Countdown to Extinction

Great album great quality brand spanking new when I got it very very happy highly recommended to anybody that wants a decent Megadeth album

I will try to make this as short as possible. I've never been a huge Megadeth fan, as a matter of fact I've called them Megacrap for a long time. I never thought they were crappy really, but I just always viewed them as second tier Metallica. I've always been an audiophile, and just recently I've finally gotten the means to begin buying "decent" equipment and looking for good media to play. I've been buying up every SACD that I could find at a reasonable price, and since my musical tastes vary so much I've had no problem finding and buying a ton of jazz SACDs (although I am a metal head, I did go see the Big 4 last summer, though I missed Megadeth's set and only made it to Slayer and Metallica), and of course a few rock SACDs (mainly Pink Floyd). When I read about the reputation Mobile Fidelity had with remastering music, not only did I pick Santana's Caravanserai and Love, Devotion, Surrender SACDs, but I went ahead and took a chance on MoFi's Santana I and Abraxas Gold CD releases. The Santana Gold CDs were the best versions of those albums I've heard (I owned the 97 remasters that featured those 3-4 extra live tracks at the end of the CD), convinced by MoFi's reputation and my experiance with the Santana Gold CDs, I figured some of the other Gold CDs would be worth a shot. If you like metal or very heavy rock AND are an audiophile, then you know how RARE metal albums are on SACD or ever DVD-A format. So although I was not a huge Megadeth fan, I did like "Symphony of Destruction" a lot, and I remember that other tracks on Countdown to Extinction were all right. So when I came across MoFi's Gold CD of Countdown To Extinction for a very fair price, I said "why not? MoFi did a great job with remastering Santana albums on the Gold CD, maybe this release is worth a listen!" My friend and I always talk about hi-def recordings and always say the CD can at best be as good as its source, and I always joked that if the source is Dave Mustaine then no matter the format, it would always sound bad! So the CD arrived yesterday and I did not bother to listen to it myself, I just grabbed it and my brand new Sennheiser HD650s and took it my friends house (who is a much bigger metalhead and actually likes Megadeth alot). I hooked up my Senns up to his system and put in the CD and gave it a first listen, and I immediately skipped to "Symphony" and within 10 second I was in total awe! I could not believe how AWESOME this CD sounds! I also brought over CD and SACD verisons of other albums to do some comparisons between formats on my Senns, and while I was certainly blown away by the difference in quality between SACD and CD versions of the same album, I was still in TOTAL AWE of how great this CD sounded. When I got home, I played my lossless version of "Symphony" immediately followed by the MoFi version and could not believe the difference in quality! Not even the difference between my Albert King/SRV In Session CD and SACD sounded this pronounced! The difference between the original "Countdown" and the MoFi version, CD to CD, is simply out of this world! Today I really cranked up my Sennheiser HD 650s and played MoFi's "Countdown" from beginning to end, I could not stop listening to every single song, they all sounded to good! Even though I always joked (in good fun) about Megadeth, this was no joking matter, I felt like I completely ignored a truly awesome album for the past several years. This is truly a spectacular job done by MoFi. Lets be clear, the "gold" in the MoFi Gold series does nothing for the actual sound. This is still a CD, and the CD format has a maximum sample rate rate of 44.1 Khz and 16-bit quantization, regardless of the material. This is a digital format, the laser can only read 0's and 1's, so no CD format, regardless of material, can have higher resolution. If you want a higer resolution format, you have go SACD or DVD-A, period. The gold MAY prevent oxidation, may be more durable than the typical aluminum and thus a Gold CD may last longer than a standard CD, but there is nothing about the gold that will make the CD sound better. What the gold certainly does do is make for a STUNNING LOOKING cd and a wonderful marketing angle. This does not mean that the sound quality of an album can't be improved in the CD format, of course it can, or else I wouldn't be writing such a positive review of this release. The REAL gold of MoFi's Gold CD releases is the MASTERING! MoFi knows what they are doing when it comes to remastering music. Its their quality remastering job that makes their releases so good! Its what makes the Gold "Countdown" sound so much better than the standard CD release; MoFi did such a good job, that it nearly reaches SACD/DVD-A levels of quality, such a good job that I can no longer make jokes about Megadeth!

Just got this CD along with Rust in Peace. Rust in Peace contains many of the bands most well known songs like Hanger and Holy Wars as well as classics like Tornado of Souls. First off let me say that if your getting into Megadeth you MUST get an album NOT just random songs that are popular. Don't bother if thats what your doing, the only way to listen is with individual albums. But as I was saying RIP has so many well known songs that I didn't know what to expect from Countdown but let me tell you it's amazing. A great follow up to RIP. Has a few shorter type songs to spread it's audience but the title track and a few others are the real best songs on here. Give Psychotron a loud listen as well as countdown to extinction. For sure check this album out along with RIP. This is one of the best full albums. Everyone seems to like Symphony of Destruction. Great thats a great song but check out Countdown to Extinction and other later tracks. Thats where the meat is. There's a reason the album is called Countdown to Extinction it's because the song with the same name is the best so take the extra time to listen to the later tracks not just the most popular Symphony of Destruction. OH and by the way the DEMO version of Symphony at the end of the album is BETTER than the one every one is buying. Give the first 15 seconds of both a listen one after the other and you'll see what I mean. Much thicker rifts. If you don't have this album then apparently you don't like Megadeth. The whole album is amazing.

Gran disco, buen audio, librillo bastante completo con imágenes, letras y descripciones. Llegó en perfectas condiciones.

This was the follow-up to "Rust in Peace", what most people consider Megadeth's best album. I have to say that after hearing "Countdown to Extinction", I would say these 2 albums tie over-all in my opinion. "Countdown" maintains some of the thrash and shredding solos that were signature Megadeth but this time around, the band incorporates melody and experimentation. There's acoustic guitar on "Foreclosure of a Dream" for instance but it doesn't make it any less intense or heavy. They struck the right balance on each song. At first I have to admit that I was a bit weary when Dave Mustaine spoke verses on songs like "Sweating Bullets", but I really can't imagine the songs any other way. Dave has this way of speaking with such conviction combined with an insane aggression that actually works (he doesn't do that with every song on here). Songs like "Psychotron" are driven by spoken verses like I mentioned and somehow they sound powerful and amazing instead of coming off as lame or cheesey. The songwriting and musicianship on this album is right up there with "Rust in Peace" and on some songs surpasses it in my opinion. It's literally mind-blowing listening to the instrumental arrangements and the musicians playing these brilliantly penned songs. As for the bonus tracks, "Crown of Worms" sounds like a pretty good B-Side but not up to the caliber of what was originally on the album. The rest of the bonus tracks are demos and you basically hear skeletons of what would become masterpieces. If you're a fan of Megadeth and don't own this, get this as soon as you can. If you're new to Megadeth, you can start here or with "Rust in Peace".

Après un "rust in peace" efficace, corrosif et fou, solide et technique, Mustaine and co reviennent en 1992 avec cet album au son plus cadré, aux mélodies enlevées, avec un titre complètement évident et imparable, "countdown to extinction", qui assura sans problème le titre de double-platine au groupe. Leur plus vendu à ce jour, et ce n'est pas pour rien tant il mélange mélodies soignées "captive Honour", thrash le plus dur "High SpeeDirt", "psychotron", heavy-metal. Et toujours cette unique patte, que seul Megadeth peut fournir. 19/20.

Entrega extremamente rápida, chegou todos os CD's de uma vez no dia 19/04.Parabéns a loja por ter se preocupado com o prazo e tudo estáem ordem. Capa do CD é algo muuuito bonito, recheado de informações sobre o disco (que está remasterizado) Ótimo trabalho da banda e recomendo muito que a pessoa que está começando uma pequena coleção pessoal tenha o esse disco entre eles. Vale muito a pena pois a sonoridade é incrível!!! Megadeth e a minha banda favorita desde que eu ouvi Holy Wars quando era criança e Countdown to Extiction, e como dizem: envelheceu bem, um maravilhoso disco para se ter na coleção.

Buen disco de Megadeth, la carátula, letras y fotografías son las correctas. El sonido correcto tambien.

The album itself has some thrash moments. Definitely Ashes In Your Mouth, which is the highlight of the album. Great verses, nice riffs and cool leads under them. The opener, Skin On My Teeth is also kinda thrashy, but in a softer way. Nice guitar tone and some tasty guitar licks. A nice catchy chorus. Oh, and the verse ''That that doesn't kill me, only makes me stronger'' is really great... Well this is definitely worth buying. It should satisfy Megadeth fans, especially the ones who like Rust In Peace and Youthanasia. You should also try it, if you're not really into thrash and you would like to get, because this is one of the softest forms of thrash you will get.

Their best album!