News Segment

MEGADETH PLANS REISSUES, NEW ALBUM:

June 3, 2004

NEW YORK (Billboard) – All seven studio albums recorded by thrash metal band Megadeth during its tenure with Capitol Records will be re-released by the label on July 27.

The reissues will precede the release of a new, as-yet-untitled Megadeth album. Due Sept. 14 via Sanctuary, the set will feature “Kick the Chair,” a track founder/guitarist Dave Mustaine recently leaked online to give fans a taste of what’s to come.

The volley of revamped albums will consist of 1986’s “Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?,” 1988’s “So Far So Good So What,” 1990’s “Rust in Peace,” 1992’s “Countdown to Extinction,” 1994’s “Youthanasia,” 1997’s “Cryptic Writings” and 1999’s “Risk.” Capitol will also reissue 1996’s “The Craving,” a one-off side project involving Mustaine and Fear’s Lee Ving, which originally appeared on the Slab label, under the name MD.45.

Five of the albums appeared in the top 30 of The Billboard 200, with “Countdown to Extinction” debuting a career-best No. 2. The set has sold 2.2 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Mustaine remixed, remastered and restored each album, all of which will feature previously unreleased tracks as well as demos and alternate mixes, and newly penned liner notes.

“You know, it wasn’t really hard when I first opened up the very first drive to roll up my sleeves and think, ‘This is gonna be great,”‘ Mustaine said. “But as the project rolled on and the difficulties started to accumulate, I began to get a little nervous. When I got to stuff like (the ‘Rust in Peace’ track) ‘Take No Prisoners,’ and it was 2 o’clock in the morning and we find out that the vocal track is gone, I was pretty freaked out.”

After leaving Capitol, the band signed to Sanctuary and released the 2001 studio album “The World Needs a Hero,” which debuted at No. 16 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 212,000 copies. A live album, “Rude Awakening,” followed in 2002.

The new set will be Megadeth’s first since the April 2002 announcement that Mustaine was disbanding the group following a serious accident in early 2002. At the time, it was unknown if severe nerve damage in his left arm would leave him able to perform again.

“I think that it has come full circle back to the aggressive, political cynical lyrics and aggressive guitar riffing that I am famous — or infamous — for,” a now healed Mustaine said. “I feel something very similar to when I first started out when I hear this new record.”

Mustaine also makes a tearful cameo in “Some Kind of Monster,” a documentary about his former band Metallica, which opens in theaters on July 9.

Barry A. Jeckell courtesy of Billboard