Megadeth: Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying? (DVD-Audio)
Music: A- MLP 5.1: B+ DTS 5.1: B+ PCM Stereo: B
In order to be considered
a true metal head of the 80’s one band, besides Metallica, that you must love
with all your heart is Megadeth. Of course
that partly lies in the fact that guitarist/vocalist
Dave Mustaine left Metallica in 1983 to pursue his own musical interests and
while his contributions never reached the heights that Metallica did, Megadeth
still made a dent in the industry.
Where these two groups
differ though is that the direction that Megadeth took was a little bit faster
tempos and let the instruments become more of an attack rather than a
retreat. The guitars come at you, rather
than sooth you in, which is certainly the musical impression that Metallica’s
guitarist Kirt Hammett delivers. That’s
not to say that Metallica does not have the riffage and strength, but just a
slightly different approach.
Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying? is Megadeth’s second
album arriving in the year 1986, which would be the year of Metallica’s Master of Puppets arguably their finest
album. Aside from 1990’s Rust in Peace
this would be their best album by a long shot.
After that they would never return to the top even after the 1992 Countdown to Extinction, which is a fan
favorite album as well.
This album alone is a
definitive example of early Thrash metal, which would set the blueprint for
fellow bands to incorporate a rough edge, but at the same time keep some sort
of concept behind the music. What is
interesting is how this type of album would stir up a political view following
the year 1985, which was a classic year in the film industry with John
Carpenter’s They Live and Martha
Coolidge’s Real Genius. Both those films, while their approach was
different, had major traces of going against the Reagan administration, which
is precisely the angel that this album comes from. It’s angry, heartfelt, and serious about its
message.
All of the songs here are
from the creative mind of Mustaine with exception of the cover of Willie
Dixon’s I Ain’t Superstitious, which
adds a more supernatural element into the mix as well. The band then combined this with a mixed idea
about their fascination with the world as damnation and other slanted worldviews. Some might not take that close of a listen to
music of this nature and by today’s standards this seems tame in terms of its
heaviness, but at one point this was where rock really became hard.
It is always interesting
to see where DVD-Audio is headed next and some really interesting titles and
albums always seem to surface. DTS
Entertainment has been responsible for some of the best product on the market
and they have a knack for picking certain titles that are standout and allow
the material to transcend into a format like DVD-A with ease.
The first question that
might be on the minds of readers is what does a classic thrash metal band sound
like on a newer format like DVD-A? Not
only that, but how does a band that was never interested per se in their sound
as much as the message going to work its way into a format like this that
exists solely to administer music at its finest and most creative way. The answers to that are not easy, but I would
like to guess that fans of Megadeth will find this to be the best way to
experience the band even if you are not familiar with their work or know every
guitar lick front and back.
Track Listing:
Wake Up Dead
The Conjuring
Peace Sells
Devil’s Island
Good Morning Black Friday
Bad Omen
I Ain’t Superstitious
My Last Words
The entire 8 tracks of the
album are here, offered in the higher resolution DTS 96/24 with the option of
the MLP audio track in 5.1 and the PCM 2.0 stereo. One difficult thing with music of this nature
is to find separation in order to create a multi-channel mix that stays close
to the original recordings, yet finds new and interesting ways to present that
material. How do you split the guitars
so that they are still shredding, yet coming from different places within your
soundfield? That is one of the slight
problems with a mix like this is that while the music has a strong presence and
the fidelity is very refined, the mix itself is not as interesting as some
might hope. The channel separation is more
minimal and the surrounds are not as utilized as certain people prefer.
The rumbling bass comes
through the .LFE channel very nicely and the vocals can be accurately heard
through the mid front portion of the soundstage coming mostly from the center
and then spread slightly into the front right and left speakers. During the chorus moments of some songs there
is even further placement given to the vocals in the rear channels.
This is certainly a tester
type of DVD-Audio for this material to see how it translates in a format like
this and with more tweaking and better technology coming along it won’t be long
before something like this will be even better.
There are also two videos provided for Wake Up Dead and Peace Sells. These are in DTS 5.1 and there are also
interviews with the band members as well.
Nothing overly special, but the videos look pretty good and get a nice
idea of where music video was heading in the 80’s with montage footage in order
to create a concept, especially to loud, fast music.
One can only hope that DTS
Entertainment will continue their strong efforts to expand their catalog with
even better titles and add more credit to their already healthy reputation.
- Nate Goss
