Megadeth "Th1rt3en"

Th1rt3en is the thirteenth studio album by American thrash metal band Megadeth. It was released worldwide on November 1, 2011, by Roadrunner Records, although the album was released on October 26, 2011 for Japan. Thirteen is the first Megadeth studio album since The World Needs a Hero (2001) to feature bassist and founding member David Ellefson, who returned to the band in 2010. Th1rt3en debuted at number 11 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 42,000 copies in its first week. The album broke into the top 20 in several other markets as well. It has sold about 120,000 copies in the United States as of December 2012. The album has received largely positive reviews from critics.

The album followed the successful Endgame, released two years previously, and was recorded in late spring 2011. In addition to new material was written for the album, the band decided to rework and release several older songs, some of which had previously seen release as demos or bonus tracks. Additionally, several of the songs on the album were intended to appear on video game soundtracks, notably "Sudden Death", which appeared as a playable song in the 2010 video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.

The lead single from Th1rt3en was the Al Capone-inspired "Public Enemy No. 1". This was followed by "Whose Life (Is It Anyways?)" about a month later. "Sudden Death" was released as a single prior to the announcement of Thirteen to promote Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, but was later included on the album. All three songs received Grammy Award nominations, in the "Best Metal Performance" or "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance" categories.

In July 2010, while being asked about the success of Megadeth's release Endgame (2009), drummer Shawn Drover revealed that the band had begun discussing a follow-up album and said that there were a "couple of ideas" the band was starting to work on. In a later interview, frontman and guitarist Dave Mustaine stated that the album would contain a mix of songs he had written earlier in his career and new compositions written for the album.

Mustaine confirmed that Megadeth would record at the band's own Vic's Garage studio in California. Johnny K was chosen to produce the record because Andy Sneap, the producer of Megadeth's previous two albums, was unavailable due to schedule conflicts. Mustaine subsequently revealed that the album would be titled Thirteen and would feature previously released tracks such as "Sudden Death" and "Never Dead".

In an interview before a show in Auckland, New Zealand, Mustaine noted that the then-upcoming record was the last one on the band's contract with Roadrunner Records and mentioned that Roadrunner was trying to give the band a "huge new deal". However, Mustaine expressed frustration with the label, saying "The treatment's been terrible over the years, and I just don't want it." He stated that he would prefer to retire than "continue to play like that". Nevertheless, Mustaine exclaimed the band's new record would be "great" and the songs were "really good".

In a December 2010 interview, bassist David Ellefson (who was welcomed back into the band earlier that year) commented "There's some ideas that we're now starting to individually compose", but clarified the band would not be hitting the studio until 2011. Ellefson also speculated that the album would be influenced by the band's (then) recent live performances of the entire Rust in Peace album (1990).

Mustaine initially suggested that the album was turning out to be "more like Endgame". however he later declared the album was instead "Different, a hundred percent different, unlike anything we've ever done before because the guitar sounds are different, it sounds really super-modern." He went on to compare the sound to "really old classic Sabbath and with a little bit of a modern edge of Queens of the Stone Age kind of thing."

Ellefson stated the album was ready to be mixed as of July 2011. When asked if it could be compared to any previous Megadeth album, he said the album "kind of fits in around the Countdown to Extinction album" but noted it would depend on how the album was to be mixed. Ellefson also announced the band has been considering album titles, but no release date was yet planned.

Chris Broderick compared some parts of the album specifically to Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? (1986), Rust in Peace, or Countdown to Extinction (1992), but also stated "I've been likening it to a very diverse CD. It's not one of those ones that you'll put it on and every song sounds like the last one. It's got everything from anthems to more radio friendly stuff to hard-hitting thrash and some cool, dark-sounding stuff." In a later interview, Broderick again touted the sonic diversity of the album, noting that it is "like a cut in time from each CD of the past Megadeth discography".

It was announced that a new song, "Never Dead", would be included in a promotional trailer for Konami's upcoming video game NeverDead, marking the third time in five years that the band contributed a new song towards promoting a video game ("Gears of War" in 2006 to promote Gears of War and "Sudden Death" in 2010 for inclusion in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock[15] being the other two). "Sudden Death" though originally recorded for the Guitar Hero franchise, was also later confirmed to be included on Th1rt3en.

The album artwork was designed by John Lorenzi, who contributed to the covers on Megadeth's two previous albums, Endgame and United Abominations (2007). The title was revealed as 13, with Mustaine commenting "I started playing guitar at 13 and this is our 13th record and I was born on the 13th. As soon as I said I was going to call it '13', I started noticing 13 everywhere. They never used to have 13th floors in hotels but now they have them again." One day later, the band revealed that the title would be rendered as "Th1rt3en" instead of 13. Drover stated in a subsequent interview that "Th1rt3en" had originally been the working title for the album. The cover artwork and track list for the album were revealed on September 7, 2011.

According to Dave Mustaine, the band have encountered numerous mishaps and odd occurrences. In an interview with Terrorizer magazine, Mustaine, taking note of the connection to the unlucky number 13, explained "This is our 13th studio record, and we've already had a bunch of weird things happen. Car problems, stuff disappearing, a guy who worked for me that was the most white-laced guy you could imagine falling out on drugs and disappearing... but this one's got me excited!" In addition, Mustaine announced on Twitter that producer Johnny K was "suddenly struck ill", and the band had ceased recording for the time being. However, the band resumed recording a few days later, with K having apparently recovered. In an interview, Drover had said nothing weird occurred until after he finished recording drum tracks for the album.

However, Mustaine later contradicted his previous statements "It's been very good luck. We did this record in… in record time". Furthermore, instead of the superstitions surrounding the number 13, Mustaine said he was actually more concerned with the album's release date of November 1 being a bad omen; referring to the release of Youthanasia (which was released on the same date in 1994), when the band was "banned" from MTV, for playing the then-new track "À Tout le Monde" on a televised promotional show, because MTV believed the song to be about suicide.

Mustaine revealed the album's North American release date as November 1, 2011. Mustaine previously said the label was "looking at November 1st. I don't know if it's supposed to be the 1st or the 31st for the release date, cuz [sic] they're trying to get us to do a live performance some place, for this release." This live performance Mustaine mentioned would ultimately turn out to be an appearance on the October 31, 2011 edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The band, performing in Halloween costumes, played "Public Enemy No. 1" and "Symphony of Destruction", the former of which was televised. The album was released in Japan on October 26, 2011.

To help draw publicity for the then-upcoming release, Mustaine had scheduled an appearance on the October 14–16 edition of the Full Metal Jackie radio show[33] and premiered a new track from Thirteen, "Whose Life (Is This Anyways?)", on the broadcast.[34] For a 24-hour period from October 17 to October 18, 2011, "Whose Life (Is It Anyway?)" was released as a free download through the band's Facebook page. Samples of all the album's songs were available for streaming on Amazon.com from October 17. Mustaine also made an appearance on the November 7 edition of Rockline.

Th1rt3en debuted at number 11 on the Billboard 200, selling 42,000 copies in the United States in its first week. This was a slight fall from the first-week sales (about 45,000 copies) and chart position (number 9) of its predecessor, Endgame. Another 10,780 copies were sold in the second week, and the album's position on the Billboard 200 fell to number 53. The album charted similarly in Australia, New Zealand (number 13) and on the Japanese chart (number 11). Elsewhere, the album failed to enter into the top 20. As of December 2012, Th1rt3en had sold 120,000 copies in the United States.

Three tracks of the album are re-recordings of songs that were written around 1991 and have already been released on other Megadeth albums:

* A demo version of "New World Order" was included on the 2004 remastered edition of "Youthanasia".

* "Black Swan" was originally written for the "Youthanasia" recording sessions. It was released as a bonus track on the remastered deluxe version of "Youthanasia" and "United Abominations".

* "Millennium Of The Blind" was also released as a bonus track on the 2004 remastered version of "Youthanasia".

Recorded from January to July, 2011 at Dave Mustaine's Vic's Garage Studio in San Marcos, California.