Megadeth are a thrash/heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1983 by singer/songwriter Dave Mustaine. They are among the most successful metal bands in history, with record sales in excess of 20 million, and seven Grammy nominations under their belt. They provided a blueprint for thrash metal and kicked down the doors for other thrash bands to follow.
In 1983 Dave Mustaine was fired from US heavy metal band Metallica. In an act of revenge he decided to set up his own group to out-thrash his former band mates. Mustaine was joined by bassist David Ellefson, guitarist Greg Handevidt, and drummer Dijon Carruthers and the band was set to go. However, in the first of what would be a feature of Megadeths’ history, there were line-up changes, out went Carruthers and Handevidt in came drummer Lee Rausch, soon to be replaced by Gar Samuelson who brought along a friend, guitarist Chris Poland.
In 1984 the band recorded their debut album Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good! for Combat Records. The album is a mix of thrash, speed and heavy metal and features a cover version of “These Boots Were Made for Walking” (originally a hit for Nancy Sinatra). The band got into trouble when the writer of the song Lee Hazlewood, objected to the adaptations that they had made to the lyrics. The track was removed from later pressings of the album and a ‘bleeped’ version reinstated for the 2002 re-release.
The band moved to Capitol Records for their second album Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?. It was released to critical acclaim and sold more than a million copies. Hailed as one of the archetypal thrash albums, it marked the beginning of a run of success.
After So Far, So Good… So What! went platinum, they followed up with Rust In Peace, which earned the Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance. Max Norman was later hired as producer and steered the band towards a more commercial sound and refined the formula over their next two albums. Countdown to Extinction was their most commercially successful to date, debuting at No.2 on Billboard 200 and making double platinum sales. Youthanasiawas supported by 11 month tour, and became their fastest platinum-seller. After the extensive tour the band took a break in 1995 to pursue solo projects.
A new producer, Dann Huff, was brought in to continue the commercialization process commenced by Norman. The result was Cryptic Writing which produced a Mainstream Rock Chart No.1 with the single “Trust”, which received a Best Metal Performance Grammy nomination. With the success of Cryptic, more control was passed to Huff. The resultant album, Risk, was panned by fans and critics alike, the introduction of dance and electronic elements were not what the fans wanted and it failed to sell well.
Mustaine took over production duties for the ‘return-to-rock’ album, The World Needs a Hero. The album stopped the rot, but it was not the tour de force the followers of the band were looking for.
A freak injury to Mustaine’s arm left him unable to play guitar, and a few months later he called a halt to the band. A contractual obligation album was due to Megadeths’ European record label EMI, and so, the now recovered, Mustaine gathered the band to record The System Has Failed. The album was met with critical acclaim and to support it, they embarked on their farewell tour. However the success of the album and the tour led Mustaine to reconsider and he announced that that Megadeth would go on. In 2007 they released United Abominations, the album debuted at No.8, selling 50,000 plus copies in its first week. Further tours are planned.
Although Mustaine’s Megadeth haven’t outsold his former bandmates during their, admittedly shorter, career, the monster he created is one of the first names mentioned in discussions about thrash metal.
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