Megadeth - So Far, So Good... So What!

Megadeth's So Far, So Good... So What! is thrash metal running hot and fast, pressed here on limited-edition 180-gram vinyl.

Released in 1988, the band's third album found Dave Mustaine with a reshuffled lineup, as guitarist Jeff Young and drummer Chuck Behler joined bassist David Ellefson. Mustaine co-produced with Paul Lani, and the turbulence around the band at the time bleeds straight into the grooves.

Into The Lungs Of Hell opens with a crushing instrumental salvo before Set The World Afire tears in at full speed. The band's take on the Sex Pistols' Anarchy In The U.K. features Steve Jones himself on guitar, a gleeful collision of punk and metal. In My Darkest Hour, written by Mustaine after the death of his former Metallica bandmate Cliff Burton, remains one of the most emotional songs in his catalogue.

The riffs are knotted and furious while the solos fly in every direction, and Mustaine snarls through songs about censorship and paranoia with venom to spare. It is a tighter, angrier record than its reputation sometimes suggests.

Sitting between Peace Sells and Rust In Peace, it captures a band on the edge, and that tension is exactly what makes it such a thrill to play loud.