Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
The Megadeth debut album Killing Is My Business ... and Business Is Good! was probably one of the most eagerly awaited debut albums of the decade, largely due to Dave Mustaine's much documented and unceremonious departure from Metallica a few years earlier. As I stated in the Kill 'Em All review I'm not going to go on at length about how Dave Mustaine was chucked out of Metallica, as both the internet and the music press are literally littered with thousands of articles about this controversial passing. Needless to say Dave Mustaine was burning with rage after his departure from Metallica and swore revenge and quickly decided to form the suitably named Megadeth (its name typo is its charm) and it was obvious that Megadeth were going to be good, because not only was Dave Mustaine a fantastic guitarist, he also just happened to be responsible for some of the best material on those early Metallica albums which had been co-written with Dave Mustaine. Frontman Dave Mustaine quickly decided on principal vocal duties for the new band, after failing to find a suitable vocalist (something that has often happened with many a rock band) and along with David Ellefson a young bassist who he bumped into and took under his wing, the two would forge the Megadeth project in a short period of time. The real dynamic of the band though would come with the hiring of Chris Poland-guitar and Gar Samuelson-drums, and with these two coming from a jazz-fusion background rather than a metal one it would give the band its own unique dynamic. In fact the Megadeth line-up at this time kind of reminds me of how Led Zeppelin were formed, because its members had also come from different musical backgrounds giving the Led Zeppelin its own special dynamic. A good point of note here is about how Gar Samaulson auditioned for the band, the story is that he arrived completely out of it and in a zombified state, but the moment he was put on the drum stool he shot to life and was all flying arms and hair, and was instantly hired by Dave Mustaine. From the word go Megadeth differed from the other thrash bands and went in for a technical metal sound that was essentially based around speed over heaviness, and it was a style that suited the playing ability of its talented components. The sound of the Megadeth debut is best described as being both raw and chaotic and topically it covers a number of interesting themes, which are mostly highlighted by Dave Mustaine's humour a la the Stormtroopers of Death and on the album Dave Mustaine puts a lot of the time into some of the songs with exaggerated comments and panting for example. Album opener "Last Rites/Loved to Deth" starts with a piano intro that quickly gives the impression that this could be a Yngwie Malmsteen effort especially with its quasi-classical tones, but that aspect is quickly shushed aside with the unorthodox guitar riffs of the band and Dave Mustaine`s strangled vocal style in a song supposedly about love. The title track "Killing Is My Business ... and Business Is Good!" is a song about the comic book character The Punisher (covering Anthrax territory here) and the track is highlighted by strong sriffs, great rhythm guitar and drumming. The previous song and "The Skull Beneath the Skin" which covers torture and black magic are highlighted by some amazing guitar work by Chris Poland the single star turn on the album, despte the fact that Dave Mustaine covers the majority of the guitar solos here. "Rattlehead" along with the previous song is also about the band's mascot Vic Rattlehead (most good metal bands had one) and turns out to be Megadeth at their most catchy and mosh sounding, and again with precise riffing that can put others into touch. "Chosen Ones" is surprisingly influenced by Monty Python, which when thinking about it shouldn't be a surprise given Dave Mustaine's wacky sense of humour and features a rare Dave Ellefson bass solo. The start of "Looking Down the Cross" features some quasi-Sabbath sounding doom and as the title suggests it's about Jesus Christ and probably the most accomplished track on the album and probably my favourite. The final track "Mechanix" is a revamp of the Metallica song "The Four Horseman" but much faster, which in turn is based on an original version of the song that was penned by Dave Mustaine when he was in Metallica. The contrast between the two songs often provokes debate between Megadeth and Metallica fans over the best version of the song, personally I easily prefer the Metallica version here and never much cared for "Mechanix" despite Dave Mustaine's guitar solo. Some versions of the album come with Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots" which as far as I'm concerned is just one of many dubious Megadeth cover choices that would happen over ensuing years. The Megadeth debut album's only real low point comes in the shape of its cringe worthy album cover, which is bad even by the NWOBHM standards and that genre certainly had more than its fair share of bad album covers, and even the band members pretty much hated it as well. Killing Is My Business ... and Business Is Good! would end up being one of the signature thrash metal albums all with its own unique primitive characteristics. The meat of the album reveals the raw and daring style of Dave Mustaine, who preferred agressive chaos over the agressive order and heaviness that some of the other leading thrash bands like Metallica and Slayer had gone in for. The former being progressive and the latter being heavier here of course, but none of these bands reached the more chaotic style of Megadeth who were instantly recognizable with Dave Mustaine's strangled vocal style. Around this time Dave Mustaine was something of a Nae'blis in metal circles and anybody that has managed to wade through Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time saga will know what that phrase means. After this album Megadeth would soon step into the wider commerical metal market in just a few albums time and form the legendary Big Four`of thrash with the already mentioned Metallica, Slayer and the lighter-minded Anthrax making up this honoured quartet.

Dave Mustaine- Guitar/Vocals
Chris Poland- Guitar
David Ellefson- Bass
Gar Samuelson- Drums

Production- Dave Mustaine

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