7. Megadeth- Rust in Peace(1990)- Rock/Metal Album Track Ranking Series

One of the big four of thrash metal, the unmistakable Megadeth, makes its debut in my series with its 4th studio album, 'Rust in Peace', so let's see how I ranked and rated its 9 tracks:

9. Dawn Patrol- 7.5(good)

8. Poison Was the Cure- 8(solid)

7. Lucretia- 9.5(fantastic)

6. Take No Prisoners- 9.5

5. Hangar 18- 9.5

4. Five Magics- 9.5

3. Rust in Peace... Polaris- 9.5

2. Tornado of Souls- 10(stellar)

1. Holy Wars... the Punishment Due-10

OVERALL RATING- 9.22

Religios, nuclear threat, warfare, alien conspiracies, and Dave Mustaine's personal struggles create the picture of an album loaded with excepțional tracks, so ranking them was no walk in the park for me.

"Holy Wars... the Punisment Due" with its monster riff, challenging lyrics about religious conflict and technical wizardry takes the winning spot followed very closely by "Tornado of Souls", another outstanding work of art with a remarkable riff, incredible guitar solo and great melody and chorus. Actually, these two songs are my favourite of the entire Megadeth catalogue, and the fact that they are both from "Rust in Peace" says almost all you need to know about how much I love this album.

Ranking most of the other tracks was also a daunting task as I could use a lot of epithetes about them as well, so positions 3-7 are interchangeable. "Rust in Peace...Polaris", with its powerful riffing and lyrics about nuclear warfare that are as relevant today as they were in 1990, takes the 3rd place by an extremely narrow margin, but the fast and furious pace of "Take No Prisoners", the fantastic twin guitarwork of "Hangar 18", the sonic assault of "Five Magics", and the slightly playfully, but equally great banger"Lucretia"  are also serious contenders for that position.

"Dawn Patrol", although not bad, is somewhat weird compared with the rest of the album, but I can accept it as a way for the listener to slow down a bit before finishing the album in great style with "Rust in Peace...Polaris." Because of this track the album's overall rating dropsuri down a little to 9.22, which is still the highest rating of the seven albums analize so far, and I dare predict that it will stay in that honorable leading position for quite a while, as this is undoubtedly one of my favourite albums of all time. 

"Rust in Peace" can definitely be chara terized as a staple of thrash metal. It is Megadeth at its finest, showing its classical line-up(Dave Mustaine, David Ellefson, Marty Friedman and Nick Menza) at the peak of its creativity as it invites the listeners to embark on a thrilling journey full of musical prowess and thought-provoking lyrics. It's a thrash metal masterpiece that you could listen to again and again and still find something new to enjoy!

My Listening Year in Metal Part 1: My Top 10 Most Played Bands of 2021

 In darkness and light, in hope and negativity, in good and bad times rock and metal music has been my constant companion throughout 2021, as it has been for many years, so now it’s time to take a look back at my most played bands, albums and tracks of this year according to the stats provided by Last.FM. I have decided to split this article in 2 parts since it’s probably going to be a little longer than I initially intended.

PART 1 OF 2- MY TOP 10 MOST PLAYED BANDS OF 2021

1. Iron Maiden

2. Helloween

3. Sepultura

4. Overkill

5. Therion

6. Sodom

7.Ozzy Osbourne

8.Megadeth

9.Motorhead

10.Paradise Lost

Iron Maiden took the top spot by a large margin, and how could they not be this year’s winners after releasing this masterful piece of work called “Senjutsu”? In addition to that, I revisited the entire Maiden discography in December, listening to all their studio albums in chronological order because I have decided to post my ranking of their work, so it’s no they wonder they were the detached winners this year, followed by another legendary band, German power metal icons Helloween, which also delighted me in 2021 with their self-titled masterpiece, so it’s great to see that these bands still have a lot of energy and inspiration to create fantastic music.

Things get heavier in the next two positions, occupied by Sepultura and Overkill mostly because I have revisited their early material, without ignoring their last creations either. Anyway, in the case of Sepultura it’s no surprise that I still greatly enjoy their golden years, the period between 1987 and 1993, in which they had a fabulous streak of great albums. As for Overkill, there are two periods of their career I really dig, the former being the late 80s and early 90s, and the latter being the last decade, and especially their most recent creation, “Wings of War.” They never cease to amaze with their vitality after reaching a respectable age as well!

As for the rest of the top 10, Therion keeps symphonic metal in a high position thanks to their accessible last album, Sodom, which also released a pretty good album at the end of last year, represent my most listened to German thrash metal band of the moment, Ozzy is still in the top 10 mostly thanks to the first decade of his solo career, the 80s, Megadeth occupy an honorable 8^th place mostly thanks to their classical period, from the 80s to mid-90s, but I expect them to aim at the top position next year if their new release meets my expectations, Motorhead, although not one of my favorite bands, reach the top 10 since in 2021 I decided to pay more attention to some of the albums in their vast discography which I have ignored in the past, and Gothic metal Paradise Lost add more diversity to this chart since they also have a lot of quality material to revisit from time to time.

Bonus: To see the next 20 positions in my list of bands played in 2021 you can check the playlist at the right sidebar of this blog,