MEGADETH are back with 2016's offering "Dystopia", and there are some clear changes in a band that have long been considered one of the "Big 4" (MEGADETH, METALLICA, ANTHRAX, & SLAYER) in Heavy Metal. Gone are household names including drummer Shawn Drover and guitarist Chris Broderick as they have since moved on to other projects. In their place are new names such as guitarist Kiko Loureiro and drummer Chris Adler (LAMB OF GOD). "Dystopia" was just released with the new MEGADETH line-up on January 22nd, 2016 under the Universal Music Enterprise label.

MEGADEATH have definitely taken at least a few steps forward (if not more) from 2013's release "Super Collider" which many felt was a sub-par effort, to say the least. Others felt it was the worst release MEGADETH ever put out! After that disappointment, many agree "Dystopia" is a great step forward for the band, and that they sound refreshed and revitalized with some new blood joining the band in Louriero and Adler. Having said that, you won't find anything on this album that is not "playing it safe" for MEGADETH. It's the traditional sound they have trademarked over the 20+-past years in Heavy Metal, and have continued to refine throughout their time together as a group.

"Dystopia" is based on the entire concept of a dystopia that people are living in today that the government has us all under some kind of illusion that everything in this world is OK even though that's far from the truth. This is the statement from the opening track "The Threat Is Real" sets the stage for the album stating that the elites that run this world are the biggest threats to humanity. They have sinister plans for us far beyond anything sickening most minds could even comprehend. Yet the peddle us the delusion that everything will be OK and that nothing is going to go wrong. They tell us they are protecting us and taking care of us, when they are planning the demise and downfall of us all as a human race.

"Fatal Illusion" warns of the deadly illusions the government is trying to sell us in hopes that we buy into it, and they can brainwash us even more than they already have! This brainwashing, MEGADETH's album warns, can be lethal! "Death From Within" further suggests that it may not even be world-powers like Russia, China, or someone else like North Korea that is the biggest threat to America, but our own government and the people plotting to take us all over by brainwashing that we have to fear the most.

"Bullet To The Brain" is the concept that the government is going to make this really simple to end all of us, just like blowing a bullet through the brain ends someone's life. Most of the time it's instantaneous and painless, but it is lethal! "Post America World" images a world in which America (at least as we know it) is history, like some great, ancient empire that once existed. It's a memory of the past. If America still does exist, it's completely different than what we grew up knowing it as. In reality, MEGADETH suggest that this may not be far off into the future if those in control are not careful how they plan things for this country. "Poisonous Shadows" warn of the dangers hiding and lurking where we least expect them to be. "Foreign Policy" points to the foreign policies we have that are in shambles and are comprising America's great values.

This all comes together to create a "Dystopia" that people today live in. People are asleep. They are in denial of what is happening right in front of our own faces. It will only get worse, and if we don't take a stand this dystopia we live in may be the downfall of our country, and our human race if we are not more careful. MEGADETH have created quiet a brilliant concept that could soon be the reality to many hundreds of millions of people, yet the sound of the new album is pretty typical and safe-sounding, but it also has a strong concept behind it and while not terribly original or creative in nature from what MEGADETH have done before, it's considered a solid, safe release to follow-up the highly unpopular "Super Collider" Album that was released in 2013. Sometimes safe is OK! <