Megadeth
Megadeth is a musician.
Dave Mustaine formed Megadeth in Los Angeles in 1983, and the band has been making the same argument ever since: that thrash metal should be difficult. Where the genre's other founding acts leaned on force, Megadeth leaned on technique, two lead guitars trading fast, jagged lines over rhythm sections that change shape mid-song. They are counted in the big four of American thrash alongside Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, and they had a real hand in building the form rather than just arriving early.
The lyrics went where metal lyrics mostly did not, into war, arms dealing, politics and religion, delivered in Mustaine's sneer, a limited instrument used with unusual precision. He does not sing so much as prosecute.
The run from Killing Is My Business in 1985 through Countdown to Extinction in 1992 is the case for the band: seven years of writing that got tighter and more melodic without getting softer. What follows is a longer, choppier story. The late nineties chased radio, Risk in 1999 chased something else entirely and the title turned out to be accurate, and the 2000s brought a slow, grudging return to the older mode. Dystopia in 2016 was the strongest of those returns. The band has kept going since, which at this point is part of the personality.
Music (20)
- Rust in Peace (1990)
- Countdown to Extinction (1992)
- Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying? (1986)
- So Far, So Good… So What! (1988)
- Youthanasia (1994)
- Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good! (1985)
- Cryptic Writings (1997)
- Endgame (2009)
- The System Has Failed (2004)
- Th1rt3en (2011)
- Risk (1999)
- Dystopia (2016)
- Super Collider (2013)
- United Abominations (2007)
- The World Needs a Hero (2000)
- Megadeth (2026)
- The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead! (2022)
- That One Night: Live in Buenos Aires (2007)
- Greatest Hits: Back to the Start (2005)
- Rude Awakening (2002)
Where to start with Megadeth
Rust in Peace first, and there is no serious competition for the slot. It is the record where the playing and the writing peak at the same moment, four musicians at full stretch on songs that still have choruses.
Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying? is next, rawer and funnier, carrying a bass figure famous enough to have outlived the album around it. For the melodic, radio-shaped version of the band, Countdown to Extinction and Youthanasia both do it without embarrassment, and the second is the more consistent of the pair.
Completists should hear Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good! for the speed and the mess. For the modern band, go straight to Dystopia, then The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!. And Risk is worth exactly one listen, as evidence that a band this stubborn could still lose its nerve.
The technical thrash peak
Rust in Peace is the album the genre points at to demonstrate precision, with Marty Friedman playing lines nobody else was. Peace Sells is the raw early statement and So Far, So Good is the messy one in between.
The commercial nineties and what came after
Countdown to Extinction slowed things down and sold enormously, Youthanasia went further, and Risk went far enough to break the band for a while. The later records are a long climb back toward the earlier sound.
The modern Megadeth records
Two decades of consistent output that fans rate far higher than the general audience does. Endgame and Dystopia are the ones long-time listeners recommend, and The Sick, the Dying and the Dead is the recent one.