Megadeth - 'Rust in Peace,' 1990

Dave Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica for his unrepenting drunkenness in the late 1980s, years before that band went on to become superstars and the group perhaps most synonymous with heavy metal as a genre.

From the ashes of his failed partnership with the future stars, Mustaine formed his own group led firmly by his singular vision to challenge Metallica and all the others in a wave of faster, heavier and more intricate metal music that came to be known as thrash in the early 1990s.

Famously demanding and hard to work with through multiple battles with heroin addiction, Mustaine’s new group went through several lineup changes before the classic personnel that came together for 1990’s “Rust in Peace,” the band’s fourth album. It’s a well-known pinnacle of the group that would become one of the “Big Four” of thrash alongside Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax throughout the ‘90s.

Metallica’s songs connected with fans on a broader scale, creating an almost pop-star level of stardom, Slayer’s lyrics and imagery evoked the darkest, most Satanic personality and Anthrax’s take on thrash was probably the best suited for a party.

Megadeth’s power was in its musicianship: the intricacy of the guitar parts and time signatures. The songs on “Rust in Peace” are all perfect examples of the group at its peak, effortless flowing through different sections of the complex song structures with Mustaine leading the way on rhythm guitar.

He’s joined by lead guitarist Marty Friedman, whose blistering solos take every song to a level unachievable by the other three thrash titans. The second track “Hangar 18” sees Mustaine and Friedman switch off on solos for about five minutes straight, while the rhythm section of long-time bassist David Ellefson and drummer Nick Menza magically keep pace with the guitar gods through the chaotic shifts.

The classic Megadeth lineup recorded "Rust in Peace" in 1990.

But the genius of Mustaine’s rhythm guitar is fully on display in the third song “Take No Prisoners.” His razor-sharp picking slices through the air waves, creating the perfect basis for the rest of the band’s heavy metal assault.

And even through all the exhausting and complex arrangements, Mustaine manages to convey his lyrical disgust with the current state of the world, at least in 1990, as the U.S. was just getting past the Cold War, and the threat of nuclear weapons and the apocalypse was still fresh in mind.

The darkest lyrics are likely in the title track that closes the album, “Rust in Peace…Polaris.” In this song, Mustaine describes a rotten, disease-ridden world where not even the nuclear bombs are viable – a commentary aimed at showing the failed result of humanity’s trajectory toward war.

The bridge:

“I spread disease like a dog, discharge my payload.

“A mile high, rotten egg air of death wrestles your nostrils.”

Followed by the chorus:

“Launch the Polaris.

“The end doesn't scare us.

“When will this cease?

“The warheads will all rust in peace.”

This political commentary is also evident on the cover of the record, which shows a group of world leaders, including then-U.S. President George H.W. Bush alongside Mikhail Gorbachev and Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu, in an apparently secret airplane hangar viewing the body of an extra-terrestrial life form.

There would be more drug relapses, break ups and commercial and critical failures from Megadeth in the decades since “Rust in Peace” as Mustaine kept the band active with its latest album “The Sick, The Dying…And The Dead!” released in 2022.  

But “Rust in Peace” will always be known as Megadeth at their heaviest, complex and thematically rich as it blasts through the speakers leaving the listener’s brains dripping down the wall.

Personnel:

Vocals, rhythm guitar: Dave Mustaine

Bass: David Ellefson

Lead guitar: Marty Friedman

Drums: Nick Menza