Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? (1986)

The other Megadeth album I reviewed, So Far, So Good... So What! was an odd reviewing experience for me. It's a mildly positive 4-star album, but those 4 stars were only for 5 of the 8 songs, with the other 3 being total jokes. The rating curve has improved since then, so the review for Megadeth's strong classic should be less confusing...

To say that this band is a joke would be blasphemy to any metal community, but fortunately, there's nothing in Megadeth's sacred highlight album Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? that can ever be considered a joke! Without the Big 4, the majority of the next generation of thrash wouldn't have existed. What can be considered a joke is the sh*t that band and Metallica released in the late 90s. Peace Sells... is what got Megadeth into the Big 4, though the success isn't as huge as Metallica's 3rd album that year.

Already proving itself to be as much of a classic as the Anthrax and Destruction albums I reviewed, the album starts with "Wake Up Dead". It's quite odd when the bass and drums enter, then the riffing, then the low drunken whisper-ish vocals of Mustaine. A solo comes in, along with differences in tempo. The riffing is not yet at its memorable stage but when it is, it closes that solo, then there's some more crushing riffing and thrashy soloing. Then a faster tempo, with crazier soloing, among pentatonic riffing. Then more of the crushing riffing and atonal leads. More memorable riffing, then Dave's vocals obviously tell a tale about a man being caught cheating on his girlfriend. And as if the structure can't get odder, it stops. Then the beat switches to a slow crushing pace with a vicious riff (makes me think of the intro for "THAT METAL INTERVIEW" videos) followed shortly by perhaps the greatest, darkest, most harmonic solo in the album, filled with anger and aggression. Finally, Mustaine keeps screaming the song title over that riffing ("WAKE UP DEAD!!!"). Quite an under 4-minute adventure, almost as adventurous as Sikth's "How May I Help You"! The insane "The Conjuring" doesn't work well in their attempt to imitate Slayer in the sinister intro. Still there's great thrash all over, when the song has more of the crazy tempos, riffing, and soloing.

The semi-title track, "Peace Sells" is quite simple compared to Metallica at that time. It spawned Megadeth's first music video (though "Wake Up Dead" would have its own video later). Getting into MTV was a big step in the band's popularity, though they're still behind Metallica. However, when Metallica released their first music video two years later, the subsequent high popularity caused that band to go a different direction and make the f***ing Black Album. On the other hand, Megadeth stayed with their style, but they probably shouldn't have gone the MTV route if they didn't want criticism in the long run. Anyway, it makes sense why that song was chosen. It's accessible while still thrashy. It's a true charm that shall be enjoyed! It's a great song that can be considered a classic or not. The lyrics work best for any metalhead wanting to flip off the system. "Devil's Island" thrashes though nice and straight. It starts as a slow crusher, then after some soft bass, it really speeds up. It's decent, but I wouldn't consider that one a favorite. And now for a true piece of art, the two-part, nearly the heavy dark 7-minute epic "Good Mourning/Black Friday". Here's a joke based on the first part's title and a Cartoon Network show: What did Uncle Grandpa say in a funeral? "Good Mourning!" (lol. Get it? Anyone?). Anyway, the track is quite extreme, almost catchy up with other American thrash bands, Teutonic thrash bands, and Sepultura. It starts in sinister doom, including a solo of f***ing dark emotion. After that creepy one-minute intro, the heaviness booms in, though with guitars sounding more clean than distorted. The solo ends, but the riffs are still clean. Dave comes in with his vocals. Then after asking "What the f*** is this?", BOOM!! The guitars and his voice rapidly ascend. Kick-A riffing and soloing go back and forth. The speed cruises and crushes keep until the end when the killer storm of madness makes a grinding halt. Not the right ending, but the rest of that track is so amazing!

"Bad Omen" is also dark, yet more of a regular song than an epic. It starts sinister, then goes heavy, than odd. A great thrasher all the same! The cover of "I Ain't Superstitious" by Willie Dixon... Well, it's better than the Sex Pistols cover in their next album, but C'MON, blues in thrash!? We should be grateful for blues spawning rock, rock spawning heavy metal, heavy metal spawning thrash. It's just that, the cover sounds too silly, but it still has slight goodness. The last song of the album is quite masterful, that one being "My Last Words", having sinister guitar in the intro evolving from clean to distorted. Soon the song goes as f***ing heavy and fast as speed/thrash metal. Despite being a unique standout, the song has some riff repetition through the two minutes that follow the one-minute intro. A bit annoying, and it's not until over the 3-minute mark when some new riffing of speed metal kicks in, going fast as f***. Adding to the redeeming insanity, a powerful solo of great melody is played. It ends with the last of that riffing with Dave's final repeated line of "You! Come on! Next victim! Your turn to die!" Ain't that a silly reminder of the lyrics based on Russian Roulette. Still, what a way to head out!

So there we have it, another 4.5-star thrash album classic! Peace Sells... is a great influential album from another master band of classic thrash. There's a bit of rough weakness in a couple songs, but they're easy to overlook so you can focus on this music that any fan of metal/thrash can't live without. With the young genius minds of Mustaine and crew, they know how work out their true charm. Well, it has often been suggested that their true charm isn't finalized until Rust in Peace, but I'm talking about the classic 80s thrash era here, an era that's part of my ultimate Pit test, a part that I just finished in the test, with this album of thrashy madness. A true classic winner!

Favorites: "Wake Up Dead", "Peace Sells", "Good Mourning/Black Friday", "My Last Words"