Megadeth

David Ellefson, Marty Friedman, Dave Mustane, Nick Menza

Ok, this is my all-time favorite band! Yup, I can't even remember when I started listening to this band... But, I believe that it was when I was in sixth or seventh grade. I do know that the first album of theirs that I got was Rust In Peace and I got it for no particular reason. When I joined BMG, I was entitled to free CDs and one of the ones that I chose was this album. I didn't know anything about them rather than the fact that my cousin, Dave listened to them and they were heavy metal. Even after I got the CD, I never bothered to really listen to it... Then one day I decided to and ended up quickly getting all of their albums that I could as they quickly became my favorite band. Now, I have all their albums and thanks to my boy here, I have a ton of bootlegs and singles which used to belong to him until he discovered that this was my favorite band.

Megadeth was formed shortly after vocalist/rhythem guitarist, Dave Mustane was given a rather rude diparture from the now famous Metallica. When, due to his drinking habits, he was handed a bus ticket back to San Francisco, California and a luke-warm friendly good-bye the next morning after playing the now defunked L'Mours Club in Brooklyn, New York. Dave jokingly commented on this at the 1998 Howard Stern Birthday Bash. He said that they all drank but, "When they drank, they got stupid. When I drank, I got violent. Violent people beat up stupid people."

Dave met up with Chris Poland (lead guistarst), David Ellefson (bass guitar), and Gar Samuelson (drums) to form the first rendition Dave, David, Martyof Megadeth. The band was signed to Combat Records and released Killing is My Business...and Business is Good! in 1985 and the band instantly got a fan following.

In 1986, the band returned with the now legendary album Peace Sells...but Who's Buying? which featured such hits as "Wake Up Dead" and "Peace Sells." A video for "Peace Sells" was made, but it was not viewed in many countries because of its violent content, yet still the video was highly demanded.

So Far, So Good...So What! was released in 1988 with new drummer, Chuck Behler and new guitarist, Jeff Young and caught the eyes and ears of many metal fans, thus proving Megadeth was no fluke. The album included such fan-favorite songs as "In My Darkest Hour" (the song about Metallica's bassist, Cliff Burton, written after his bus accident fatality, in Stockholm, Sweden), "Set The World Afire", "Liar", and "Anarchy in the U.K." (the classic Sex Pistol's cut).

The band then covered the Alice Cooper song "No More Mr. Nice Guy" which appeared on the soundtrack for the Davemovie Shocker, directed by horror movie guru Wes Craven.

Many die hard Metal fans would agree that Megadeth's Rust in Peace (released in 1990) is Megadeth's greatest album. By this time, the Megadeth we all know today was completed with Dave Mustane still on vocals and David Ellefson still the bassist, but now with Marty Freidman as the guitarist and Nick Menza on drums. Two music videos Nickspawned from this album: "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due" and the alien inspired song "Hanger 18." The band embarked on a huge tour with Metal heavyweight Slayer and the Seattle grunge band, Alice in Chains. The band picked up major fan support along the way, winning over thousands of fans each passing night while supporting their recent release that would soon turn plaitnum.

"Go to Hell" was added to the sountrack for the infamous movie Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey in 1991.

Megadeth made their third soundtrack appearence, which, in our opinion was a very embarassing moment, for the shitty movie Super Mario Bros. in 1992.

After being in hiatus for two years Megadeth came back with a vengence releasing their most mainstream friendly album Countdown to Extinction which instantly received critical aclaim. Most radio stations and MTV played the 1st single off the album, the classic song about dirty politics, "Symphony of Destruction." (Trent Reznor did a remix of this song, by the way, which was on the "Train of Consequences" single.) The album had many hit singles, but none bigger than the split personality song "Sweating Bullets." (My personal favorite.) The very original and creative Davidvideo was put on MTV's steady rotation. Although the other singles for the album were hardly mentioned, the album was a huge success and marked a new beginning for Megadeth.

1993, Megadeth made their 4th and 5th apprearances on soundtracks: the Arnold Schwarzenegger flop, The Last Action Hero and MTV's The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience.

1994 marked a big year for the four Megamen. They covered the classic Black Sabbath song "Paranoid" for the Nativity in Black: A Trbute to Black Sabbath record and then released a brillantMarty album titled Youthanasia which went Gold in Canada the very 1st day of it's release. Heavy radio and video soon follwed for the album's 1st single, "Train of Consequences", and MTV even held a special Halloween program where Megadeth "Reckoning Day" and the French semi-ballad "A Tout Le Monde." A massive tour soon followed thus making 1994 an extremely succesful year for Mr. Mustaine and company.

Hidden Treasures, a b-side novelty album featuring covers, unreleased tracks, and songs that appeared on various soundtracks, was released in 1995. After a 3 year absence from the studio, Megadeth returned to record their 7th album Cryptic Writings. To this day those anti-Metal fucks at MTV have chosen to once again ignore Megadeth. The video for the album's 1st single, the brillant aong "Trust", has never been seen eMpTyV. Even radio stations at 1st ignored "Trust" but recently they caught on, sometimes placing the song on their full, every day rotation. Megadeth once again packed their bags and embarked on a world tour in support of their newest album.

So, what does the future hold for the band that has delivered heavy album after heavy album? Will they call it quits or record yet another album?? Lets hope they decide to choose the latter of the 2.

Killing is My Business...and Business is Good! (released 1985)

Peace Sells...but Who's Buying? (released 1986)

So Far...So Good...So What! (released 1988)

Rust in Peace (released 1990)

Countdown to Extinction (released 1992)

Youthenasia (released 1994)

Hidden Treasures (released 1995)

Cryptic Writings (released 1997)

Back to Busted Eardrum