Metal Monday: Megadeth's Th1rt3en

Despite their (rightful) place among thrash's Big Four, Dave Mustaine and Megadeth have always struck me as outsiders. Obviously, simply liking or playing metal makes one an outsider in most cultures, but even within that relatively small circle, Mustaine has always appeared to me to not quite fit in.

Maybe it's because so many of Mustaine's song and album titles seem like bad jokes -- Killing Is My Business ... And Business Is Good, Peace Sells ... But Who's Buying? My caricature of Mustaine has always been of the unpopular kid who, in an attempt to impress the cool kids, comes up with an elaborate joke for the sole purpose of unveiling an underwhelming punchline -- then immediately breaks into an explanation of the joke to the nonplussed audience. For this reason, I've internally referred to Megadeth as "nerd" metal. I don't have a better explanation for it than that -- in my mind, it just fits.

All of this is to say that I had to roll my eyes a little bit when I saw that the stylized title of the band's latest release included a couple characters of Leet-speak.

The thing is, as we've learned from fairy tales and countless forgettable cookie-cutter movies, you can't judge a book by its cover. And behind some of the groan-inducing album titles, songs, and lyrics over the last two and a half decades, Megadeth has consistently put out some of the best, most blistering thrash metal available.