Megadeth is an American Heavy metal band formed in 1983 by founder, guitarist, songwriter and vocalist Dave Mustaine. Since then, Dave Mustaine has been a dominant force and a pioneer in the American thrash metal movement despite several line-up changes in the band.For people who don’t know, Megadeth has a history of vengeance and fury behind the famed glory. Dave Mustaine used to be the lead guitarist of Metallica and was shockingly asked to leave the band after the release of their first record “Kill ‘Em All” due to personal differences. His answer to the humiliation was Megadeth, the formation of which did the music industry a world of good. Megedeth’s first record “Killing is my Business… and Business is Good!” was an exhibition of anger driven music. Subsequent releases like “Peace sells… But Who’s Buying?””, “Rust in peace”(Their most successful and critically acclaimed album till date and is considered to be a thrash masterpiece.) and “Countdown to Extinction” made it one of the premier thrash metal bands in the world along with Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax which later came to be known as the big 4 thrash metal juggernauts.
Their second studio album, “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?” met with huge appreciation by the thrash metal community for a number of reasons. It was released in 1986 along with the incredible Master of puppets(Metallica) and Reign in Blood(Slayer), both considered to be classics in the genre. In this record, we are presented with near perfect thrash sound defined by numerous complex riffs and solos by guitarists Dave Mustaine and Chris Poland, brilliant double bass blast drumming by Gar Samuelsson and excellent bass work by David Ellefson. The result is an assault of focused speed and thrash metal, lasting for 37:12 minutes which happens to be the best part of the album.
The weakness in this album could be Dave’s vocals which lacked power and impact for this genre, although later albums like “Rust in Peace” and “Countdown to Extinction” showed tremendous improvement in his voice. His vocals take time to grow on you and after a few times of listening, you start to enjoy the singing accompanied by a few angrily spoken words. That’s his trademark and I enjoy it greatly. Another weak link in this album is the “Willy Dixon” cover, “I Ain’t Superstitious”, a jazz song. This one is probably one of the worst cover versions of an original, I have ever heard and it sounds like a mediocre “rock n roll” mix with patent Megadeth riffs and solos. No wonder, we didn’t hear a cover version for a long time then.
The great thing about “Peace Sells” is that, the entire record finishes in just over 30 minutes of continuous run and leaves you thirsty for more giving you a feeling that they could have recorded more tracks or longer versions. That could be one of the reasons for releasing the re-mastered version of this album in 2004 which contains 20 extra minutes of music and happens to be new mixes of the existing tracks in the record.
“Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying” is definitely one of the best albums made by Megadeth till date since it offers lightning fast dual solos, fast and heavy riffs complemented by thundering drums, top notch lyrics and perfect bass which fills every possible void in record. This is all every thrash metal fan would ask for. This album is an example of musicianship at its best, since every time you finish playing the record, you feel like playing it all over again to spend the better part of your time. If you want to know what Megadeth actually sound like and you also want to get into metal, then this is the album you should possess, since it exhibits the trademark Megadeth sound and all the features for thrash metal music.
Recommended Tracks(In the order of preference):
Good Morning/Black Friday
Devil’s Island
Peace Sells
Wake Up Dead
The Conjuring
My Last Words
Track Listing:
Wake Up Dead
The Conjuring
Peace Sells
Devil’s Island
Good Mourning\ Black Friday
Bad omen
I Ain’t Superstitious
My last words