On August 31, 1999, Megadeth took "Uncalculated Risk" when she released the album "Risk".
This is the band's eighth studio album and the first since 1990 that included a change in the band's lineup, with drummer Jimmy DeGrasso replacing Nick Menza. It is also the latest album featuring guitarist Marty Friedman who later left the band.
The album's name came from a comment from Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich, who told Dave Mustaine that he should take more risks when it comes to the band's musical line. The risk was indeed taken and the result was an unusual album that was radically different from the rest of the band's albums. "Megadeth" has completely abandoned the Thrash Metal style that characterized its classic albums, and created an album that included different and varied musical styles, from Industrial, through Alternative, Grunge, Glam Metal, and even Country Rock.
The fundamental change in style can already be heard in the opening track "Insomnia" which takes us deep into the Industrial style and a combination of Electronic Metal a-la "Nine Inch Nails".
Immediately after that comes "Prince of Darkness" which certainly does not sound like a tribute to the real Prince of Darkness. This is the album's darkest and heaviest song, and whoever listens to it will immediately understand how far the band has gone. If this song would have entered the "Rust In Peace" album, for example, it would have been considered a ballad.
The song "Crush 'Em" and its opening track "Enter the Arena" were intended by Dave Mustaine to serve as an entry song for wrestling matches, but it's a song with a rather bland melody that is hard to see which WWE star decide to enter the arena with it. Even Mustaine was quoted saying that this is perhaps the most idiotic song he has ever written. Jean-Claude Van Damme probably thought otherwise, because this song was included in the soundtrack to the movie "Universal Soldier: The Return," which was released that year.
"The Doctor Is Calling" features slight Doom touches and is Dave Mustaine's attempt to sound dark and mysterious. The really interesting opening riff reminds us of "Metallica's" "The Thing That Should Not Be", and the question is why an artist in Mustaine's class, who created so many classics with his own hands, was not more careful and invited himself to the obvious comparison.
"I'll Be There" is a kind of rock ballad that would not embarrass any Glam Metal band and is one of the band's catchy songs. The second single "Breadline" is not far away and is definitely meant to flirt with commercial radio stations.
"Wanderlust" features a "Wild West" vibe that for some reason reminds us of Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive" minus the slide guitar. "Ecstasy" could easily have been a hit in early 90s alternative charts.
It seems to us that you have already grasped the idea, as this album continues to be scattered among a variety of styles without one clear direction, and this is just a small problem. The bigger problem, is that Dave Mustaine decided to release this album under the name "Megadeth". Had this album come out for example under the name "MD.45", as a solo album or another side project, it might have been received more sympathetically, since by and large there are no bad songs here at all that we even like, only they are completely non-Megadeth ones.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music