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I genuinely hate to criticize Megadeth because they have made some of the best metal albums and best metal songs ever, but it just seems they have not made a good album since Youthanasia and never will. The last time I bought a post-Youthanasia album, I disliked it so much it felt like work making it through the album even as I skipped through most of the songs after just a partial listen because they were so horrible. By way of contrast, even though I have listened to the Youthanasia album many times since the 1990s, I recently had the album playing in my car for around two months.
The last post-Youthanasia album I bought was about enough to make me write off post-Youthanasia Megadeth forever, but I had heard so much hype about United Abominations that I decided I needed to give it a really fair chance. I listened to some of the songs on YouTube, and although they seemed less than impressive, I thought maybe I just needed to get the album, put it in my car, and really give the songs a thorough listen. After all, with so many positive reviews of the album, surely I was missing something.
To be fair, the first several songs on the album are not too bad. They are even slightly enjoyable. But I found myself rapidly skipping through songs once I reached the second half of the album. Interestingly, it was not until later that I discovered that even amongst those who like the album, the second half is generally seen as drastically inferior to the first half of the album.
So, what is it that makes this album such a disappointment? Not even the best song could hold a candle to the worst song on Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction, or Youthanasia. While several songs start out very promising, the main riff that follows is almost always very anticlimactic and boring. Not even one song has a riff that grabs and inspires you, whereas by contrast almost every main riff of the songs on Youthanasia do that (notable examples including "Blood of Heroes," "Addicted to Chaos," and "I Thought I Knew It All"). Those riffs are so great that only the most wretched vocals could detract from their enjoyableness, and gladly, Mustaine does a great job on the vocals in Youthanasia. That is not the case in United Abominations.
With riffs so boring and uninspiring that they could not be saved, but only mitigated, by the best vocals, the terrible vocals of this album put the final nail in the coffin. Whereas in Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction, and Youthanasia, Mustaine's vocals complement the riffs nicely, in terms of neither drowning out the guitar nor being drowned out by the guitar, Mustaine's vocals seem to dominate and oppress the instrumental aspects of the songs to the point it seems everything besides Mustaine's vocals is an afterthought. While this level of vocal domination might be understandable in a scenario where fans buy albums primarily for the singer (e.g., a Mariah Carey album), metal fans generally are for more interested in what the instruments have to offer, particularly the guitar riffs and guitar solos. Thus, Mustaine's degree of dominance over each song's overall sound is very annoying.
Then, there is the issue of the quality of his vocals themselves (apart from their excessive loudness). It is hard to describe what he did right in Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction, and Youthanasia, but whatever it was, it was not what he does in United Abominations. In this album, his vocals seem too harsh, grating, and oppressive. However, I firmly believe that if the quality of the guitar riffs and solos had been anywhere near the quality of those on Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction, and Youthanasia, this would have still been a great album, even with his United Abominations vocal style. Turning the volume of the vocals down, though, relative to the guitar riffs would still be a major improvement.
Another issue closely tied to vocals is the lyrical content. It is too persistently gloomy and political. If not for the other major issues listed in this review, I think this would have been forgivable, though still slightly annoying.
The last issue is the lack of any considerable purely instrumental stretches. His earlier albums, particularly Rust in Peace, had many lengthy instrumental stretches, and they provided a much-needed break from Mustaine’s vocals and added a level of variety to each song and the album as a whole. United Abominations seemed to have virtually no significant instrumental stretches of music.
It brings me no joy to so harshly criticize a musical production of a man who has produced some of my favorite albums and songs of all time. On the other hand, only honest feedback from his fans is going to create the possibility of Megadeth ever again releasing a quality album. Mustaine should spend more time focusing on the search for catchy guitar riffs worthy of heavy repetition throughout each song, then punctuated by carefully crafted guitar solos serving as the dessert, all the while attaching his vocals in a way that supplement, rather than dominate, the instrumental aspects of the album.
Metallica’s Death Magnetic album shows it is possible to create a great album after several lousy ones, and if Mustaine ever does so, I will be happy to praise him.
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