This is a very good album. But its reputation among metal fans never fails to puzzle me. I mean, a lot of metal fans are quick to criticize The Black Album, Sound Of White Noise, The Ritual, Diabolus In Musica, Chaos AD, and even the albums that followed CTE (from Youthanasia onward) of being "too commercial." And yet, for some reason, they hail Countdown To Extinction as a metal masterpiece.
I mean, it's every bit as much of a sellout as those albums. The songs are slower and more poppy than on prior records, there's more groove, former Megadeth trademarks like sixteen different riffs and three different solos in one song are virtually non-existent, etc. And yes, no matter how you slice it, songs like Symphony Of Destruction and Sweating Bullets were clearly made for radio play. Just like Enter Sandman, Electric Crown, and Black Lodge. Oh, and speaking of Black Lodge, CTE also has the honor of hosting Megadeth's first ballad (which, contrary to what many people think, is not A Tout Le Monde): Foreclosure Of A Dream.
And yet, the same metal fans who cry sellout on those other albums I mentioned along with later Megadeth records (including Youthanasia, which was in many ways, darker and heavier than Countdown) hail it as this groundbreaking metal masterpiece (I even see many calling it a Thrash Album - lumping it with RIP, Peace Sells, etc.
). Even landing the #50 spot on Metal-Rules's 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums Of All Time List:
http://www.metal-rules.com/polls/index.php?id=6
I'm in no way trashing the album, as I like it a lot (especially its sarcastic sense of humor - always one of my favorite things about Megadeth, compared with the decidedly more serious Metallica). But this is something that just never fails to baffle me personally. Why do metal fans excuse this album for appealing to the mainstream, but trash any other album that does the same despite not being much more poppy or commercial (including later Megadeth records!)?
