Singles Roundup: Megadeth, Rob Zombie, & Neal Morse

Human beings are losing out to the algorithm, as this week proves out:

Megadeth - Tipping Point

I don't really have any thoughts about Megadeth calling it quits. Aside from the fact that no one ever stays retired (*cough* Rush *cough*), Megadeth feels like a band that is already retired. Dave hasn't been able to sing at all for years, and their last four or five records have all come and gone without making a dent. The only thing notable about them retiring is that Dave didn't feel the need to stick it out past Metallica just for the spite of it.

The final album is introduced to us with this song, which doesn't make me feel anything. The song is centered around speed, which is perhaps the least interesting thing a song has to offer. The main riff is simple chugging that has no groove whatsoever. It's merely a picking exercise, without any of the charm of Slash's that became "Sweet Child O Mine". This one thrashes through the verse, getting to a 'chorus' where Dave recites the title, almost speaking. It has little musicality to it, and doesn't stick with me at all. A different riff and feeling are introduces as the song gets through the solos, which are what Dave really cares about, but by that time it's too late. Anything good that comes then is in service of a song that doesn't deliver on its core goal.

I won't say this song proves Megadeth should have retired long ago, but I won't say I'm going to be sad about no more music like this coming along.

Rob Zombie - Punks & Demons

I once described Rob Zombie as a filmmaker who still makes music to fund his real passion, and never has that felt more on the nose than it does now. To play to the fans, he has welcomed back some of his collaborators from his classic days, but as we all have learned by now, time does not wait for anyone. Despite the band being back together, so to speak, this is not a return to the days of "Dragula" and "Living Dead Girl" breaking our necks with how hard they made us headbang.

Instead, Rob has gone all in on not trying to write songs anymore. The guitars skitter along, the 'riff' mostly being noise. Rob growls his vocal atop that, a harsh attack that is utterly indecipherable to me, that culminates without even noticing when the chorus comes and goes. This is noise as art, which is a bit like a horror movie that is nothing but the kills without a narrative to put them together. If that's what you're doing, you are more or less admitting you want to make a fake snuff film. That's what this song sounds like to me; death put to tape.

And hopefully that will be the last I have to say about Rob.

Neal Morse - Reach Deep/Grab It All/LeavingCalifornia

These songs are all from Neal's upcoming 'songwriter' album, where he is going to eschew prog for something more straight-forward and personal. I do like when he doesn't get bogged down in the prog of it all, but over the years Neal has developed a habit of saving all of his good ideas for the prog albums, leaving the songwriter albums to be rough sketches of wandering thoughts that never hit upon the infectious melodies that make his best music work. That's the case here, as these songs find Neal rambling through his life story, with seemingly endless verses that culminate in some of his weakest melodic hooks.

He has told these stories before, and subscribes to the theory of telling his testimony multiple times, so we are getting rehashes of rehashes at this point. The subject matter isn't even the problem, as you can get away with almost anything if the song is enjoyable enough to listen to. That's where Neal is falling short, as this is nowhere near as memorable as "Songs From November", which was the last one of these records that worked for me, and it's even further removed from his "God Won't Give Up" religious album, which might be the catchiest bit he's ever put out. These songs are just... flat.