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Honourable Mention 3: Peace Sells...But Who's Buying—Megadeth

Alright, so I am evil¹ and inconsistent and decided to expand the Honourable Mention list to Eleven. So shoot me.

Honourable Mention 3: Peace Sells, But Who’s Buying—Megadeth Total Score = 9

Scoring rationale: 8 points for the song + 1 point for social/cultural matters = 9

MegaDave when he was still angry. Indeed, angry for being kicked out of Metallica² and angry at the world at large. Such a state of mind often produces the best metal, with razor-sharp lyrics. Which were then ‘rewarded’ with a ‘Parental Advisory’ sticker³.

Like Rage Against the Machine? Aargh! I think Mike Muir had something to say about that.

Then what socially critical metal do you mean? Queensryche’s “Operation Mindcrime”, Corrosion of Conformity’s “Blind”, the debut album of Damn the Machine, Lard’s “The Last Temptation of Reid”, Nevermore’s “The Politics of Ecstasy”, Pain of Salvation’s “One Hour by the Concrete Lake”, the first three Warrior Soul abums, and quite a few Threshold songs.

Back to Megadeth then. While the Megadeth of the first two albums was often raw and aggressive, they gradually moved to more melodic yet more complex material—as Nick Menza and Marty Friedman joined—until they achieved major success with “Countdown to Exctinction” and “Youthanasia”. By that time, Dave Mustaine was a born again Christian.

So no more sheer heaviness like “The Conjuring”? That’s because it’s about black magic, so Mustaine won’t play it anymore, or possibly change the lyrics, “as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody.”

Do say: The new Mustaine is a pillar of society.

Don’t say: Hey Dave, whatever happened to “Anarchy in the UK⁴”?

🤘🤘🤘

1. Paraphrase of Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil”, which most metalheads know as a Metallica cover from their Garage Days;

2. Which he only recently (July 3, after 40 years) forgave them;

3. Which mostly helped increase the sales of an album, so there were plenty of bands who intentionally included a few cuss words in order to get that sticker;

4. Which Megadeth originally played as their live cover. The new Dave is not gonna sing “I am an antichrist.”;