The return to form that began on 2016's
Dystopia
continues with
The Sick, the Dying...and the Dead!
, the 16th studio album from metal institution
Megadeth
. As with
,
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 wasn't 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 band's 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
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 band's 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,
gets right down to business with the speedy and powerful "Life in Hell," a song that matches the snarling menace of anything in the band's catalog. New drummer
Dirk Verbeuren
makes his debut on
, 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
's well-established war imagery, with an unexpected voiceover cameo from
Ice-T
. The band stays primarily in full-on mode, with sinister blasters like "We'll Be Back" and "Celebutante" giving way to only slightly less brutal workouts like the creeping "Killing Time," which includes one of the album's most masterfully constructed breakdowns.
has sounded angry and irritated on almost every song he's ever recorded, but the bile is a little thicker on
. It's a tense and impatient record, even by
's standards, and re-affirms the band's 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