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List Price: $9.93 | | Label: Capitol
Salesrank: 36873
Released: July 27, 2004 |
| Our Price: $6.14 |
| Used Price: $2.70 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Cryptic Writings Track Listing:
1. Trust
2. Almost Honest
3. Use The Man
4. Mastermind
5. The Disintegrators
6. I'll Get Even
7. Sin
8. A Secret Place
9. Have Cool, Will Travel
10. She-Wolf
11. Vortex
12. FFF
13. Trust (Spanish version) - previously unreleased
14. Evil That's Within (Demo) - previously unreleased
15. Vortex (Alternate version) - previously unreleased
16. Bullprick - previously unreleased
Cryptic Writings Reviews:
This is a good Megadeth album 
2009-12-12 - This is a good Megadeth album . First before we get started i'm a fan of both Megadeth & Metallica like all their albums yes even Risk, load, reload, St. anger & The world needs a hero. This album and Risk are Megadeth's most underrated albums along with The world needs a hero, all good albums if you have an open mind. .
Best songs for me are Trust, Almost Honest,Use the Man, Mastermind, I'll get even, Sin, A Secret Place,Have Cool, Will Travel. The musicianship on this album is brilliant as usual with megadeth albums.
Previously four stars; remaster reduces it to one 
2009-10-06 - If you want to hear the album the way it was meant to be heard, hunt down and buy the original 1997 release, which had a crisp, clear sound. This remaster, like almost all remasters these days (especially Megadeth and Judas Priest), has a muddy, digital, and loud sound which is completely unnacceptable. Not only that, but Mustaine actually changed some of the dynamics of the album, including the drums and some of the song openings. Mustaine is the musical equivalent of George Lucas.
As for the music itself, Cryptic Writings was always an underrated album that caught some flak for being a bit more alternative than the preceding two albums. For old school fans, songs like Trust, The Disintegrators, She Wolf, Vortex, and FFF offer classic Megadeth. Meanwhile tracks like Almost Honest, Use the Man, and Have Cool Will Travel offer a more adventurous (some may say poppier) Megadeth, if that's possible. There are some stinkers on the album such as I'll Get Even, Sin, and A Secret Place, but they don't bring the album down that far. Again, to really hear the album, get the 1997 and skip the awful 2004 remake.
One of my favorites
2009-08-14 - This is one of my favorite Megadeth albums along with Peace Sells... one of those CDs that I can listen to all the way through without getting tired of it. There are a lot of interesting guitar things going on too.
63/100, Unfairly hated by elitists, Cryptic Writings isn't nearly as bad as some would have you believe. 
2009-07-09 - AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently moved over to a new review system in which I rate each song and then create an average rating for the whole album rather than just giving the album a rating based purely on my general feel for the album. This allows for a much more accurate and unfortunately a much harsher rating for each album. Because of this my new number ratings may not match up with the star ratings on my older reviews when I updated them with this new review system. Thanks for your understanding.
Make no mistake, this is but a mere shadow of what Megadeth used to be, but it's still a very solid metal album. Megadeth was such a great band that even their lesser records are still solid with the exception of Risk, the album that came after Cryptic Writings. By now Megadeth has gone full steam ahead into the world of commercial success, so you can expect a slower and less technical album than anything they put out before this.
"Trust"-Pretty melodic, I guess it's what you would call "commercial". Nevertheless a very good song. 8/10
"Almost Honest"-Has a classic riff to it. Could have done without the tacked on special effects. 7/10
"Use The Man"-Slower than the previous two songs, has a pretty meaningful message but unfortunately feels like the song didn't quite meet its full potential. 7/10
"Mastermind"-Has a killer bass line. The album starts to pick up its pace here. 7/10
"The Disintegrators"-Quicker than the songs before, it sounds like that thrash but without the bite. Still a fun song to listen to. 7/10
"I'll Get Even"-A weird ballad of sorts with some lame lyrics. Not really up to par with the rest of the material. 5/10
"Sin"-Sounds eerily similar to Metallica's self titled "sellout" album. Dave's angry vocal style just doesn't work with this style of music. 5/10
"A Secret Place"-I swear this song almost sounds like something Iron Maiden threw out after they decided it wasn't up to their expectations and Dave came along and picked it up. 6/10
"Have Cool, Will Travel"-What's with the harmonica? A Tad cliche for a song titled "Have Cool, Will Travel" isn't it? Anyway, the song isn't bad but it ain't great either. 6/10
"She-Wolf"-Finally a genuine thrash song. A very solid riff and overall just an extremely refreshing song because it's different than the others on the album. Has a pleasing chorus as well. 8/10
"Vortex"-Another thrashy sort of song, sounds very much like a song that would have been on Countdown, not that that's a bad thing. The riff will probably stick in your head for a while. 7.5/10
"FFF"-This songs sounds pretty much like a slightly more technical punk song. Not bad I suppose. 6/10
"Evil That's Within"-Very simple, no energy or passion to it. Really failed to hold my interest. 5/10
"Bullprick"-Another very punk sounding song. Again not bad but not exactly what I would call good either. The lyrics are incredibly stupid though. 5/10
An unfortunate amount of this album is just filler, but it still has some surprisingly great tracks like my top three: "Trust", "Vortex", and "She-Wolf". For thrash fans looking for old-school Megadeth this album will be pretty disappointing except for "She-Wolf" "Vortex", and maybe "The Disintegrators". Like I said if you're looking only for old-school Megadeth you'll be disappointed, but if you come at it with an open mind then you'll find a perfectly good album.
PLEASE READ BEFORE BUYING!!!
2008-12-03 - This is an excellent album, but this version of "Megadeth-Criptic Writings" has very poor audio quality. The "original" version is MUCH better. I used to have the "original" vesion, I bought when the album first came out in a record store. I lost it so I decided to buy another, but I chose this "remastered" version and was terribly disappointed. The sound quality is so poor you can barely make out the high notes. It sounds like you turned the high settings on your stereo all the way down, and turned the midrange all the way up, while leaving the lows in the middle. It sounds terrible. BE WARNED!!!
