Listen to a New Megadeth Song, “The Threat is Real,” Right Now

Megadeth have released a new single from their forthcoming album, Dystopia, entitled “The Threat is Real,” which I could have sworn was already the name of a Megadeth song from United Abominations or Thirteen or one of those early-aughts releases. I was probably thinking of “Washington is Next!” or “The System Has Failed.”

ANYWAY, as a piece of music, the song is pretty good — between this and the album’s first single, “Fatal Illusion,” it’s clear that Dave Mustaine has learned his lesson from Super Collider (of course, we all thought he’d learned his less from Risk — so I guess I should say “he’s learned his lesson until the next time he forgets”). That being said, releasing a song called “The Threat is Real” which begins with Middle Eastern-style singing just a couple of weeks after the attacks in Paris is kinda gauche, though; the lyrics are fairly vague with regards to who, exactly, is making the threat, but it’s not hard to imagine a bunch of jingoistic asswipes interpreting the track as an anti-Muslim anthem. Hopefully I’m overthinking it, though, and the only thing the song will inspire is lots of headbanging.

Check out “The Threat is Real” below. Dystopia comes out January 16, but this track will be available as 12″ for Black Friday Record Store Day, which is, duh, this Friday, November 27.