If you haven’t bought a copy of Megadeth’s new album yet (So Far, So Good...So What?), then go and buy it immediately after reading this feature. If the record is not quite out yet as this sees print, well, then you’ll just have to wait. But don’t wait too long. See, this is probably one of the most innovative heavy metal albums—if not the most innovative—that you’ll hear this year. I’ve heard it and wouldn’t lie to you. In 40 minutes or so, guitarist/vocalist/bandleader Dave Mustaine and his crew transcend not just the thrash metal murk out of which they initially emerged, but all of metal in general, coming up with seven original songs (plus one cover) that just don’t sound like anything that any other metal outfit has ever done.

Why is So Far... so good? Before you say “So what?" just listen to the damn thing. It sounds fresher and more alive than any trendy conglomerate could ever hope to sound. The music swoops, soars, lunges, retreats, breathes and throbs like a living thing. The production is expansive, yet the sound is dense; each instrument is given room to stretch, yet works seamlessly with the others to crush your skull. It’s heavy enough for the thrashers, dynamic enough for mainstream rock fans, and intelligent enough for the “critics” to jump right on the bandwagon and proclaim that they knew about Megadeth all along.

It’s really the album Megadeth had to make at this point, because the past year or so, while being an enormously successful one for the quartet, has been an inconsistent one as well. After signing with Capitol (who grabbed the band’s second album, Peace Sells .But Who’s Buying?, hot off Combat Records’ presses), the group failed to live up to that album’s potential; their uneven live performances were spread out over a grueling year-long trek that included endless club dates, a stretch opening for Alice Cooper at arenas, and a critically blasted headlining appearance at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. The rocky shows led to whispers about the health and habits of band members, and rumors were rampant that Mustaine and bassist Dave “Junior” Ellefson were ready to let go of guitarist Chris Poland and drummer Gar Samuelson.

Things came to a head when it was announced that Samuelson’s roadie had taken his place, and Poland’s exit was made public shortly after that. To top things off, the band had gotten a rep for having generally bad attitudes toward everyone, factions of the press were still beating the dead horse of the “Metallica vs. Megadeth” feud, and the band was being sued by a bizarre non-group going by the name of Mega death. But the year ended with Peace Sells going gold, new members entering the picture, and the new album emerging from the vortex. And Mustaine feels the band’s worst problems are now behind them, “except for someone coming along and accusing Junior of gettin’ them pregnant.”

In any case, the Megadeath case has been closed. “They could have won if they had their shit together,” says the red-haired Mustaine, “but evidently they didn’t. They’re a garage band with nIP money, an inexperienced, immature lawyer, and hopefully next time they go1 to a gunfight, they’ll bring ammo.”

A happy ending for sure, at least for the real Megadeth, but now it’s time to venture into the darker realms of the saga of Gar and Chris. What went wrong, and why?

“We were working our asses off tour• ing last year, and finally got to the point where we got fed up with the other two band members because they were always disappearing, inconsistent; inconsiderate and irresponsible. I decided we would find an understudy for Gar because his health was so poor. We found him and started playing at soundchocks with him, developing a good feeling with the guy. Once we realized he was right for the job,

I decided to make a move with Gar. I told him, ‘Look, I want to break up the band as it is now. Mainly because I just don’t get along with you. Maybe we’ll work together again five years from now, but at this point I can’t deal with you.’ Gar kept going, ‘I think you’re making a mistake,’ and I said, ‘If anyone made a mistake, it was you by consistently screwing up and by breaking my Flying V.’ ” Mustaine was referring to a show in Philadelphia, “the one I remember most. I introduced a song during the show and he didn’t pick up his cue. I was so incensed that he embarrassed the band by doing that, that after the show I put my guitar into his bass drum. I put it through the front so nothing was damaged, but he just reached over the kit, picked up my guitar, threw it, and broke it. So I broke a tequila bottle and chased after him with it, but the crew trapped me in a room and would not let me out, because they knew. I wanted to kill him.”

Mustaine is adamant when it comes to laying blame at the feet of his exbandmembers, citing them as the reasons for the band’s live problems. “I would wake up in the morning and Gar and Chris would already be sitting there drinking. Granted we all do our little things, but they were constantly screwing around. They are totally responsible for the live problems we have had. Gar would forget the songs all the time, Chris would stop in the middle of songs. Chris would never play the same lead solos that he did on the album. These two were infamous for forgetting parts.

“I think that our whole attitude, our stage show, our appearance, our integrity toward the crowd is gonna be one hundred percent now because I’m not getting provoked anymore by those two. They always insisted they were half the band. In my eyes, they weren’t even one percent of the band. It was Junior and me who did everything.”

Out with the old, in with the new. Who are the new members of Megadeth? I mean, those of us who keep up with this sort of thing know the new guitarist’s name is Jeff Young, and that the drummer is now Chuck Behler, but what’s the lowdown on ’em? “Chuck is the guy we got to understudy for Gar. We passed him off as a roadie because we didn’t want Gar to get suspicious, not that he would ever figure it out. We’d be doin’ soundchecks with Chuck and kids would be going, ‘Man, you should get Chuck in the band!’ and we’re going, ‘Ssshhhl’

“As for Jeff, Jay Reynolds (ex-Malice) had moved in with us because he was a friend of Junior’s and he needed a place to stay. He offered his services because he knew Chris had gotten fired. See, Chris had called up my accountant and impersonated me, and said he wanted documents and photostated copies of all my deposits—he was doing stuff you’d be shot for. I found this out and fired him on the spot. He had pawned some of my gear too, but this was the last straw.” Why exactly Chris had pawned Dave’s gear, as well as why Gar’s health was so poor, are subjects that Mustaine declines to comment on, although rumors of heavy substance abuse among the twosome have been circulating for some time. But back to the story at hand... “So Jay had made his offer to help out if we couldn’t get something together in time. Now, there was this guy who was teaching Jay guitar and had been for quite some time, and I just listened and said, ‘this guy’s ripping,’ and I watched him a little more to see how he acted, how he carried himself, what his personality was about. I wanted to see how his playing evolved and if it could be used in this band. So I took him aside one day and asked him if he wanted to be in the band. And he said, ‘Man, I’ve been waiting and waiting.’

“Jeff is only 21, but he’s brilliant. Whereas I have technicality and rhythms and stuff like that, it takes a keen mind and a sharp eye to watch fingerings and incorporate lead solos to go around that kind of stuff. Jeff wrote a lot of solos, and everything he wrote is on the album. He got in at the perfect time to sink his hooks all the way into this record. As we speak, he’s learning Killing Is My Business . . And Business Is Good (the band’s debut LP), and he’s already learned Peace Sells. He’s playing Chris’s solos identically, if not better, because his phrasing is much more advanced, plus he’s got much more feeling than Chris ever did.”

We keep coming back to the subject of the ex-Megadeth men, but it seems Dave is determined to get another word in on the subject. “It’s nice knowing I’ve got a band now that I can count on, without someone always disappearing. Now that we’ve gotten rid of those two, we’re really gonna shine, because the musicianship’s gonna do the talking instead of my mouth or my attitude. I’m much more satisfied with what’s going on, and I’m not as angry as I used to be. I kept seeing my band deemed a second-rate act because of these guys not giving it their all. Junior and me would be playing our asses off, doing interviews, going to in-stores, and these guys just didn’t give a shit.

“This explains my attitude and the reason I’ve been so negative about so many things. But now things are looking up. I even look different. I’m not as sickly as I used to be because I’m not miserable. I’m not saying I’m gonna do rock against drugs commercials, because to me the whole rock thing is sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. But there’s a time and a place for everything, and for those guys it was always the right time. There was no unity of thinking in the old band, whereas there is in the new one.”

The new album was produced by Mustaine, co-produced by Paul Lani, and mixed by Michael Wagener. The tape I heard was pre-Wagener, so I don’t know at the time of this writing exactly how the thing finally came out, but even one step away from completion, the record sounded brilliant to me. Before we get into the songs, though, I ask Dave how he came up with his third clever title in a row. “It’s like a Murphy’s Law type of thing. Anything that can screw up will screw up. To give you an idea... we left a college radio seminar in New York to come back home to L.A. Someone offered us a ride to the airport, which we took, thinking they knew which airport we had to get to. So we pulled into Kennedy at 3:30, when our flight left Newark at 4:40. We wanted to take a helicopter to Newark, except the copter service had been canceled. We ended up getting into L.A. around midnight, when we should have been there at seven. Every time we start to see a little clear air, someone lights a match and it just gets all smoky again.

“But there are many ways to perceive the title. We’ve also been accused of selling out. Now I don’t see how someone could hear a song like ‘Black Friday’ and say that. It just shows how stupid the person was who said that. If anything, we sell out shows, we sell out records, we sell out merchandise. We don’t sfell out our songs. We’ve got a dedication to our following not to be a cheesy type of band. Too many bands sing about screwing in the back seat of their daddy’s car and put on all this warpaint, and think that’s gonna get them into people’s hearts. Granted, it gets them into people’s crotches, but are they good musicians? No. We try to let the music talk for us, not the image or having our pants unbuttoned to show our pubic hairs and stuff like that. We’re not compromising and we’re not trying to please anybody but ourselves. The reason we chose that title is that we wanted to show our following that even .though we have a gold record, and tour in buses instead of station wagons, we’re still the same good ol’ boys we used to be and we’re never gonna change. I’m not gonna let a hint of success change anything about us.”

There’s always gonna be the subdivision of kids, however, who think you sold out because you were their secret two years ago. “I think the reason people say you sold out is because they used to be able to put their knees right up onstage and mess with your shoelaces and enjoy the show real up close. Now that they have to sit in the mass audience and have to be herded in like cattle to their assigned seat, they start to feel it’s more impersonal and they think, ‘Now that we have to go through all these hassles to see our favorite band, we’re gonna start name-calling and move on to the next young hopeful.’ But we haven’t changed our integrity or our dedication to our following whatsoever,”

Integrity is the key word to Mustaine and probably the most important element of a mptal band to its fans. Still, it seems absurd to call So Far. . . a sellout. Sure, the band has a big sound and big production, but the music is as intense and driving as ever. There’s a lot to it that defies description or neat categorization, and Dave is equally reluctant to classify the band. “We’ve always said we’re nothing more than Megadeth. We’ve never tried to be any one certain type of band. I’m sure you’ve noticed different styles of playing incorporated into each song. It’d be hard to label ourselves, So I guess I’d call us Mega-reggae-jazz-fusion-punkspeed-glam-gore-Deth-metal. Categorizaj tion is such a dirty word, you know? It’s a limitation toward the ability you have. We’re not trying to stick to any one concept or theory.”

There is a good amount of diversity inthe band’s new material; “Into The Lungs Of Hell,” the LP’s stunning instrumental opener, is “our classical introduction to the new Megadeth,” according to Dave. Or check out “Liar,” which to these ears captures the feel of vintage Judas Priest, circa ’77-’78. “Mary Jane” is the true story of the grave of a woman for whom her town has no birth or death records. It starts out almost bluesy, then breaks into some frantic riffmania and weird chords. “That’s what we’re about,” says young Dave. “Taking a new approach to the guitar instead of using the same bar chords that Kiss did 10 years ago. We’re doing stuff that’s much more advanced.”

And there’s also “Anarchy In The U.S.A.,” the Pistols tune with an obvious change in the title. “We’re kind of partial to the Sex Pistols because of their attitude, and I like to think we have that same kind of attitude.” Steve Jones came down for the session. “Once we found out that he’d do it, that finalized it. He came riding in on his Harley with his Les Paul and his arm in a cast, and all he wanted was $100 and a blowjob. But I figured with AIDS and all that shit, I was not gonna be responsible for a Pistol losing his pistol. So we gave him a thousand bucks and said find your own.

“That song has ideals that we have. Like the line ‘your future dream is a shopping spree’—that wraps it up for everybody. Think about how many people would give their left nut just to take a shopping cart through a store and grab everything they could.”

Megadeth are ready to grab everything they can. They’re already on the road with Dio, supporting the dragonslayer for 50

dates through March, and the album is shipping 300,000 copies upon release. Being a metal fan, my feeling is that this album will truly surprise those who thought the genre was self-limiting, and will give the numerous three-chord bands out there pause for thought. “There’s a million ways to play a song,” says Dave Mustaine. “It’s just a matter of how well you can express yourself. We’re progressing as musicians as much as we can, and we’re really close now to what we want as a band, and we’re still growing. We’re all young, we’re all hungry, and we just want to get out and kick some ass.”

So far, so good.