Rust in Peace is the fourth studio album by American thrash metal band Megadeth.
It was released on October 2, 1990 by Capitol Records and was produced by Mike
Clink. Following the departure of Jeff Young and Chuck Behler in 1989, Rust in
Peace is the first album to feature guitarist Marty Friedman and drummer
Nick Menza. Rust in Peace received universal acclaim
by fans and critics, and was responsible for bringing Megadeth to the attention
of a mainstream metal audience. It has been cited as one of the best thrash
metal records of all time by publications such as Decibel and
Kerrang! and listed as one of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The
album was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 33rd Grammy Awards.
Two singles were released from the album: "Hangar 18" and "Holy Wars... The
Punishment Due", which have become staples of the band's live performances.
Rust in Peace features complex musical structures and lyrical themes such as
nuclear war and UFOs. The album's cover art references "Hangar 18". A remixed
and remastered version featuring four bonus tracks was released in 2004. In
2010, the band announced a North American tour to commemorate the album's
20th anniversary. The performance at the Hollywood Palladium was filmed and
released as Rust in Peace Live on CD, DVD and Blu-ray later that year.
Background and production In 1988, Megadeth appeared at the
Monsters of Rock festival at Donington Park in the UK, alongside Iron Maiden,
Kiss, Helloween, Guns N' Roses, and David Lee Roth. The band performed to an
audience of more than 100,000 people and was soon added to the "Monsters of
Rock" European tour, but dropped out after the first show due to bassist
David Ellefson's drug problems. Further issues within the band caused frontman
and guitarist Dave Mustaine to fire drummer Chuck Behler and guitarist Jeff
Young, and canceled their scheduled 1988 Australian tour. Nick Menza, previously
Behler's drum tech, was hired as the band's new drummer. The search for a new
guitarist was a drawn out process; Mustaine examined a number of guitarists
for the job, including Dimebag Darrell of Pantera, who was initially offered
the job before declining. According to Mustaine, one of the last guitarists he
had heard about, Marty Friedman, had sent him a copy of Dragon's Kiss, on
which Friedman played. Upon listening to the record, Mustaine had Friedman come
in to audition and hired him. This would become the band's first stable line-up.
The title "Rust in Peace" was inspired by a bumper sticker that Mustaine saw on
the back of a vehicle while driving home from Lake Elsinore, California. The
sticker read: 'May all your nuclear weapons rust in peace'. Mustaine liked
the concept and decided to use it as a title for Megadeth's upcoming album.
Rust in Peace was recorded in Rumbo Studios with producer Mike Clink, while
the mixing was handled by Max Norman. Clink was brought in for his work in
both Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction and UFO's Strangers in the
Night. The producer's work dealt mostly with the bass, drums and Friedman's
guitar. In a 2002 interview, Mustaine declared that they "really didn’t make
the record with [Clink]" as at the time he was focused on Guns N' Roses' Use
Your Illusion I and II — which were also being recorded at Rumbo — and stated
most of the work in the album was done by himself, Norman, and engineer Micajah
Ryan. The album artwork was created by artist
Ed Repka, who previously had done the cover for Peace Sells... but Who's
Buying? in 1986. It references "Hangar 18", and depicts band mascot Vic
Rattlehead and world leaders of the era viewing an alien body. The depicted
world leaders, right to left, are U.S. President George H.W. Bush, Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev, West German President Richard von Weizsäcker,
Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu and British Prime Minister John Major.
In addition to creating the album's cover, Repka also supplied artwork for
the album's two singles. Composition
Rust in Peace features songs with multiple sections, shifting time
signatures and intricate guitar performance, and is sometimes described
as having a progressive style. In this regard, the album has been compared with
Metallica's 1988 album, ...And Justice for All, also noted for its technical
complexity. Additionally, the album features multiple lyrical themes:
religion, politics and warfare, as well as Mustaine's personal issues, such as
his fight against drug and alcohol addiction, UFO conspiracy theories and
even the Marvel Comics character Punisher.
The opening song, "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" finds its thematic
inspiration derived from the Northern Ireland conflict, in which the largely
Catholic nationalist community were in conflict with the mainly Protestant
loyalist community over the sovereignty of the six counties of Northern Ireland.
Mustaine has said that at a show in Antrim, Northern Ireland, he discovered
bootlegged Megadeth T-shirts were on sale. He was dissuaded from taking
action to have them removed on the basis that they were part of fund raising
activities for "The Cause", explained as something to bring equality to Catholics
and Protestants in the region. Liking how "The Cause" sounded as was explained
to him, Mustaine dedicated a performance of "Anarchy in the U.K." to it, causing
the audience to riot. The band were forced to travel in a bulletproof bus
after the show. This incident, along with Marvel's Punisher, inspired
Mustaine to write the song. "Rust in Peace... Polaris", addresses
the topic of nuclear warfare, with "Polaris" referring to the Cold War-era
Lockheed UGM-27 Polaris intercontinental ballistic missile. Mustaine has revealed
that the song, originally titled "Child Saint", was one of his earlier
compositions, having been written before his tenure with Metallica. Menza
proposed the concept for "Hangar 18", a song about UFO conspiracies and Area 51.
Musically, the song features twin guitar solos after the verse.
Release and reception Rust in Peace was released on September
24, 1990, and debuted at number 23 on the Billboard 200, becoming Megadeth's
highest charting album up to that point. In 1994, the album was certified
platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipping one
million copies in the United States. Rust in Peace, along with the rest of
Megadeth's Capitol-released studio albums, was remixed and remastered in
2004. Four bonus tracks were added: a previously unreleased song entitled "My
Creation", and three demos of songs on the album featuring guitarist Chris
Poland. Upon release, the album received
widespread critical acclaim. Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune called it Megadeth's
most accomplished album, praising its "instrumental virtuosity, thoughtful
lyricism and punkish rage". AllMusic's Steve Huey also named the album "easily
Megadeth's strongest musical effort". While noting that the entire record is
consistently impressive, Huey picked "Hangar 18" as the "obvious highlight".
Jason Birchmeier, reviewing the album's 2004 rerelease for AllMusic, observed
that the record was a big step forward for the band. However, he criticized the
album for being "too consistent" and noted that many of the songs were
"sounding overly similar to one another".
Robert Palmer of Rolling Stone wrote that the album is demonstration of how
far the "nasty speed thrash" concept can go without being "formulaic and boring".
Reviewing the album for Entertainment Weekly, Jim Farber described the music
as "sheer velocity, combined with dexterity" and Mustaine's lyrics as
"nihilistic whimsy". Mike Stagno from Sputnikmusic agreed that the songwriting
was "top notch" on the album, as well as the fast and technical musicianship. He
also spoke highly of Friedman's and Mustaine's guitar performance, calling
them "one of the most potent duos in the scene".
Spin reviewer Tom Nordlie praised the album, deeming it a "mature, complex,
surprisingly consonant and sparely produced album", and concluded that Rust
in Peace "never sleeps". Music journalist Kim Cooper also noted the
album's maturity and wrote that Rust in Peace "transcended the hard rock genre
and raised the bar to a whole new level". Another positive reaction came
from Rock Hard, whose writer Holger Stratmann stated that the record was
"pure Megadeth", filled with "razor sharp guitars" and "snotty vocals".
Legacy and influence In retrospective analysis, Rust in Peace
has been cited as having a large impact on its genre. Heavy metal magazine
Decibel labeled the album as a "genre-defining work", while Kerrang!
wrote that the record "set a new standard for heavy metal in the 90s".
IGN named Rust in Peace the fourth most influential heavy metal album of all
time, commenting that the album "displays Dave Mustaine's finest writing
ever". Additionally, Martin Popoff ranked it eleventh among the best heavy
metal albums of all time. In a reader poll organized by MusicRadar in 2010,
Rust in Peace was voted as the sixth best metal album ever. The MusicRadar
staff explained that the record saw Megadeth moving "into the big league",
while staying true to their intricate sound and lyricism. In a list compiled
by Chad Bowar of About.com, Rust in Peace was placed as the best heavy metal
album of the 1990s and named a "thrash masterpiece". The album was nominated
for Best Metal Performance at the 33rd Grammy Awards.
The tracks "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" and "Hangar 18" have become staples
of Megadeth's live set, and are fan favorites. In 2010, the band announced a
22-show North American tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Rust in Peace.
The band performed the entire album at every show. Dates in South and Central
America were later added to the tour, due to positive response from fans. In
2010, Shout! Factory released a live recording filmed on the Hollywood
Palladium stop of the tour, entitled Rust in Peace Live. It was released on
September 7, 2010 in Blu-ray, CD and DVD formats, and debuted at number 161 on
the Billboard 200 and number two on the Billboard DVD charts.
Rust in Peace in its entirety was released as purchasable downloadable
content in the rhythm game Rock Band, a part of the their "Rust in Peace
Download Package". It was released a little more than a year after the
release of Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? on the game's download store. A
cover version of "Holy Wars" by Steve Ouimette was featured in Rock
Revolution. "Holy Wars" was also featured in Guitar Hero: Warriors of
Rock, while "Hangar 18" was featured in Guitar Hero II and as downloadable
content for Guitar Hero 5. Both songs have been described as amongst the most
difficult songs in the series' history. A sequel to "Hangar 18" titled "Return
to Hangar" later featured on Megadeth's ninth studio album, The World Needs a
Hero. It concludes the fictional narrative begun in "Hangar 18", where
the life forms said to be contained in "Hangar 18" come back to life and kill
those inside the building before escaping. Both songs have been played
back-to-back live, which can be heard on Rude Awakening and That One Night: Live
in Buenos Aires. Track listing
All songs written and composed by Dave Mustaine, except where noted.
Personnel Credits are adapted from the album's
liner notes. Charts
Certifications Accolades
References Bibliography
Cooper, Kim. Lost in the Grooves: Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music
You Missed. Routledge. ISBN 1-135-87921-4.
Kajzer, Jackie. Full Metal Jackie Certified: The 50 Most Influential Metal
Songs of the '80s. Cengage Learning. ISBN 1-4354-5569-X.
Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music: Lincoln,
Abe-Primettes. Guinness Publishing. ISBN 1-56159-176-9.
Mustaine, Dave. Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir. New York, New York, USA: Harper
Collins. ISBN 0-06-171437-2. Pillsbury, Glenn. Damage Incorporated:
Metallica and the Production of Musical Identity. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-97373-2.
Wagner, Jeff. Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal.
Bazillion Points Books. ISBN 0-9796163-3-6.
Walser, Robert. Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy
Metal Music. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6260-2.
External links Rust in Peace at Discogs