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I've been revisiting a slew of the records I enjoyed in my youth as a budding metalhead as of late. Of course after initially starting with Metallica it seemed the only way to delve deeper was through the Thrash Metal genre acts such as Megadeth and Testament. After a traditional Friday night of VH1 (the VH1 Rock Show on Friday nights with Tommy Vance was like my religion at the time, much like Headbangers Ball would have been to the older generation) I was treated to Megadeth's Behind the Music and thought to myself "Damn I need to get a hold of some of their material". The following day I shot out to town and picked up Rust In Peace and Countdown to Extinction, the exact same CDs I have sitting in front of me now, albeit cracked, tattered and torn from lugging them around to parties. The first one I listened to was the same album I'm listening to right now, regarded among a vast majority of fans as their greatest release and it's hard to argue when faced with such an excellent slab of metal. Initially I was captivated by the top class artwork courtesy of the brilliant Ed Repka, then upon hearing "Holy Wars…" I was pretty much sold there and then. Metallic who? I thought to myself.

"Holy Wars…" is such a superb album opener, featuring many an immense riff and Dave Mustaine's oh so original vocal delivery – I love the way this guy snarls his lines out and they're so damn fun to imitate. The track gets even better two minutes or so through with a classic solo that comes out of nowhere then kicking into a quality mid-paced riff. The guitar work courtesy of Mustaine and Marty Friedman is first class. Where Friedman is technically the better player, Mustaine has an incredible style that's very hard to match, a perfect recipe for some intense guitar duels. "Hangar 18" is one of my favorite Megadeth tracks and certainly one of the finest they ever recorded, the guitar riffs are just so damn good based around the riff he wrote for Metallica's "Call of Ktulu" although far cooler. The second solo here is damn fine, certainly one of my favorite Megadeth solos, oh and that riff at 3:07 – seriously this album is packed full of so many OMG moments I'd be here all day listing them. "Take No Prisoners" follows suit, packing a fantastic riff and some wicked drum work, then we have the doom-impending "Five Magics" with an intro that slithers along ominously until around two minutes in, then it's full-on ass kicking time complete with smoking guitar leads. The fact of the matter is every track on offer here is classic Megadeth showing the guys at the top of their game. A lot of people give the instrumental "Dawn Patrol" a fair bit of stick which I feel is undeserved, featuring a pretty cool bass line that just walks along the track and spoken vocals from Mustaine that come along as quite comedic in my eyes. Although I don't condone drug use, "Dawn Patrol" is such a cool track to skin up too, it just has such an epic stoner feel to it.

There's honestly not a bad word to be said about Rust In Peace. Just look at any track - they all have something special to offer, be it the ultra cool intro to "Lucretia" and the awesome riffage of "Tornado of Souls" and its ultra melodic feel. Of course mention goes to "Rust In Peace… Polaris", another of my personal favorites. Here the track is a whirlwind of awesome riffage, snarling vocals and a world class rhythm section. Megadeth put all the pieces together for a second time here (see Peace Sells…) showing the rest of the Bay Area boys their worth yet again, and proving that Megadeth were truly a force to be reckoned with, standing as one of the last truly fantastic albums of that scene. If you don't own this you can't really call yourself a fan of metal.