It’s hard to believe that the best albums of the thrash / speed metal genre, Metallica’s Master of Puppets, Megadeth’s Peace Sells, and Slayer’s Reign In Blood, all came out twenty-five years ago.
On July 12, ‘Deth has special reissue plans for “Peace Sells,” which will include multi-disc and vinyl sets with a bonus live show from 1987, as well as liner notes from Deth founder Dave Mustaine and Metallica’s Lars Ulrich.
Once he was kicked out of Metallica, Mustaine vowed revenge on his former bandmates, and Megadeth were termed “state of the art speed metal.”
Two of the members, lead guitarist Chris Poland, and the late drummer Gar Samuelson, were from a jazz fusion band, a happy accident which really opened up Megadeth’s music, and it gave it a lot of swing instead of the racing generically along at a million miles an hour like most typical speed metal bands.
The first two albums had very unorthodox, technical riffs, and an off the wall experimental approach that also separated ‘Deth from the pack, which the band abandoned after Poland and Samuelson were fired.
I felt the band could have gone in some amazing directions with the line up from the first two albums, and Poland told me what you heard from the band was only “a flicker” of what they were capable of, but they never got there because of the band’s drug problems.
IMHO Peace Sells is Megadeth’s best album, although the current fan favorite is “Rust In Peace.”
Recentlly ‘Deth and Metallica did the Big Four Tour together, and Mustaine appears to have buried the hatchet with Metallica, at least as of this writing.
Looking back, Mustaine should be very proud of Peace Sells in that it stands the test of time, and if it were just coming out today, it would still blow people away.
As Ulrich wrote in the upcoming special edition liner notes, “Whether you hard this record for the first time in 1986, or you hear this record for the first time today or tomorrow, ‘Peace Sells’ is a great heavy metal album. It has stood the test of time. And will continue to do so.”
