A Review of Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir

Every one who knows me knows that I love Megadeth! Particularly, I'm fascinated by the life of Dave Mustaine. This is a person that pioneered two of the greatest metal bands: Megadeth and Metallica. This while high on drugs and living a life that earned him the nickname Dangerous Dave. For years me and my friend (a fellow Megadeth fanatic) would comb over each lyric and interview and piece things together in order to understand the genius behind Megadeth. That's why it shouldn't be a surprise that when Dave Mustaine decided to release his autobiography, my friend and I were one of the first people to go down town Toronto and purchase our copies, and meet our hero (for the third time now) at a book signing on July 28,2010. Over the next two days, I read that book cover to cover only occasional placing it down to wipe away a tear or to get lost in a daydream.

In the documentary Metal: A Headbangers Journey, Sam Dunn points out that metal heads are usually outcasts that seek comfort in heavy metal. The people that are isolated and ridiculed by the mainstream, instead of going postal on society, find comfort and empowerment in the aggressive yet uplifting message of Metal. The majority of my friends, including me, were born in other countries. This act alone made us the outsiders in a strange land with foreign customs. Not only that, but your average immigrant family moves disproportionally more then any one else, because they need to build capital starting from scratch. My friends and I had the displeasure of switching schools multiple times and never having a place where we could plant our roots. We are secretly longing for a return of the simpler times. That's is why I was able to identify with Dave Mustaine so much. Even though he was born in America, Mustaine suffered a lot of similar experiences as myself. His parents divorced early in his life which made the family poor. To make matters worse his father would stalk the family forcing them to move in the middle of the night and a moments notice. What added to Dave's isolation was that his mother converted to Jehovah Witness after the divorce. Her conversion isolated Dave even more since he was forced to be excluded from things like birthday parties, Christmas and pledging an allegiance to the flag. It was this isolation and life as an outcast that would be the driving force behind his music.

Dave Mustaine credits his sister's record collection as sparking his love of music. Though his sister was into folk, particularly Cat Stevens, he credits these times for developing his sense of melody. At the age of twelve he got a guitar and taught himself how to play. However, it wasn't until his teenage years that he got serious about music. In high school he discovered pot and heavy metal. He goes into detail about how he would find an escape by getting high and listening to the early metal records of Priests, Maiden, and Motor Head. Soon he would look at music as a way to escape mediocrity, as a way to be cool, and earn respect of his friends and the opposite sex. Through out high school he played in a band called Panic before eventually joining Metallica.

Dave describes his years in Metallica very fondly. For the first time in his life he felt accepted. He found a band of fellow misfits that shared his love of metal. He mentions that he and James Hetfield became close friends. This is not in the book, but I suspect that they had a lot in common since James also came from a broken home and his parents were heavily involved in Christian Science. Musiaine claims that he trusted those guys and considered them to be his first family. In retrospect, he recalls moments when warning bells should have gone off with regards to his eventual dismissal from the band. However, he could not phantom that his new so called family would ever betray him like that. When he was fired from Metallica he was forced to take a four day bus ride from New York to California without any money or food. He describes that period as a tragedy greater than when he watched his father die of a brain aneurysm. This bus ride was also the moment that he swore revenge and to recover better then ever. It was also at that moment that Mustaine decided that he would never abdicate control and power in a band like he did in Metallica

In the book, when talking about Megadeth, Dave mostly focuses on the years between 1984-1992. The years from 1984-1990 were a drug induced craze. His first band mates Gar Samuelson and Chris Poland introduced him to heroin. This addiction would plague his life until the present day. In 1992 he got sober for a significant period. However he would face another demon: the success of his previous band mates, Metallica. What bugged him most was the fact that on their first two albums they used material that he wrote while still in the band. These feelings of jealousy, resentment, and betrayal caused him to relapse and not fully enjoy his success. Reading about those years, you really see how lucky this guy is to be alive. Drugs, alcohol, and a violent temper never go together smoothly.

From 1992-2004 Dave talks about his inability to handle success and his continuous relapses into drugs. In the mid 90's he began to shoot heroin (until that time he only smoked it). Just when you thought he has conquered his demons, something would set him off and he would relapse, causing him to enter another rehab institution and start all over. In 2004 his wife filed to legally separate from him; this was also the year that he became a Christian. He has been free of hard drugs since 2004. He claims that he has found a balance in his life where he occasionally smokes a little weed and drinks a glass of red wine.

About 3\4 of the book deal with his early years until 1992. He goes into a lot of detail about his childhood, Metallica, and early Megadeth. From 1992-present he just barley mentions certain things like the arrival and departure of Marty Friedman, the The World Needs a Hero years, and his falling out with Dave Ellefson. He only briefly mentions any of the albums from Cryptic Writing to United Abomination. Which is too bad since I'm a big fan of his recent material.

Overall, I loved this book and would recommend it to any Megadeth fan. I learned some good lessons like don't do heroin, don't abdicate power in a band that you lead, follow your intuition, love God, and don't take no shit from no one. I think it's one of the better books I ever read. When I red the last page I was devastated that it's over and automatically started re-reading my favorite parts. It made me a better Megadeth fan and a better human being. I recommend that everyone reads it. It is written very well and captures the right emotions.