For the superstitious 13 is a number that brings bad luck, but Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine has more than enough reasons to embrace its symbolism. He was born on September 13, started to play guitar when he was 13 years old and now, for his band's 13th album, he reunites with his longest-standing sideman Dave Ellefson. What came out of this is a completely different issue, though. Unlike their last few releases, here Megadeth aren't trying to bring back to life the speed metal perfection of their 80's classics, but instead the band shows its other face, one that had a lot more to do with classic heavy metal and that won the band a lot of new fans during the decade that followed. This is in part due to the fact that 'TH1RT3EN' is an album with which Mustaine is trying to complete his contract with the band's current record label Roadrunner. And as bands often do in such a situation, Megadeth have taken a look back to the pile of unfinished and rejected ideas of the past – in this case, mostly from the 'Youthanasia' and 'Cryptic Writings' sessions – blown the dust off of them, polished them and are now selling them as a new album. Lucky for us it turns out the band led by Mustaine is quite good at reheating. Probably because they have been written in different years the songs are really diverse which gives the album a lot of depth, while in the meantime the consistent production (and the obviously severe polishing of the compositions) save 'TH1RT3EN' from sounding like a roughly assembled compilation of B sides. The album still does wander between some of the great (opener 'Sudden Death', the fueled with just rage 'We the People' and the colossal title track '13' that closes the album), a lot of the good (the first single 'Public Enemy No.1', inspired by the life of Al Capone, and 'Never Dead' that opens with a haunting start before gaining crushing strength) and little of the mediocre (songs doomed to be skipped like 'Guns, Drugs & Money' and 'Fast Lane'). But as a whole – without being anything great or unheard of – 'TH1RT3EN' still manages to be one really enjoyable album.