See, it's the exact opposite for me. Everyone gives Metallica crap for trying to recapture their glories, but Megadeth has been phoning it in for years now. And this comes from a pretty big Megadeth fan.
Dystopia was nothing more than recycled crap over and over again with the same tired production values. At least Dave tried to sing again on a few songs, so I welcomed that. But Megadeth still hasn't even come close to releasing anything as good as The System Has Failed. That album was a true renaissance of the Megadeth sound, while still ushering in a newer approach.
Yeah I agree that The System Has Failed was amazing. And I think United Abominations was a disappointment after that. And apart from a song here and there I can't enjoy Thirteen and Super Collider. And Dystopia had way too many fillers as well.
But damn, Endgame is as good as The System Has Failed, if not even better. Just get rid of the last two tracks and it's a perfect modern Megadeth album.
However, I don't think you can really compare modern Megadeth albums with modern Metallica albums (Death Magnetic and Hardwired). The compositions are usually much tighter even on the worst modern Megadeth tracks than what they are on modern Metallica tracks.
And for the record, Death Magnetic was actually the first Metallica album where I began to understand the band and appreciate their early albums, and actually became a fan. Before hearing DM I thought the classic Metallica albums were way overrated. And hell, I think it even was Lars' drumming style that made it finally click for me
People can say whatever they want about his technical skills but that dude can bring some power to the songs with his semi-chaotic use of cymbals. And he feels way more natural than that robot Shawn Drover ever felt in Megadeth.
But still, even at worst Megadeth usually puts out more solid songs than what Metallica does.
