Megadeth - Youthanasia [2LP]

Youthanasia is Megadeth's 1994 follow-up to Countdown to Extinction, and its moodier, slower-burning sound gets four sides of vinyl in this double LP edition.

The same four-piece of Dave Mustaine, Marty Friedman, David Ellefson and Nick Menza returned with Max Norman co-producing, and they leaned even further into melody and groove. Speed takes a back seat to atmosphere, with mid-tempo riffs, big choruses and a darker, more reflective tone running through much of the record.

Train of Consequences, the lead single, rumbles in on a driving rhythm and a hook about chance and consequence, with Jimmie Wood adding harmonica, an unexpected touch he repeats on the brooding Elysian Fields. A Tout le Monde is the emotional heart of the album, a haunting ballad with a French-language chorus that became one of Mustaine's most enduring songs and was later reworked with Cristina Scabbia. Victory closes things out by threading the band's own song titles into a defiant lap of honour.

Friedman's leads are as expressive here as anywhere in his tenure, and the band sound locked in from start to finish.

It may lack the velocity of earlier landmarks, but this is Megadeth at their most mature and polished, and a record that has only grown in stature.