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Youthanasia
Once again, Megadeth returned to the studio to record their sixth album. But "returned to the studio"
isn't quite the right phrase; they built their own out in an Arizona warehouse pretty much in the middle of
nowhere. They looked for regular houses to record in, but Dave says that frequently as soon as the owners
found out that a heavy metal band would be living/recording there, they weren't too interested in renting
out any more. So the warehouse, a.k.a. Hangar 18, was made to be the ideal recording facility. The recording
began soon after the completion of the studio. Max Norman was called in again to produce the work; he is the
only person aside from Dave to work on producing more than one Megadeth album. This time, the recording process
was completely different from how it had been when CtE was recorded. Since they had gone over the top correcting
all possible mistakes on CtE, and "become very anal" about the whole procedure, they decided to go for something
new. They recorded a few of the songs in just one take and none of the songs were super-edited the way they had
been during the recording of CtE. This in effect gives the album a sound that it more like a cross between a
live album and a studio album; since there are a few mistakes but they are accepted and left in the song. Of
course there are not major screw-ups, but all the same, it was sort of like the old days when they only had
$4,000 to record an album and had to get it done in just a few takes to reduce the cost. Of course they couldn't
have afforded to build a studio back in 85, but that's besides the point. The album came along very smoothly and
after not too long, the album was all set to go. In an uncharacteristically open-minded gesture by MTV, Megadeth
recieved a great promotional party on Halloween night of 1995, when their album Youthanasia was set to be released
( at midnight of course ). The broadcast included live footage of several songs which were preformed at a New
York venue on the 28th of the month. It was an especially uncharacteristic move for MTV considering that albums
by Nirvana, Black Crowes, Aerosmith, and Nirvana also came out on that night. Probably the association of
Megadeth with Halloween was what did the trick. In any case, the sixth album of Megadeth was released on
October 31st of October, 1994. Youthanasia was released in the U.S. in aboxed set type of deal, and also as
the CD just plain by itself. I believe Youthanasia made it to position number 5 or so on the billboard, but
I am not sure. Though it is lighter than all albums before it, it still manages to be a heavy piece with some
very memorable tracks. To the dissappointment of all Megadeth collectors like myself, only two songs off the
album were made into singles, a great step back from the CtE days. However, since two singles is more realistic
than all of one third of the album, it makes sense. The first one to come out was the Train Of Consequences,
the b-side for which was Crown Of Worms, a song composed of many mythological references which did not make it
onto the album for some reason. This was followed by the A Tout Le Monde single, the video and edited video for
which was banned by MTV because it focused on suicide ( they would rather cover nice topics like rappers shooting
eachother ). On this single, you can find New World Order, a song demo which never got anywhere and was from the
CtE demo sessions. Or you might find Paraniod, the Black Sabbath song which Megadeth covered for the Nativity In
Black tribute. The release of Youthanasia was followed by an extensive tour through South America which went
through areas never before ventured to by the band. This was followed by a world tour, a European tour, a North
American tour and a Japanese tour. During the American tour, the band ran a special "feed the hungry" promotion,
which awarded an aftershow pass to the first 200 fans to bring ten or more pounds of food to the show. This meant
that the band raised somewhere around a ton of food every night, which was then donated to local homeless shelters.
As a consequence, the band was written letters of commendation by two cities... nice but you'd think that the rest
should have been happy too, wouldn't you? Anyway, in England one could get a similar pass by buying Hidden Treasures
which came in a 2-CD set with Youthanasia and was released on March 14th, just in time for the tour. The first 200
to present this at a show got a pass. As a promotional item for the album, the "Baby's Head Promo" was released.
This was a CD with three tracks, two off of Youthanasia and one unreleased, which came in a pouch shaped like a
two-dimensional baby doll's head. The CD fits nicely into the back of the head. Inside the head there is a red
piece of cardboard to keep the whole thing rigid; the redness inside the head adds to the whole affect. A final
release relating to Youthanasia was that of the Evolver video which covered the process of the making of the
Youthanasia album. You are shown just about everything that you need to know about the recording process. It
also has footage of the photo shoot for the album and a few short interviews with individual band members. There
is a lot of footage of Max Norman, and of Dave talking about how great Max is, of the rest of the crew in Hangar
18, of the band preforming a few songs which didn't actually appear on the album and therefore may be around for
future albums, and some especially interesting footage of Nick sort of hula dancing in the background while the
rest of the band plays. The video finishes with the Train Of Consequences music video, the only video off the album
not to be banned by MTV.
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