One of the original pioneers of modern metal is without a doubt, Megadeth. After getting the boot from Metallica in 1983, Dave Mustaine founded what became one of the most influential Speed Metal bands of all time. With Dave Ellefson on bass, Kerry King of Slayer as the second axe (till a full time guitarist could be found) and Lee Rausch on drums Megadeth was formed. A year later the lineup temporary settled down to Gar Samuelson on drums and Chris Poland inheriting the second guitar duty's from King.

Megadeth's first album "Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!" contained some crossover riffs from Metallica's "Kill 'em all" due to Mustaine's co-writing status on that album, but also demonstrated a taste of what was yet to come. The songs Last Rites, Looking down the cross and Mechanix all contained great guitar work. This would be the last of the similarity's between the two bands.

The next album "Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?" released in 1986 was a major step in that it showed Mustaine was not content to live in the shadow of his former band. His playing and composition skills were improving rapidly. His trademark aggressive, edge of control solo's started started peaking out in songs such as "Wake up dead", "Good Mourning/Black Friday" and the title track "Peace sells". At the end of the Wake up dead tour, Poland and Samuelson were relieved of their respective positions and the band was again without a second guitar and drummer.

1987 saw Jeff Young and Chuck Behler enter the band and in early 89 they released "So Far, So Good...So What!". This album proved Megadeth was a force to be reckoned with. Dave Mustaines guitar work was exquisite and showed that he could shred with the best but that he could also write great sounding technical songs.

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Megadeth Videos on youtube.com

Holy Wars (The Punishment Due)
Hangar 18
Symphony of Destruction
99 Ways to die
Wake up Dead
Go to hell
Go to Hell - Live
Forclosure of a Dream