Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?

Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? is the second studio album by American heavy metal band Megadeth, released in October 1986. The project was originally handled by Combat Records, resulting in the first mix of the album by co-producer Randy Burns. Capitol Records then bought the rights to the album and another producer, Paul Lani, was hired to mix it himself. In 2004 the album was remixed and remastered by Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine, with extensive liner notes detailing the album's background. In 2011 the three different versions were reissued as part of the album's 25th anniversary celebration. All of them, besides the 2004 mixes, feature new remastering. Peace Sells... has been listed as one of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die and is highly regarded as a thrash metal classic. It is the last album to feature Gar Samuelson on drums, and the last until The System Has Failed to feature Chris Poland on lead guitar. (wiki) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ by Steve Huey Arguably Megadeth's strongest effort and a classic of early thrash, Peace Sells combines a punkish political awareness with a dark, threatening, typically heavy metal world-view, preoccupied with evil, the occult, and the like. The anthemic title track and "Wake Up Dead" are the two major standouts, and there is also a cover of Willie Dixon's "I Ain't Superstitious," which takes on an air of supernaturally induced paranoia in the album's context. The lines between hell and earth are blurred throughout the album, and the crashing, complex music backs up Dave Mustaine's apocalyptic vision of life as damnation -- his limited vocal style is used to great effect, growling and snarling in a barely intelligible fashion under all the complicated guitar work. Vital, necessary thrash.