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Hidden Treasures
After six albums and twelve years of existence, any band is certain to have a few songs which are just sort of
sitting around in the realm of the unreleased tracks. In 1995, Megadeth decided that it was time to unearth
these recordings and throw them all onto one album. Even though Megadeth has a surprisingly low number of
tracks which could be put onto such an album ( if a song isn't going to be done, they usually realize it before
recording it seriously ) there were enough to make this decision a good one to everyone except for collectors
such as myself who already had all the tracks and wanted to keep them rare. The first track is from the pre-Rust
In Peace days when Megadeth was just three people ( Dave, Jr., and Nick ). For the soundtrack to the film
"Shocker," directed by Wes Craven ( the Nightmare on Elmstreet guy ), the three of them recorded the Alice
Cooper song "No More Mr. Nice Guy," which was a big hit so a single was released for it along with other
songs from the soundtrack; Demon Bell, preformed by Dangerous Toys, and Different Breed, preformed by Dead On,
neither of which is very good. The second track is Breakpoint, from the soundtrack of the Super Mario Bros movie
( 1993 ). This one was recorded in in the studio along with the rest of Countdown To Extinction, but was not put
onto the album since it does not seem to fit with the rest of the songs. When the movie was in production and
Megadeth was approached by Hollywood Pictures for that type of song, they conveniently already had one completely
done. Even though the third track came out before Breakpoint, it somehow managed to take the 3rd position on the
album. This one was written in 1991 for an Orion movie which was origonally entitled "Bill and Ted Go To Hell"
but was then changed to "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey." But when told to write a song for Bill and Ted going to
Hell, they went strait to the point and wrote Go To Hell. This song is, in my mind, the hi-light of the Hidden
Treasures album. A video was made for the song as well, but MTV most likely banned it for one reason or another.
Both Breakpoint and Go To Hell also appear on the Japanese release of Countdown To Extinction. Angry Again is
next; it was released in 1993 on the Columbia Pictures film "Last Action Hero," with Arnold Schwarzenegger staring
in it. The film didn't do very well, but don't blame it on 'deth. An extremely edited version of the song is all
that appears, and is used as the intro to the movie of Arnold's character. If you haven't seen the movie, this
might not make sense to you so just trust me, as Arnold would say. A promo for the song was released as well,
with fairly cheesy cover artwork as you can see above. Track number 5 is from everybody's favorite freaks at MTV,
Beavis and Butthead. In 1993, MTV released a compilation, all of unreleased tracks, and called it "The Beavis and
Butthead Experience." And I must admit, it is a pretty good experience. The track by Megadeth, "99 Ways To Die,"
is of course the hi-light, but the rest isn't half bad. The song inspired a video and a promo, and was nominated
for a Grammy award or something like that, although they did not win. When Columbia was looking for bands to preform
on the compilation of Black Sabbath songs they wanted to put together, Megadeth volunteered their services and
covered Paraniod in 1994. The 12-track long disc, Nativity In Black: A Tribute To Black Sabbath, is quite excellent
and should definately be bought. Paraniod was nominated for a Grammy award as well, but it lost too. It appears as
track 6 on Hidden Treasures. Also in 1994, the first Tales From The Crypt movie, Demon Knight, was released, and
appropriately, Megadeth had the honor of appearing on another soundtrack. The song which came out of this, Diadems,
apparently appears slightly differently on the soundtrack than the way it does on Hidden Treasures; I personally
think that they were mixed differently but others say that the one on the soundtrack is a demo. Finally, in order
to make the whole EP worth it for collectors like me to buy, a completely unreleased song was put on as the eighth
and final track. Problems has an interesting story behind it, which you can read in the So Far, So Good... So What!
section. It wasn't recorded until 1995 when the EP was released. The European release date for the album was March
14th, while we in America had to wait until July 17th to buy it domestically; of course I'd already had it for
about three months at about three times the price. The English release came in a 2-CD set with Youthanasia and a
special card redeemable for an aftershow pass at any of the shows in England. The Japanese version cames with the
three demos from Countdown To Extinction and A Tout Le Monde for no particular reason.
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