Deadliest Cuts: The Top Five Megadeth Songs

The new album from thrash-metal legends Megadeth, TH1RT3EN (Roadrunner), hits stories today. To celebrate their return, we share with you our picks for the top five Megadeth songs.

“Mechanix”
Album: Killing Is My Business…and Business Is Good!
Written by Dave Mustaine before he joined Metallica, this song evolved into “The Four Horsemen.”
Sample lyric: “Made my drive shaft crank/Made my pistons bulge/Made my ball bearing melt from the heat.”

“Peace Sells”
Album: Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?
A classic marriage of chugga-chugga riffing and anti-establishment thinking.
Sample lyric: “If there’s a new way/I’ll be the first in line/But, it better work this time.”

“Hook in Mouth”
Album: So Far, So Good…So What!
Mustaine hoped to raise political consciousness among headbangers with this pointed assault on the Parents Music Resource Center (P.M.R.C.)
Sample lyric: “Put your hand right up my shirt/Pull the strings that make me work/Jaws will part, words fall out/Like a fish, with hook in mouth.”

“Tornado of Souls”
Album: Rust in Peace
Fresh out of rehab, Mustaine looks ahead to better days.
Sample lyric: “My future looks so bright/Now I think I’ve seen the light.”

“Foreclosure of a Dream”
Album: Countdown to Extinction
The losing-it-all theme is probably better suited to embattled farmers than maniacal metalheads, but the song still rocks.
Sample lyric: “To leave ain’t believing, so try and be tried/Insufficient funds, insanity and suicide.”

Photo by Travis Shinn