Megadeth is easily the most influential, listened to, analyzed, loved, studied, embraced, thrilled with, respected, devoured, band in my listening life.
It may have something to do with my having first heard them during my classical training at Brandon University in Manitoba. You see when I began my cello training at a university level it was fun, energizing and all around exciting, but as the months crawled on and the study debt load mounted, my love for music was tested in a progressive manner. I was finding it more and more difficult to slap a set of headphones on and relish in a raw, soak-it-in, uncritical listening session. It had slowly become habit to strip-down, cut-up and critique any piece of music I was listening to. ("Oh, that was a bit out of tune...they sped up a little there...geez, the flute section isn't together at all through that passage...why aren't the french horns more pronounced in this part? They have the melody, Dang It!")
Now, could I endorse this music to everyone I knew at the time? Of course not. There were small portions of swearing/blasphemous and violent lyrics that I could not pass on to anybody without considerable forethought and prayer. Just because it did not send me into violent fits was no reason to not consider the effect it might have on others. That being said, it was the most exciting music I had heard in a long time and filled me with a new energy for music. An odd side-effect it had on me happened to be an increase in depth and sustainability in the concentration department. In a way it was as if some of my attention deficit tendencies had been procured by the music itself. I will just say, I did not mind that transferal in the least.
As for anything about specific albums and such? You will just have to wait until next week.
AND as Dave would say,
"Love and Bruises"
