MANILA, Philippines - Once upon a time in Manila, punks and metal heads were at odds — skinheads and lads in mohawk hair ranged against long-locked devotees of guitar gods. Though both representing the disenfranchised, the two schools of thought reveled in disparate kinds of music. Punk delighted in outright rebellion even in music — with a myriad of styles and inclinations. The Ramones and its three-chord ethic could never be further from the guitar gymnastics of a metal band like Iron Maiden.
Then, along came Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax in ‘81, Death Angel in ’82, and Megadeth the year later. These proto-thrashers, along with DRI (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles), combined the frenetic pace of hardcore with guitar-shredding and technical aplomb. The lyrics also mirrored societal issues and gripes that suffused punk ditties.
Megadeth was the literal storm that blew Manila’s way recently for a one-night show at the World Trade Center.
Prior to its night of delight with metalloids, the men of Megadeth were ushered to a small press conference at the Hotel Sofitel Philippine Plaza — to be prodded and picked at by questions hurled by a visibly excited bunch of media practitioners.
Introduced by Pulp’s Vernon Go as a band “that defines the pinnacle of songwriting prowess in heavy metal,” and which has “sculpted an entire genre known as thrash metal,” Megadeth’s furious four Dave Mustaine (on guitars and lead vocals), Dave Ellefson (bass, backing vocals), Shawn Drover (drums) and Chris Broderick (guitars, backing vocals) honestly and bluntly answered questions that ranged from synthesized music to video game contributions.
Thrash metal may be a byword now, but it certainly wasn’t a big genre when Megadeth first started making power chord-driven tracks that oozed danger, foment and spittle. Through the years, Mustaine and company have stayed true to themselves and abided by a mantra to not “ever screw your fans over.”
Of course, a crucial part of the success is writing great songs, and getting people’s attention to pay attention. The Countdown to Extinction album in 1992 debuts at an improbable second place on the Billboard Top 200 album charts in the US (No. 5 in the UK), propelled by the songs Symphony of Destruction, Foreclosure of a Dream and Sweating Bullets.
Mustaine deadpanned that success is also about “writing songs that don’t suck.”
A vastly different music scene greets Megadeth as it closes in on 30 years of history. Today’s bands are Internet-propelled, social media-aware and sometimes electronically morphed and synthesized. Do they ever see themselves delving into that, as opposed to physically playing instruments.
“No,” came the curt reply from Drover.
“They did a study in on MySpace many years ago when MySpace was cool, they had 8,000,000 there one time. I reckon that 7,999,999 of them sucked,” added Mustaine.
Family life seemed to have softened the metal pioneers, either. When asked about what music they listen to, Mustaine shared with a laugh: “My wife and daughter ride horses, so I’m stuck to listening to country music which is pretty horrible. Although there are a lot of great country artists, I particularly like listening to jazz artists when I drive, and I drive a lot. I find that popular music that’s on the radio where we live is really hard to listen to.”
He continued: “It’s just so syrupy. The music would be good but the lyrics would be stupid, or the lyrics would be good but the music would suck.”
That means Megadeth members usually rely on their personal music players when they’re on the road, to make sure they get their inspirational fix.
Megadeth, even as it churns out face-melting music (with apologies to the School of Rock movie), continues to be conscious of its impact and ethics. In the light of a preponderance of video games, more music artists are being conscripted to provide soundtracks.
“Video games are kind of a touchy area to get into… most of us are parents,” began Mustaine. “We have to think about the kind of influence this leaves on our fans, and especially with the tragedy that just happened in Colorado… committing gun violence and stuff like that.”
The Megadeth vocalist insisted that they take a look at “what the game stands for. If it’s just racing a car around and collecting points and stuff like that, that’s cool,” and added, “There have been some games that approached us to do things and we have said no to them mostly because it’s gratuitous — the language, and stuff. We want our fans to learn about the opposite sex on their own.”
Asked about the band’s relationship with Metallica members, who kicked him out from its ranks in 1983, Mustaine shortly said: “It’s fine… the history with me and Metallica is very tired — very, very, tired.”
He was also pretty vocal about Megadeth’s departure from Capitol Records in 2000 after 14 years. Mustaine explained that the label had wanted to “geld” them — reimaging them into something softer.
“We weren’t gonna stand for that anymore,” he declared. “It took a lot of work to get us our music, fanbase where we wanted — to have that relationship.”
Mustaine explained: “Face it, everybody can say that he wants to be on a major label, but the labels tell you what to do. And the way that they treat you if you don’t do you what to say is they just ignore you and you go away.”
Thank God. Megadeth is here to stay, and we all live happily ever after.
(Megadeth Live in Manila was presented by Pulp Live Productions and the reformulated Colt 45 beer.)