handful of dates in 2013 and before the anniversary tour, some of the songs were only played live in the 90s. "Ashes In Your Mouth" was actually played quite a bit over the years.
I personally wish that "Symphony Of Destruction" and "Sweating Bullets" were dropped from the setlist for a while so songs like "Architecture", "Psychotron", "Foreclosure Of A Dream" and "Countdown To Extinction" would have a chance to be slide back into the set because I would LOVE to hear those songs live. Over the last few years, Megadeth's setlist has remained pretty much the same with most of the same hits over and over again, but even the deep cuts that they play hardly get changed. Come on Dave, change it up a little bit.
In conclusion, this record will always have a special place in my heart as it introduced me to Megadeth, who are one of my top favourite bands ever, the songwriting is stellar, the production is great, the performances are excellent and it's a mega-classic album. However it's not my #1 favourite Megadeth album, but it's close in there. It has inspired many metal bands today and will continue to do so for many years to come.
Happy 25th anniversary to Countdown To Extinction and R.I.P. Nick Menza.
Unlike the album's predecessors where a majority of the songwriting was handled primarily by Mustaine, with a few contributions from David Ellefson, this was the first album where all four band members contributed to the songwriting. This was also the first Megadeth album that had songs played on the radio and on MTV and it turned them into an arena headliner. However, it still sucks that this album was beat by Billy Ray Cyrus' Some Gave All (gag) for the #1 spot on the charts, but hey, #2 is pretty good for a metal album, right?
The tour for the album saw Megadeth open for Metallica on some shows in Europe. For fans and the press at that time, that was a big deal, and if that were to happen again today (not counting the Big Four shows), it would still be a big deal. The amount of coverage that tour would receive would be astronomical.
When it comes to the songs, obviously the big hits are "Skin O' My Teeth", "Symphony Of Destruction" and "Sweating Bullets". However, how can you forget about the underrated gems like "Architecture Of Aggression", which is in my top 5 favourite Megadeth songs ever, "High Speed Dirt", "This Was My Life", "Psychotron", "Captive Honour" and "Ashes In Your Mouth"? The only time some of these songs were played live was in 2012 on the album's 20th anniversary tour where the band played the entire album. A couple of songs were also played at a handful of dates in 2013 and before the anniversary tour, some of the songs were only played live in the 90s. "Ashes In Your Mouth" was actually played quite a bit over the years.
I personally wish that "Symphony Of Destruction" and "Sweating Bullets" were dropped from the setlist for a while so songs like "Architecture", "Psychotron", "Foreclosure Of A Dream" and "Countdown To Extinction" would have a chance to be slide back into the set because I would LOVE to hear those songs live. Over the last few years, Megadeth's setlist has remained pretty much the same with most of the same hits over and over again, but even the deep cuts that they play hardly get changed. Come on Dave, change it up a little bit.
In conclusion, this record will always have a special place in my heart as it introduced me to Megadeth, who are one of my top favourite bands ever, the songwriting is stellar, the production is great, the performances are excellent and it's a mega-classic album. However it's not my #1 favourite Megadeth album, but it's close in there. It has inspired many metal bands today and will continue to do so for many years to come.
Happy 25th anniversary to Countdown To Extinction and R.I.P. Nick Menza.
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