Fan Poll: Top 5 Megadeth Albums, Ranked From Worst to Best | Revolver

Fan Poll: Top 5 Megadeth Albums, Ranked From Worst to Best

Dave Mustaine's finest — and darkest — hours
megadeth 1988 GETTY, Ebet Roberts/Redferns
Megadeth, 1988
photograph by Ebet Roberts/Redferns

Megadeth turn 35 this year, a momentous milestone that inspired us to ask our fans and followers what Dave Mustaine and Co.'s best album has been over those three-and-a-half decades? You cast your votes on social media using the hashtag #TellRevolver; below are the ranked results.

5. Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!

Megadeth's 1985 debut album seethes with all the resentment, youthful bravado and vitriol that you'd expect from a dude that just got unceremoniously kicked out of Metallica for drunkenness on the eve of their breakout. Despite its raw production and shaky moments, Killing offered some redemption for Dave Mustaine — establishing Megadeth at the forefront of the thrash movement and hinting at good things to come. Fun fact: Mustaine was a co-writer of Metallica's 1983 epic "The Four Horsemen," and on Killing, Megadeth recorded their own seriously sped-up version of it dubbed "Mechanix." 

4. Youthanasia

Following up the commercial smash Countdown to Extinction was no walk in the park, but the band still issued another well-received LP with 1995's Youthanasia. Anchored by the greatest-hits worthy "A Tout Le Monde," the platinum-selling effort may have not kept the band in the hearts and minds of gen pop, but marked another memorable notch on the group's (bullet) belt.

3. Countdown to Extinction

Megadeth's most accessible (and accordingly, commercially successful) album to that point, Countdown to Extinction, signaled a stylistic sea change for Dave Mustaine and Co., with the band adding shout-along choruses and stadium-rock hooks to their steeled, aggro-laden template. Considering how it houses some of 'Deth's most streamlined, infectious songs to date — "Architecture of Agression," "Ashes in Your Mouth" and, of course, the immortal "Symphony of Destruction" — its place in the top five comes as no surprise.

2. Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?

The Megadeth that we have all have come to know blossomed on the band's second LP, Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? Politically-charged lyrics started to unfurl, and the look and feel of later Megadeth releases began to emerge, along with a pronounced step toward both more technicality and tighter songwriting. The Dave Mustaine that had emerged bruised post-Metallica was now a juggernaut on his own terms.

1. Rust in Peace

Between the firing of Jeff Young and Chuck Behler (Megadeth's drummer and guitarist respectively), Dave Mustaine's battles with addiction and the rampant breakup rumors, the four-year lead-up to Rust in Piece was a dark, uncertain time for Megadeth. This tumultuous backdrop — as well as the enlistment of talented axeman Marty Friedman and new drummer Nick Menza — rendered the band's ensuing comeback all the more stunning. Thus, over a quarter-century after its release, Rust in Piece's thrashterpiece reputation has yet to wane. And why would it? This LP's one for the history books, after all.