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Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?
After Killing Is My Business, Megadeth went back into the studio and resolved not to use their money from
Combat to buy anything but recording equipment and time. Randy Burns was given over to them to be the new
Producer of the album. I don't think that the band had much choice in this matter. This time, by being
careful, Megadeth was able to turn out a high-quality album, Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? Although the
band was signed to Combat, Capitol Records came across a recording of some of Megadeth's work, and quickly
bought the rights to it from Combat in November of 85, when the band was just entering the studio ( where
they also lived the whole time while the album was being recorded; they couldn't afford housing. But that
wasn't going to be a problem any more; this was to be the first of many albums which sold extremely well.
Even though KIMB...ABIG! isn't for everyone, it still had problems with circulation; a small lable like
Combat isn't able to pump out thousands of copies of an album, while a larger one like Capitol is. And that
became very useful for the band when, after its release on September 19th, 1986, the album soon went gold in
several countries and the Peace Sells ( title track ) video was immensely popular in the U.S. and Canada
( it was banned in the U.K. since people thought that it would cause "fits of frenzy"). The other video off
of the album, Wake Up Dead, also received a great reception, and a single was made for it. Additionally the
idea of the video -- the band playing fenced in a large cage, with fans all around [ and clinging to the
sides of, and on top of ] the cage -- was copied by Nine Inch Nails for some video, and probably by some
other band as well. Now, Megadeth was able to headline their own tour, the "Wake Up Dead" tour during which
they played with Necros, Overkill, Testament, Heathen, and possibly others. In March of 1987, Megadeth played
at the Hammersmith Odeon, in the UK, which was great because it was a great promotion and also a great
compliment to the band. Obviously, after such a great reception, Capitol was eager to follow Peace Sells
up with another album, so the band was felt very secure with their label.
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