Concert Preview
Death, destruction and despair? Thrash on, Megadeth

By J. Patrick Coolican
Seattle Times staff reporter

JIM COOPER The members of Megadeth are, from left, Nick Menza, Marty Friedman, David Ellefson and Dave Mustaine. They have a new album, "The System Has Failed," and will be at the Moore Theatre in Seattle tomorrow.

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For thousands of years now, Aristotelians and Platonists have been arguing about violence in art: Is it a corrupting influence that leads to mimetic violence of its own, or is it a cathartic influence that cleanses the viewer/hearer of his violent impulses?

On this question — even if they're unawares — there's probably little mystery about where Megadeth comes down. With albums that include "Youthanasia," "Countdown to Extinction" and now "The System Has Failed," the thrasher metal quartet has combined icily nihilistic lyrics with relentless guitar playing to form an aesthetically violent tableau.

Megadeth play the Moore in Seattle Saturday night as part of their "Blackmail the Universe" tour.

Born of Dave Mustaine's departure from Metallica in the early '80s, the band has gone through lineup changes of Spinal Tap proportions, though always held together by Mustaine. As the band's Web site notes helpfully, Mustaine has hazel eyes, strawberry blond hair, and his favorite books are — surprise! — Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" and Machiavelli's "The Prince."

Concert preview Megadeth and Exodus, 8 p.m. Saturday, Moore Theatre, 1932 Second Ave., Seattle; $27.50 (206-628-0888 or www.ticketmaster.com; information: www.themoore.com or 206-467-5510).

After a string of platinum albums in the '90s, Megadeth was sidelined in 2002 due to a nerve injury Mustaine suffered after reportedly sleeping on his arm the wrong way. They've come back this fall with "The System Has Failed," which offers paeans to death and destruction, searing political protest and play-by-plays of epic battles between good and evil.

Writing in Blender, Carly Carioli said of the recent album, "Mustaine's paranoid, apocalyptic sneer hasn't sounded this relevant in years."

Here, for example, some lines from the track "Truth Be Told":

Before al Qaeda and Bin Laden/Long before Hitler and Hussein
Ever since the first murder was committed
The verdict's always been the same
The cursed future just repeats the past
There's hell to pay and stones to cast
So, there will be no peace, never be peace.

Mustaine has thrown up his hands at the Aristotelian vs. Platonist argument, because, one way or another, there's probably no end to human violence.

But at least we have speed metal.

J. Patrick Coolican: 206-464-3315 or jcoolican@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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