Los Angeles, CA · thrash metal

Megadeth

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Mustaine's farewell campaign — thrash's most venomous catalog, one last ride through 'Peace Sells' and four decades of grudges.

Megadeth formed in Los Angeles in 1983, after guitarist and vocalist Dave Mustaine was dismissed from Metallica shortly before that band recorded its debut album, following substance-abuse problems and conflict with James Hetfield. Mustaine had already helped write early Metallica songs such as 'Ride the Lightning' and 'Phantom Lord', and vowed to build a band faster and heavier than the one that let him go.

The band became one of the central acts of American thrash metal, ranked alongside Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax as one of its 'big four', and is credited with helping shape the genre's early sound. Mustaine's snarled vocals, dense twin-guitar arrangements and lyrics fixed on politics, war and personal grievance are the group's signature.

Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! appeared on Combat Records in 1985 with modest success, enough to draw major-label interest and a deal with Capitol. Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? followed in 1986 and made the band's name in the underground metal scene, despite substance abuse and internal disputes that brought negative press through the decade's end.

Further platinum-selling records followed, including So Far, So Good... So What!, Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction and Youthanasia, extending the group's reach considerably through the early 1990s. The band has earned twelve Grammy nominations and won its first, for the song 'Dystopia', in 2017. In 2026 the self-titled Megadeth became the band's seventeenth and final studio album, and its first to top the Billboard 200.

The line-up has changed many times over four decades, with Mustaine the constant. The band briefly disbanded in 2002 after Mustaine injured his arm, reforming in 2004 without longtime bassist David Ellefson, who returned in 2010 and was fired in 2021; the current line-up includes bassist James LoMenzo, guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari and drummer Dirk Verbeuren. Live, the band draws heavily on its early catalogue, played at speed with the technical detail intact.

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thrash metal