Old School Review: MD.45 The Craving (Remastered)

In 1996 I was a BMG music customer. I was also one of those customers that always forgot to mail the stupid little card back that said that I didn’t want the “Featured” artist cd. One of the cds that I received because of this was  Dave Mustaine’s project MD.45. I was a bug Megadeth fan back then so needless to say I was excited about this when I got it. The excitement didn’t last long though. The original release of The Craving was a huge disappointment for me. The guitars and everything was cool but the vocals just didn’t sound right. The vocalist, Lee Ving just sounded as if he was singing lyrics that were not designed for his voice and style. Lee Ving, in case you’re not familiar with the record or his history, was the singer for L.A. punk band Fear. On The Craving the vocals just didn’t click with me and with most people, if the vocals don’t click then it makes it very difficult to enjoy the music as a whole.

Mustaine described this album as a punk/metal record and had said that Ving’s vocal range is more soulful and that he wanted to work with Ving for a long time. Jimmy DeGrasso, who has played with various other bands, covered the drums on MD.45 and would later go on to play drums for Megadeth. Kelly LeMieux is more of a session bass player who has played for various artists. In 2004 while remaster and remixing  Megadeth’s back catalog, Dave decided to remix and remaster The Craving.This time around he replaced Lee’s vocals with his own due to the vocal and harmonica tracks being missing. Dave says that he doesn’t feel his vocals sound better on the new version but that he thinks more fans will take to this with him singing on it. He was right.

While the leads and rhythms on The Craving are not as complex as a typical Megadeth album, the tone is still there and they are still catchy. With Dave’s vocals on the remastered version I have come to really like this album. It almost feels like a lost Megadeth album. Not a good Megadeth album, but more like a compilation of songs that weren’t quite good enough to make it on a Megadeth album. Appropriately one of the songs on the album, The Creed was a Megadeth song that was demo’d but never used on earlier albums. The actual Megadeth demo is included on the remastered version.

Along with The Creed there are also two other bonus tracks. Chutney, a slow galloping track with what sounds like looped lyrics of four lines. Not a great song and can become annoying after the first minute. The last bonus track is called Segue and it’s only 1 minute, 24 seconds long. It’s nothing special either with a cool bass solo at the beginning and  circus sounding leads. Sounds goofy? Well it is, and if you buy the cd for the bonus tracks alone and not because you wan to hear Dave sing then you will be disappointed.

I think most people are happy that the original vocal tracks were “Lost” and that Dave re-sang the parts instead of Lee Ving. A lot of people complained of the vocals in The Craving and Dave, well…Dave listened to the critics and it probably helped sell the remastered version. The original sat in discount and cut-away bins within a year of it’s original release. I found my copy of the new version in used condition, so apparently not everyone likes this version either. Either way, if you didn’t like the original then give this remastered version a try. It’s a brighter sounding album that some say sounds more like a metal Megadeth album and not the original punk influenced metal sound that was intended. I think it just sounds like better production with a more modern sound. The bass is thicker, the drums are cleaner and more clear and I think it sounds much better. What I do miss is the harmonica that was there before. That was one of the other tracks that went missing. Dave used his guitar to synthesize the harmonica and while it still sounds good it doesn’t have the same feel as the harmonica gave the songs, but it fits with the new version.

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