Peace Sells from 1986 was probably my first encounter with Megadeth. This was during an era where MTV still was a thing and still focused on music videos. The video for Peace Sells took me by storm. I don’t know why, it wasn’t the best video ever. I’ve always liked the music videos to be a little more than live concert images. Think in the lines of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. A story to be told.
As far as I remember the music video for Peace Sells had its fair share of live performances, but it also had symbolic imagery enhancing the lyrics. I remember an exploding handshake. Plus that Dave Mustaine really had an attitude delivering the lyrics. That stuck with me and of course the album found its way to my collection eventually.
I like it! But if you boil it down it’s essentially that one song. Of course there are other great songs on there as well, like Devil’s Island or Wake up Dead but it never really reached the same level for me. There’s also a cover of I Ain’t Superstitious that I like but it being a cover should disqualify it in one way or another.
I think this is the start of the lyrical style that has always been Mustaine’s thing. Very political and not really the usual Metal lyric if you pardon the expression. He always had something to say with the lyrics and the music is also, to my ears, pretty complex. Not structurewise maybe, but it seems obvious already in 1986 that Mustaine was an extraordinary guitarist. It’s no coincidence that he always ends up on lists of the best metal guitarists of all time.
But as much as I love some of the songs, it’s a little bit top heavy and there are those few songs that raise the others. If they all had the same melodic hit quality this would be a fantastic album but I don’t really think that is the case. So, as a whole, It’s good, but not really as fantastic as it could have been.
