Megadeth 2026 Review

 MEGADETH 2026

 

“Megadeth” is supposed to be Megadeth’s final album, which was released on January 23rd, 2026. I hadn’t paid much attention to Megadeth in a while, as I really disliked their 2022 release. I didn’t have high hopes for this final album, when I heard that it was coming out. 

Upon listening to “Megadeth”, the album, I realized early on that my expectations were right to be low. While not technically bad, the instrumental parts to the album aren’t bad, they’re completely boring and uninteresting. It’s so glaringly obvious that this album is just “The Dave Mustaine Project”, and no-one has any say in the music but Dave. The originality is low, and the entire album sounds formulaic. It’s clear that very little of this, if anything, comes from the heart. This album just sounds like another paycheck.

The lyrics are laughably bad, and are reminiscent of poetry written by a middle schooler. For example, that beginning lyrics to the song “Another Bad Day” are:

Woke up on the floor again
No idea just where I've been
My phone is dead, and the rent is due
I lost my job, and I lost a tooth 

Ironically, this song is one of the few that are musically more interesting than the rest. 

I wonder who this album is made for. Who is the intended audience? The way the lyrics read, I assume that this final Megadeth album is to appeal to middle schoolers that are just learning to rebel at the dentist office. 

It feels like Mustaine long ran out of ideas on what to write, but refused to allow any fresh ideas to come in, so he decided to rip off some of his old ideas. The song “Made To Kill” is lyrically in theme to something you’d hear on “The System Has Failed” or “Dystopia”, but is watered down. It’s almost like as if Dave Mustaine became afraid of offending anybody. 

“Obey The Call” is mildly interesting instrumentally, but quickly becomes boring and forgetful background music. “I Am War”? More like, “I Am Bored”. 

The album ends with a cover of “Ride The Lightning” by Metallica. This was hard to listen to, because Dave Mustaine somehow made a Thrash Metal song into a Hard Rock one. I felt like Mustaine’s voice was going out during the recording. It sounded pretty bad. I wondered if this was truly the best vocals he could do. It was almost embarrassing listening to this cover, the original is so much better. For the album to end this way feels lackluster. After the song, the album just…ends. 

Even though it’s over 40 minutes long, I found myself thinking, “That’s it?”. It seems like a disappointing way to end an over 40 year long career. 

I guess time will tell if this will truly be Megadeth’s last album. There have been other albums in the past that were supposed to their last album. If “Megadeth” really is the last one, then I suppose that Dave Mustaine will truly be dancing for the crowd in a puppet parade.

If I were to give this album a letter grade, it would be a D. 

 

Video: https://youtu.be/hGj9kQX2z5M