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Megadeth, ‘Th1rt3en’ (Roadrunner)

Those insane speed-metal guitars! Those pummeling drums! Dave Mustaine’s snarling, sandpaper-and-nails voice! Megadeth might brazenly ignore the perils of self-parody, but the quartet’s stubborn refusal to evolve yields genuine thrills on their typically irascible 13th album. For all the carnage, “Public Enemy No. 1” and “Guns, Drugs & Money” are deceptively melodic hard rock not far from Alice Cooper’s early classics, albeit lacking the same sense of humor. Still, Mustaine’s fevered tirades bemoaning the state of the world feel utterly apt, given today’s headlines: “We the People” clearly belongs on the apocalypse’s official soundtrack.