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Rust In Peace
The Ellefson/Mustaine/Behler/Young lineup didn't last for another album, as Dave had predicted. Once they got
back into the studio, Jeff told Dave that he wanted the next album to be called "No Warning," which was ironic
since almost just after that, Dave kicked him and Chuck out of the band with almost no warning. Now, it was
just Dave, Jr., and Nick, although Nick didn't officially join until June of 1989; about seven months after
the breakup. Before joining as the drum tech for Chuck, Nick had also had jobs as a construction worker and
as a drummer for some country/western band. I would like to say that I would like to hear the work of that
band, but I'm not sure that I actually would, judging by the country/western music that I have heard. However
, that hardly matters.Anyway, the first work of this lineup was an Alice Cooper cover for the "Shocker"
soundtrack. This was recorded in January of 1990. The song, No More Mr. Nice Guy is the only available
Megadeth song recorded by just three people. The track was very popular, and was sold on a variety of singles
which, in the U.K., made it to the 13 position on the singles billboard. With this to help support, the band
in the off-time, the band was in a very good position. And things kept on getting better. In February, Marty
Friedman came in to fill the vacant position in the band. Marty had been in a band called Hawii in the early 80's.
Hawii had three or four releases:
1)Aloha ( either an album or a song ) ( 198x )
2)One Nation Underground ( 1983 )
3)Loud, Wild And Heavy ( 1984 )
4)The Natives Are Restless ( 1985 )
When he came to Megadeth, Marty had just come from Cacaphony, which he was in with Jason Becker and three other
people. But when Jason was diagnosed with Lou Gherig's disease in early 1990, the band broke up with two albums out:
1) Go Off! ( 198x )
2) Speed Metal Symphony ( 1989 )
Over the past few years he has put out a few solo albums, but when he first came to Megadeth, he only had one out:
Dragon's Kiss ( 1989 )
Once all positions had been filled, things went quickly. Even though at one point, Marty either broke or sprained
one of his arms, the recording continued ( an amazing feat on Marty's behalf ). The album soon grew to be very
powerful and cover a variety of topics such as war, relationships, government, and ( in the image of traditional
steriotypical heavy metal ), dark magic. Many consider the album which this effort went into is the best Megadeth
album, if not the best heavy metal album of all time. This, as you might expect, is quite a compliment to the band.
In September of 1990, the Holy Wars single was unleashed in various formats. Surprisingly, this powerful song
didn't make it past number 24 on the U.K. singles billboard. This could have been a reprocussion from the different
sound of SF, SG...SW! which may have turned some fans away from Megadeth. Whatever the case is, number 24 is far
from bad so lets move on from that. Finally, the long anticipated release of Megadeth's fourth album arrived on
September 24th, 1990. It had been close to three years since So Far, So Good... So What!, and the metal world was
craving some new Megadeth. Rust In Peace easily satisfied this craving. Great guitar work from Marty and Dave,
creative and well-done bass by Jr., a great introductory display by Nick, and very powerful lyrics propelled
this album up to number 8 on the U.K. billboard... a great achievement for any metal band. As another great
honour, Megadeth was invited to preform in the "Clash Of The Titans" tour, which put them alongside Testament
and Slayer ( no great reunion special event with Kerry though ), and at the KRRANG! magazine 10th aniversary
celebration in London. Hangar 18 was released as the next single, and surprisingly although this is a very
powerful song and one which is one of the top five requested by fans, it didn't get past number 26 on the U.K.
billboard singles chart. The world tour which followed, the "Oxidation Of The Nations" tour, with supporting
bands Alice In Chains and The Almighty was completely sold out... another great compliment to the band's hard
work. This tour additionally helped to promote Alice In Chains to their current standings in the music scene...
but I haven't heard much about The Almighty recently, if ever. As another bonus, the Rusted Pieces video was
released with almost all of Megadeth's videos up until that time; Peace Sells, Wake Up Dead, In My Darkest
Hour, Anarchy In the U.K., Hangar 18 ( with the Dawn Partol intro ) and Holy Wars. The only video left out
was No More Mr. Nice Guy. Between the songs, there are also short interviews with the band ( most of them are
just with Dave and Jr. but the ones from RIP are with the whole band ) which provide some insight into the
videos which follow them. And as a promotional item for the album, the "Maximum Megadeth" promotional album
which featured a cross-selection of the band's work up until that time ( Peace Sells, In My Darkest Hour,
Holy Wars, Wake Up Dead, Hook In Mouth, and Lucretia ), and included a few live tracks from the Clash Of The
Titans tour as well ( Hangar 18 and Anarchy In The U.K. ). But best of all; there were no line changes at
this time!!! Some people didn't think that it could be done, but Megadeth finally didn't change its and would
even go on to record at least three more albums ( to date ) with this lineup, which I consider to be very fortunate.
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