The same thing happened to me. I got more extreme in my musical tastes, and the Big Four got comparatively more boring. Stack them up against the other bands in your Big Four/Six/Nine, and their overwhelming egos are even harder to understand. I’ll still listen to early Metallica (rarely), but that’s about it. I MUCH prefer your Big Four.

I am really getting into Slaughter Lord since I heard the Ares Kingdom cover of “Die by Power”, as well as Sarcofago. Still need to check out Bulldozer and Graf Spee

I was 14 when Ride the Lightning came out. I wish I still had the original Megaforce release. But alas, I don’t. I wore that fucker out until was nothing but static. Megadeth sounded to me like a less creative copycat who were trying to be heavier, but ended up just sounding bad. Anthrax were instantly forgettable and I never understood why anyone liked them. Slayer had a few good albums, but they just didn’t speak to me.

But I suppose since I heard Celtic Frost’s Morbid Tales in ’85, Voivod’s RRROOOAAARRR in ’86,then Bathory, Sodom, Coroner, Hellhammer, Sarcofago, Morbid Angel, etc, the music that “The Big Four” made back in the day sounded, to me, as soft and gentle as top 40 pop. My tastes quickly shifted over to the obscure and extreme, and stayed there. The bands I just listed off make up about 50% of my listening to this day.

The arrogantly titled “Big Four” are has-beens who are now aging men going through a mid-life crisis. Fuck ‘em. Metalica are primadonna rock stars. Dave Mustaine is a spineless, brainless, crybaby who writes shitty music. Anthrax just sucks. And Slayer… well shit… where were they in that video? I didn’t see anyone other than their drummer. The Big Four are now Classic Rock. Its like a Summerjam Concert with Lynnrd Skynnrd, Boston, The Eagles, and Bad Company. And who wants that?

If I could select my Big Four…. Voivod, Celtic Frost, Bathory and Order from Chaos.

Voivod. I’d bring Piggy back from the dead and get Voivod. I’d bring Quorthon back from the dead and have Bathory join the fun. Order From Chaos, since they’re doing a few reunion shows anyway. And top it off by getting Celtic Frost back together (with Reed St. Mark on drums) and have them tune back up and play pre Cold Lake material. Seriously, they downtuned too far for Monotheist, and when they played the old stuff downtuned it sounded like shit, and it sounds like Tom G. Warrior forgot how to play) .

And Slaughter Lord… Big Five! No… Wait… And Sodom! Six! And Sarcofago!!!! Bulldozer!!! Graf Spee!!! and and and…….

So, to sum up, fuck the big four. They’re the new classic rock.

Yeah, words could be twisted around or someone could shoot off their mouth a bit too much (and no, not just the obvious one) and scrap this before it happens. Depends on who catches wind of it and how much they fuck with it. Media tends to make things worse.

Eventually, the focus on the big four will die down. At least, until they announce that they’re doing it here in North America (and hopefully for more than a couple dates). Then, that’ll be bigger than the Led Zeppelin O2 concert or following Bret Michaels’ current condition.

Anthrax might indeed be what stops a Big Four U.S. tour from happening, but my bet is that there are just too many egos in that Big Four box to coexist long enough for such a thing to be organized and pulled off. Inevitably, one of those guys will say something in the press that will be misconstrued by another of those guys (as has happened in the past), and that will be all she wrote.

When I started getting in metal, Metallica and Megadeth were among the bands I got into first, then Anthrax, but never was real big into Slayer. I liked ‘em, and still kind of do, but I don’t have the SLAYYYYYYYEEEEEEERRRRRR!!! gene in me. As already mentioned, Testament should also be considered at the top of the heap, as well as Exodus. But why is it only the big four? I suppose you have to stop somewhere, but still…

That said, I like Megadeth a little bit more than Metallica. I think that overall, they had better songs (not to say Metallica didn’t/doesn’t) and the only thing keeping them “second” was the revolving door lineup in the beginning, plus Metallica got more word of mouth promotion than Megadeth did. As far as their albums go, I think both bands have a similar track record of awesome, good, okay and meh. Speaking of… Peace Sells isn’t all that great (but it’s not terrible either), while So Far, So Good… So What! is IMO vastly underrated.

I know some people hate the guy, but I think when you sit down to look at it, Mustaine is one of the guys who helped bring metal to another level. Just imagine what he and Hetfield could have done together post Kill ‘Em All, beyond the elements Metallica kept knowingly and whatever influence Dave’s time in the band left on them for even longer (which I think is more the case with Master Of Puppets than the band lifting some of Dave’s riffs and ideas). He might not have been in the band for a very long time, but he was there when it mattered.

Neither band is going to come up with another Master Of Puppets or Rust In Peace, nor should they try to do so – or try to make something like any other albums they’ve done. Well, just look what happened with Load and Reload, the first one’s a decent album, but was too much of a departure for most and Reload… well, at least it wasn’t like St. Anger. Death Magnetic isn’t the second coming of Metallica, but it’s a pretty good album, combining the best parts of Metallica post Justice with elements up to that point.

As for Megadeth, they followed a similar path, but took a bit longer to derail, then they got back on track. Unfortunately, that also came with more lineup changes and now a bit of replacing the replacement syndrome that seems to be happening more and more these days with long running bands (as in, David Ellefson rejoining).

If you would’ve said 5 or 10 years ago that this was going to happen, it would have seemed like a joke. The bruised egos were still stinging and getting beyond stuff that happened years ago was harder. I’m glad that they finally managed to get past all the bullshit and realize that it is time to come together, depsite whatever issues there may have been or may still be – and I don’t think they all involve Dave Mustaine. Sure, they might ever get to the point of being good friends, but they don’t really have to.

And prick or not, even he realizes (and will admit) that if this tour is to keep going and rumble along here in the U.S., it depends on Metallica. Whatever needs to be done to make it happen, they should see to it that it gets done. There may never be another change for the amps to align in this manner. That Anthrax has current issues of its own (again, replacing the replacement syndrome, plus a finished album they’re going to redo because of that) could be the thing that stops this from happening, not Dave Mustaine. Even a Metallica/Megadeth tour, which would seem more likely to happen – and easier to manage, would do.

And while we’re here, he’s not alone in the prickdom department in this trash soap opera, although his assholism has been the most visible. It’s not like the guys in Metallica, Slayer or Anthrax are without their “moments”. And outside of this circle, there are even bigger pricks in music, with egos that dwarf that of Dave on his worst days.

I do agree with Dave is a whiny little bitch. Honestly, you HAVE made some good music. Sure, you probably DID influence hundreds of musicians. I dont really think anyone can get that ‘original’ anymore. Everything HAS been done. You can only put a twist on past creations.

And Metallica? I’ve TRIED getting into them, I really have. I just CAN’T. Lars is a fucking HACK! I dont like the rest of the lineup either.

I think Dave can be, and is a little bit of an asshat. (Little bit? Scratch that. He’s a big one) He constantly over-credits himself due to the fact he assumes he had the hardest time a musician ever had. Sure, you got big, you created GREAT music. I love most of Dave’s music – Megadeth got me INTO metal.

Now, Dave has hired some SHIT lineups, and his sound has progressed into something unrecognizable.

Thrash metal holds a special place in my heart. I will always love ‘true’ thrash. It’s my roots. No matter how far it has strayed, died, gone underground, or dissapeared I still LOVE it. That being said – There comes a time when you have to retire the axe. No point in beating a dead horse.

I DO have to contradict what Deaths-Embrace posted. I do NOT think Dave rode Metallica’s coattrails. He carved his own path, and did a decent job at that.

In my own opinion – Megadeth AND Metallica with Slayer would be a great show to play live – if they played the classic. I think it is time though for someone to stay away from the media, and take a break.

A really thoughtful comment, and I’ll be curious to see if anyone else has a different take on the more recent output of Metallica and Slayer. Of the Big Four, Metallica also holds the most prominent position in my own listening history, for pretty much the same reason it does for you. And there’s a handful of their early songs I still go back to every now and then. But many, many bands are putting out much better music than those dudes these days, and Hetfield has also fallen prey to the disease of self-importance, though a milder case than the raging infection that is Dave Mustaine.