"In My Darkest Hour" - Song Review

Title: In My Darkest Hour
Artist: Megadeth
From the album: So Far, So Good... So What!
Release year: 1988

This review is a suggestion from user Chintoes. Thanks for the suggestion! :)

Intro

Welcome back to the blog. Today, I am reviewing the song "In My Darkest Hour" by the American thrash metal band Megadeth. When it came to heavy metal, my bands of choice were Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath. I had listened to Metallica and a little bit of Megadeth, but this song has piqued my interest to listen to more Megadeth. "In My Darkest Hour" was quite the ride and I'm glad I took this ride.

The story of Megadeth

Megadeth was formed in 1983 by Dave Mustaine. Megadeth are one of the Big Four of Thrash Metal, alongside Slayer, Anthrax and their main competitor, Metallica. Dave was originally lead guitarist for Metallica, but was kicked out for his alcoholism and drug abuse. Bitter at this removal, Dave formed Megadeth. For years, Dave has squabbled with Metallica and this has become quite the meme in the metal community. Megadeth's first two albums, "Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!" and "Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?" were successful, and the latter ended up with Megadeth touring with metal legend Alice Cooper in 1987. In 1988, Megadeth dropped "So Far, So Good... So What!" and this was arguably their biggest success to date, charting at #28 on the Billboard 200, better than the previous year where "Peace Sells" peaked at #76. In addition to chart acclaim, the album received critical acclaim and was the album to see Megadeth rising from the underground. "In My Darkest Hour" was a promotional single released off this album, and it has been reviewed favourly by magazines like Billboard and Kerrang.

Composition

The music of this song came from one of the biggest tragedies in music history. In September 1986, Metallica bassist Cliff Burton died in a car accident in Sweden. This caused a huge mourning period in the world of music. Many musicians paid tribute to this tragedy and Dave Mustaine was one of these musicians. Dave heard about Cliff's death from a friend and was frustrated he didn't hear about it from one of the other members of Metallica.

"In My Darkest Hour" is like a lot of other thrash songs, focusing around bombastic guitar work, bass-drum focused fills and Dave Mustaine's vocals, which are a beautiful mix of growling and use of his two-octave voice range. In terms of the instrumental, I love how this song starts off great and just keeps the ball rolling. This song changes up the riffs and tempo at different points which make it an engaging listen. The song starts off with a soulful riff on an acoustic guitar. But this later descends as the fleet of electric guitars come in and remind the listener this is a metal song. This transition is so seamless and builds up a sense of tension until we finally get into the verse. Throughout the song, we hear Dave's guitar taking the front stage, but Jeff Young adds his guitar work into it too, making the song more complex and dynamic. The drums also add to the satisfaction of headbanging to this song. The solos in the song are in my opinion, the highlight. We get 2 solos in this song. One is played by Jeff while the other is played by Dave. Jeff's solo is up first. It is shorter but Jeff doesn't let that stop him from kicking ass. This solo often gets overlooked, but I think it is one of their best solos. But the real cheese is in the second solo which directly follows the first. Dave performs this one and he has said it's one of his favourite solos and I can see why. You can tell the passion from it. It's impossible not to do an air guitar at this solo. To me, I've never heard a solo quite like this one and it really shows Dave Mustaine's incredible technique and sound, something that Metallica often forget when talking about "Kill 'Em All". And the solo continues till the end of the song when we return to where we started. Truly, one of the moments in not just metal music, but all of music.

Another thing I will say is this song sounds very similar to the song "In The Presence of Another World" by Blue Öyster Cult, which funny enough also came out in 1988.

Lyrics and vocals

The lyrics of this song mainly focus around isolation and loneliness. My interpretation of these lyrics is "the darkest hour" referenced in the title refers to Cliff's passing. However, the lyrics are referring to a love who isn't there for the narrator when he needs them most. Dave has said these lyrics refer to an ex-girlfriend. Even though Dave has said the lyrics have nothing to do with Cliff, I can't shake off my belief that Cliff's death may have something to do with the lyrics. To me, the song is about Dave talking to his ex girlfriend and being upset she isn't there for him in a dark time, such as Cliff Burton's death. To me, this a sign of well written lyrics as they can have different interpretations from people, a sign that lyrics can apply and be related to multiple people, which is a sign of good lyrics. The descriptions of Dave's feelings in the song are evident of his strife, which can make the listener sympathise more with Dave. This is something Metallica don't do as well, so on the front of lyrics, I believe Megadeth have the upper hand.

Miscellaneous thoughts

I hadn't really listened to very much Megadeth at this point. And I have to say I was really surprised at how up my alley this song was. It sounded reminiscent to Iron Maiden and I think this song could be my proper introduction into thrash metal fandom. Dave Mustaine gets clowned on by Metallica fans all the time, but really, I think he's a criminally underrated songwriter and guitarist often forgotten by many people outside of the metal community. And I'm glad I got the opportunity to find out about this track.

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Conclusion

Rating: A

And a very high A at that. This song is at the same point as "The Evil That Men Do" by Iron Maiden or "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath for me. It's a great track that I think is a great introduction to not just thrash metal, but metal as a whole. This song has introduced me to Megadeth properly and I am going to look around their discography for similarly great songs.