I’m a member of that crowd who thinks it was actually a good thing Dave Mustaine was fired from Metallica, as we ended up with two great bands!

I think all albums released by Megadeth all the way up to Rust in Peace were great. Countdown to Extinction had good songs, but I don’t like how both the drums as well as the guitar tones have lost their power. The same with Youthanasia. The following albums were really weak, and then Mustaine gets an injury, comes back from it, and releases a couple of decent albums: The System has Failed, United Abominations, End Game, Thirteen. All of those albums have songs that I could do without, but they have also good stuff. Super Collider was a horrid album, and now I’m looking forward to hearing there new album, Dystopia. I really hope Mustaine has made good use of a great drummer (Lamb of God’s Chris Adler) and a great guitarist (Angra’s Kiko Loureiro).

With all of that being said, I can’t stress enough how much Peace Sells and Rust in Peace are by far my favorite albums by this band. In the last 25 years I’ve listed to this albums a million times, and still listen to them quite frequently. They both bring me back great memories from my teenage days, they are Thrash Metal masterpieces, and are albums I always listen to in their entirety. In fact, it was really hard picking songs off those albums for this Top 10 list: I like all of the songs on them!!


#10: Kick the Chair
After the band got the taste of releasing "hit songs", I knew I shouldn’t expect an album in the same caliber of Peace Sells or Rust in Peace. However, after Mustaine came back from his arm injury, he has managed to put out some good songs, such as Kick the Chair. This is the type of song I expect to hear from Megadeth.

#9: Head Crusher
This is another example of a song off a more recent album that I really enjoyed. Again, it’s the type of song I expect from this band: fast, good lead work, catchy chorus.

#8: Sleepwalker
The main reason why I like this song is because I played it a LOT on the X-Box (Rock Band). Playing the drums to it was a lot of fun!

#7: Black Swan
This isn't the kind of song by the band that would make it into my list, but it's one of my daughter's favorite, so it became mine too.

#6: Take No Prisoners
This song is just... awesome!! Fast, angry... yeah!!

#5: The Conjuring
This is the song Dave Mustaine refuses to play live again. Total bummer, as this is one of the band’s best songs!

#4: Devils Island
Can't say much... I dig this entire album!

#3: Rust In Peace… Polaris
Great memories come back listening to this song!

#2: Tornado of Souls
This song is a masterpiece. Everything on it sounds great (even Dave's voice, which is usually not so great). The riffs are great, the drumming is great, the songwriting. But man, that lead... Marty Friedman is king. That lead just blows me away. It seems like every guitarist who joined the band after Marty left has been judged on how well they can play this lead. The thing is: they might nail playing the song note by note, but, they don't play it with the same feel, and, they were never able to write such a memorable solo.

#1: Holy Wars
No surprise on this one, right? Can the lyrics to this song be any more relevant than it is now? We then put that aside and listen to the music: heavy and memorable riffs, three perfect leads by Marty, and the lead this song needed towards the end by Dave. This song is what Megadeth is all about for me. Also, it was really fun playing this song with my band from my teenage years.
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For your convenience, I’ve also created a "Top 10 Megadeth" Play List on youtube. :)