Dave Mustaine

'When I held a guitar in my hand I felt good about myself. When I played music, I felt a sense of comfort and accomplishment that I'd never know as a child. When I replicated the songs that I loved, I felt an attachment to them and to the musicians who had composed them. And when I started writing songs of my own, I felt like an artist, able to express myself for the very first time.'

I am going to piss a lot of people off here, but things have to be asserted: Megadeth is a way better band show more than Metallica. Full stop.

No matter how much I love Metallica (and I do, I really do!) there is no way they could compete with the full-on energy, technicality, and electrifying virtuosity found on such amazing albums like 'Peace Sells... But Who's Buying' or (one of my favourite release ever) 'Rust in Peace'. When it comes to blasting and exhilarating Thrash Metal, Megadeth indeed had it all not least because, burning his fingers and soul on a fret like a demented yet prodigious maniac, there was no other guitarist like Dave Mustaine. No disrespect for James Hetfield or Kirk Hammett (Metallica remains among the greatest!) but, as far as I am concerned, they never had Dave's vibe. In fact, even when both bands decided to kind of soften their music and reach a so-called 'mainstream audience', Megadeth still surpassed Metallica! The 'Black Album' was really good, but nowhere as great as a 'Countdown to Extinction'. In any case, that's what I personally think; which is weird...

Weird because, Dave Mustaine himself at times seems to disagree! Go figure. He clearly felt cheated from what could have been a (to him) better career with Metallica. Above all, what's striking is how hurt he was by how they had treated him even decades after he had been sacked. He constantly checked his career against theirs. He also makes it a point to constantly remind (and rightly so!) that he never had been a filler. It makes for a bizarre read -a love/hate type of dual thinking, which in itself says a lot.

'Selling twenty million albums is no minor accomplishment. But it's about half what Metallica has sold, and I was supposed to be part of that.'

'...they [Metallica] just figured I'd never amount to anything and thus would not present any sort of a challenge to them. But they were way the fuck wrong.'

'This would be a theme throughout my career. It wasn't enough for Megadeth to do well; I wanted Metallica to fail.'

In other words, Metallica takes in here way too much space for a Megadeth's fan as I am!

But here's the thing: Dave Mustaine has a reputation for having a shitty personality, egotistic to put it mildly, and, yet, he comes out in this autobiography as more sensitive than we use to see him. I don't mean sensitive as being a self-pitying wimp. I mean sensitive as being raw, genuine, honest, passionate, a driven heart set ablaze and whose intense personality would explode through his outrageous music. His sincerity, in fact, is somehow relatable; and you manage to get the real him a bit better under the bravado and crappy attitude. Growing up fatherless or so (his dad was a useless alcoholic) in a family of Jehovah Witnesses (though very supportive of his ambition) his life is actually full of bizarre moments that makes you want to root for him. Him joining Metallica (yes, Metallica, again!) then a bunch of wealthy bratty kids living in the hype neighbourhood where Dave's mum and sister actually used to work as maids, is one of them... You get the point: here's a guy used to be an underdog for too long, yet who managed to make it to the top through sheer ambition and never giving up. And, damn, it must have been hard!

Megadeth always has been a great band, its members all incredibly talented. The dynamic within, though, always let to desire... Yes, he had a deep connection with Dave 'Junior' Ellefson, and, yes, Marty Friedman had been a fantastic henchman by his side. Their meeting, relationship, growing together as an awesome Thrash Metal machine is truly insightful. But tensions, disputes, dissent and clashes all around the stupidest things you can ever conceive (gosh, what an odyssey!) clearly left their toll. He also had to sack a lot of people, something which, for someone like him who had been deeply affected by being fired from a band too, never failed to make a personal impact. Personality differences was bad. Money issues appalling. Drugs and alcohol made it all even worse. Expose it all bluntly as in here, and no matter how great they all were as musicians, here's nevertheless a book outlining why there is no reason to adulate them as people. As a Megadeth fan, I don't know, I find this quite sad...

About the addictions... It's no secret: Mustaine was an alcoholic and a druggie. Yet, what you'll find here is a man deeply clued on about his addictions, making no qualm about his problems, never walloping with crappy excuses for his choices and consequences, and, ultimately, it shows in his personal and Megadeth's evolution. In fact, addictions and self-destructive behaviours were so ingrained in Megadeth that I found it striking (touching, for lack of a better term) to see him wondering about the potential impact of sobriety upon his music, in soul-searching passages:

'Anger and ambition had fuelled my art, giving rise to Megadeth's disturbing and frequently nihilistic point of view. Could I write while sober? Could I generate the same sort of ferocious guitar licks without benefit of chemical assistance?'

I truly loved this 'A Life in Metal'. It's strikingly honest, from his ambivalent relationship with Metallica to his battle keeping afloat his own band, and, his addictions and drug issues. Here's in fact the autobiography of a man whose reputation is so bad this read makes him actually more likeable than expected! Megadeth... They had a tumultuous career for sure. Discovering how it was behind the scene is frankly disappointing for a fan, but, beyond personalities, here's an insightful and must-read when it comes to see how the band's music ultimately came to be and evolved. Dave Mustaine might be a controversial figure. Metallica certainly is a burdening shadow. But Megadeth will always remain Megadeth: THE best Thrash Metal band that has ever been as far as I am concerned. You might disagree, but you can't take away Mustaine's prodigy guitar in hand. If anything, read this to get his drive. show less

I'm so sick of reading about drug addicts and alcoholics. Why can't any great musician just be interesting and talented? I love hearing about the creation of the bands, the process of creating music, crazy tour stories, sexcapades etc... But then, like clockwork, they're in rehab, the band and friendships, relationships and maybe marriages are being destroyed. And then they do it again and then again, and guess what? Again. It's so freaking cliché and boring.

Other than that it was show more interesting to hear the Metallica/Megadeth story told from Mustaine's side. I was never a big fan of Megadeth, but I do like some of their music, I always thought Mustaine was a great guitarist. The way he tells it, Lars and James are pretty huge assholes. He's just so arrogant and simple, not very likable, so it's hard to believe him. I never liked the idea of a main musician and then a bunch of "other guys" just kind of hanging out. Just seems like a band should be a group of people all with equal power. Mustaine was more like a boss than a bandmate. show less

English review at the bottom

Este es Dave Mustaine

El líder de una “pequeña” banda llamada Megadeth más de 50 millones de álbumes vendidos, ejecutor del tema que presentaba MTV News en los 90’s y parte de los cuatro grandes del Trash Metal ex-miembro de otra “pequeña” banda llamada MetallicaMiembros del Salón de la fama del Rock y más de 120 millones de álbumes vendidos, y uno de los guitarristas y compositores más influyentes en la escena del heavy metal.
He aquí la parte show more más conocida de su trabajo:

Sweating Bullets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu1qHoCQuDA

Peace Sells: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qmCuwDYidw

Holy Wars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d4ui9q7eDM

A tout le monde: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEHNvxkVvqc

Hangar 18: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGvU-Ie_AKI

Una vez ya presentado a todos hablemos de su autobiografía. Cuando se trata de este tipo de trabajos siempre queda en evidencia el carácter y las obsesiones del autor, en este caso Mustaine está obsesionado con las drogas, rehabilitación y Metallica, y su carácter es generalmente errático e impulsivo. Y básicamente en esos tres aspectos se enfoca este libro, junto con un poco de Megadeth hacia el último tercio, otro poco de su vida, y muy muy muy poco acerca de la música. Esa es mi gran decepción, yo admiro a Mustaine, es un hombre que logro explotar su talento, salir de su trabajo como dealer y combatir el fanatismo religioso. Un hombre que se enfocó en hacer letras muy distintas a la típica banda de este genero.

Realmente cuando te habla de su vida y su música, de cómo fue tratando de adaptarse a los tiempos y circunstancias, te das cuenta que nos pudo contar su historia desde otros ángulos y no centrarse en lo que podemos encontrar en prácticamente cualquier biografía de alguien dentro del mundo de la música. No crítico su vida, sólo hablo de lo que él quiso mostrarnos en este libro.

Para mi este hombre es un genio, y como todos los genios tiene algunos desaciertos cofcofSuperCollidercofcof, que pudo aprovechar las cartas malas que le dio la vida para hacer lo que le gusta y Dios, sí que lo hace bien.

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Dave Mustaine is one of the most prominent musicians of Heavy Metal, has been highlighting not only as a guitarist but as a composer.

His life marked by drugs and alcohol, anger at his family (musical and inbred) became the inspiration of his career in the "small" band he built: Megadeth.

In this book we can see his battle with drugs (many, many drugs), the emphasis that has the relationship with Metallica in his life and a little about his personal situation and his music. I can’t say that this story impress me, because I knew a couples of things, so my disappointment is that there is so little focus on the musical aspects.If you are fan of Mustaine and Megadeth probable you won’t find new things here, but if you wanna know about the genius that created some of the more iconic songs of thrash metal from the mouth hand of the man that created it, probably it would interest you. show less

Why am I reading this? I am not a fan of memoirs. I am not a fan of heavy metal. My son however is a fan and this is his favorite heavy metal band. Megadeth. Another reason to read this is he shares my birthday, September 13. Of course he is a few years younger. I learned that two Minnesotans were actually in the first Megadeth band. Mustaine like many musicians struggled with the abusive life style and addictions that comes to so many in these careers. His music is trash metal but also very show more political. He did not know this until he kept hearing his music referred to as political and he come to agree that it was. Mustaine finally got victory (mostly) over his addictions when he accepted Jesus as savior. He still is rough around the edges, enjoys swearing and even with his addictions he is able to enjoy a glass of wine with a meal or with his wife. Read for American author challenge, musicians who write and writers who play music. show less