Conclusion
This album rattles the bones in the catacombs of France from start to finish. Megadeth's second album and one of the pillars of thrash metal. The remixed and remastered edition also includes some of the original Randy Burns mixes for 4 tracks. Bitchin'!
Review
This album spews forth a quirky, histrionic bass line followed by a snarling guitar riff and some trademark 'James Hetfield's mother sells socks that smell' leads. This basically sets the premise for the rest of the album. Some glory from the days when each band tried to be faster, louder and meaner than the next while ironically still being friendly enough for MTV.
James Hetfield of Metallica. Megadeth is still a metal band while Metallica prefers making Dr Phil mockumentaries.
Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? was recorded before frontman David Mustaine became a Christian. The lyrics on this album are blissfully hedonistic, ranging form sex, drugs and Satan to mild political satire and social commentary. Now let that be a lesson to you. For supreme heavy metal, you need
- sex
- drugs
- Satan
On the cover, you will find Megadeth mascot Vic Rattlehead, who sits to the right hand of Iron Maiden's Eddie. Many of my pre-teen doodles featured Vic disembowelling various bastions of the establishment. The building in the background is the United Nations headquarters, portrayed after a nuclear holocaust.
The concept of the album is based on an article that alleged peace is easily achieved, but nobody really wants it. The article was written from the viewpoint that if peace were a product on sale, nobody would buy it. Sounds about right.
Useless information
- Guitarist Chris Poland and drummer Gar Sameulson were dismissed from Megadeth after The Red Haired One Dave Mustaine noticed lots of Megadeth gear going missing for crack money.
- Chris and Gar eventually found peace together in jazz/fusion outfit called the New Yorkers.
- Dave Mustaine was dismissed from Metallica after pouring beer into one of their bass guitars.
This is part of the month of Megadeth series on the Necro Files. All the posts of the series are listed below:
Track listing
- Wake Up Dead
- The Conjuring
- Peace Sells
- Devil's Island
- Good Mourning/Black Friday
- Bad Omen
- I Ain't Superstitious (Willie Dixon)
- My Last Words
- Wake Up Dead (Randy Burns Mix)
- The Conjuring (Randy Burns Mix)
- Peace Sells (Randy Burns Mix)
- Good Mourning/Black Friday (Randy Burns Mix)
Personell
- David Ellefson: background vocals; bass guitar.
- Dave Mustaine: lead vocals; guitar.
- Chris Poland: guitar.
- Ed Repka: cover artwork.
- Gar Samuelson: drums.
Rating
2 comments:
Have you seen http://www.metalgoogle.com/ yet?
A classic album cover. It's a nice touch that the revisit Vic standing outside of a destroyed UN building on the cover of United Abominations and shows the timelessness of Peace Sells.
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