Megadeth - "Killing is My Business... And Business is Good!"

Megadeth - Killing is My Business... And Business is Good!
1985/2002, Loud

1. Last Rites/Loved to Death
2. Killing is My Business... And Business is Good
3. The Skull Beneath the Skin
4. Rattlehead
5. Chosen Ones
6. Looking Down the Cross
7. Mechanix
8. These Boots
Bonus Tracks
9. Last Rites/Loved to Death (Demo)
10. Mechanix (Demo)
11. The Skull Beneath the Skin (Demo)

Killing is My Business is probably one of those albums I would have loved if I would have heard it back in '85. Now, however? Well, everyone knows the Megadeth story. After Dave Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica he started Megadeth with the intent on being the fastest, most dangerous band around. Killing perfectly captures this attitude as the songs are fast and furious. Unfortunately to someone who's been used to Rust in Peace and on, it also sounds sloppy and frantic. Even in the opening number, "Last Rites/Loved to Death" it's kind of hard to get a bead on the rhythm at first. There's not too much in the way of hooks either. It's literally Dave and co. just thrashing through the songs as hard as they can. I will say that I prefer "Mechanix" over "The Four Horseman" (It's the same song, by the way, only Megadeth's is pervy). There's also a cover of "These Boots" but for some reason they decided to bleep out any swearing Dave added to the song...which is a LOT. Which means half of the song is beeps - very annoying. This is a reissue so it's been remastered. Having never heard the original I can't say how this improves the sound but I'm sure that it does. There's also some bonus tracks that I never listened to because I don't generally care about demos. While it's good to hear how this band (which remains one of my favorites) got its start, I don't think I will be going back to this album as much as their later stuff.

Useless Fact: According to the liner notes the cover pictured is the one they really wanted at first. They were really disappointed with the original cover.