Artist: Megadeth
Title: “Peace Sells, But Who’s Buying?”
Label: Capitol Records
Release Date: 7/27/2004
Genre: Thrash Metal
Rating: 4.25/5
1986 was truly an amazing year for the Metal genre based on the widely diverse amount of releases that were coming from the scene’s leaders. Historically speaking it would showcase some of the giants most prolific work while on the opposite side of the coin present us with some others bands most maligned output. The Thrash Metal side found Metallica delivering their seminal “Master Of Puppets” while Metal Gods in Judas Priest gave us “Turbo”. It was the year that while “Slippery When Wet” came care of Bon Jovi, that Dave Mustaine and the boys in Megadeth would give us “Peace Sells, But Who’s Buying?”. I’ll admit that Megadeth were not preferential to me from the very beginning, as I didn’t “get” what “Killing Is My Business” was all about as much as my friends did, but back at that time in my life, while I leaned to the Heavy side of things I also greatly enjoyed the Glam stuff. “Peace Sells” would be a different animal altogether and I snapped this up the moment that I first watched the video on the them almost juggernaut of a Metal force of MTV. The words in this tune spoke to our generation. We were unhappy with the way the world was and Mustaine seemed to be our truest spokesman about life and how we interacted with the world around us. Clearly when Dave spoke, we were listening.
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Artist: Megadeth
Title: “Anthology: Set The World Afire”
Label: Capitol Records/EMI Music
Release Date: 9/30/2008
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 4.5/5
It seemed like only yesterday that we found this very label releasing a “Greatest Hits” compilation by those stalwarts of the Heavy Metal way Megadeth and while it was true that the release would deliver the goods when it came down to pure and intelligent Metal, the time had clearly come for the game to be upgraded and for this idea to be visited once again. That Greatest Hits package was a single disc seventeen track affair and it managed to cover a lot of ground which definitely served the needs of the bands fan base but now with the labeling being that of an Anthology, we would now get two discs and the material would span some thirty three tracks. From top to bottom, everything that you expect to find on such a release is here to be enjoyed and examined from an early career to most recent viewpoint. Of course with the band now being on Roadrunner Records, we don’t find anything from their latest album “United Abominations” but we do go up as far as “Risk” and “Cryptic Writings”. All of the staple tracks from the bands beginnings are here and while it seems as though every song that we found on “Greatest Hits” is made available here, we do find that “Symphony Of Destruction” is a live version and “Mechanix” this time around is the original for on the hits release a couple of years ago gave us a remix from 2002. A second live track is offered up with a rousing version of “Peace Sells” from 1992 and if that doesn’t please you enough there is a demo track called “High Speed Dirt” from a 1992 session to enjoy. The bonus content was good enough in my opinion but with a release like this I lean towards the classic tracks that made me a fan of the band in the first place. They provide a several page booklet but it really doesn’t offer much to that kind of fan who loves to read something while the album is playing. It just lines out the individual tracks and lets you know what album they have originally come from. There are a few but not a lot of photos between these pages to enjoy as well and these depict four different lineups of the band from across the years.
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Artist: Megadeth
Title: “Arsenal Of Megadeth”
Label: Capitol Records/EMI Music
Release Date: 3/21/2006
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 8/10
Megadeth celebrates their career with a worthy collection of videos and vignettes along with some unseen footage that will have every Rattlehead screaming for more. As a fan of their earlier material and the heyday of Metal video and MTV’s “Headbanger’s Ball” I enjoyed the chance to have all of their videos in one convenient package. However, to make sure that this would be accepted and received by a larger audience Mustaine made sure to include a large amount of clips and features that have not been seen in a number of years. There is a little of everything and among them are vintage MTV appearances as well as clips from the film “Decline Of Western Civilization” of which Megadeth was a guest star. Several cool touring segments are presented such as “Clash Of The Titans” (from 2000) as well as footage from the celebrated 2005 “Gigantour”. There are interviews and day in the life segments and the end result is a whopping double DVD set that is bound to please Metal fans of all ages. As many Metallers can agree Megadeth is one of the more important bands to have ever come around for the genre, and this DVD collection serves as a good way to remember why this is the case. Intelligent lyrically, and musically profound Megadeth has given Headbangers a solid thrashing from 1983 until now.
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Where Heavy Music & Pop Culture Collide
