MEGADETH

Does anyone at all believe bands when they claim they take fans' Internet votes on stuff into consideration? When I see a "fan favorite" IRON MAIDEN best-of track listing, and anything from the Blaze Bayley era shows up, that poll's credibility shrivels up like a black metaller in the sunshine. Similarly, you'd need Botox injections to keep a straight face while telling me that more people voted for "Trust" and "Angry Again" than for "Hook In Mouth", "Foreclosure of a Dream" or "Tornado of Souls".

Now firmly ensconced in the Sanctuary Records school of beating one's back catalog to death, MEGADETH replace the deleted "Capitol Punishment" best-of from 2000 with another trip to the well, this time featuring the remixed, retooled versions of songs Dave Mustaine and his bevy of studio wizards tweaked for last year's reissue campaign. Thankfully, we're not subjected to "Crush 'Em" or "Use the Man" this time around, but this expanded best-of still seems a bit irrelevant and crass.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like you can really go wrong with a MEGADETH best-of. These songs are classics for a reason. Hell, they're probably my least favorite of the "Big Four" thrash bands of the 1980s, and I still own their entire catalog. This wouldn't be a bad starting point for a completely new and green MEGA-fan… provided such a person existed. It's just that it could be so much better.

Seriously, whose publishing money is Mustaine messing with by leaving off "Foreclosure"? It's only one of the band's biggest hits. There's no reason (well, aside from making diehards buy more shit) not to have just revamped "Capitol Punishment" and added it to the reissue campaign. At the end of the day, this one is "product" in the most literal sense of the word. Buy it if you gotta have everything, but the forthcoming "Arsenal of Megadeth" DVD looks to be about a thousand times more interesting and worthy of your cash.