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Holy Wars... The Punishment Due
Hangar 18
Take No Prisoners
Five Magics
Poison Was The Cure
Lucretia
Tornado Of Souls
Dawn Patrol
Rust In Peace... Polaris
Something magical happened when Dave Mustaine and David Ellefson joined forces with guitarist Marty Friedman and drummer Nick Menza. Rust In Peace is one of those albums: a masterpiece with no obvious flaws, not an ounce of filler or flab and some of the most obscenely thrilling moments in all of recorded metal history.
Holy Wars… The Punishment Due, Hangar 18 and Tornado Of Souls may be the obvious highlights, but the entire record still leaps from the speakers 26 years later, sounding supremely arrogant and startlingly powerful.
But beyond its hallowed contents, Rust In Peace is a seminal work because it completely upgraded metal’s sonic vocabulary, heroically raising levels of precision, technicality and compositional suss and kick-starting the ‘90s with a sustained blast of immaculate, state-of-the-art savagery that continues to send shockwaves through the metal world today.
Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.
Other albums released in September 1990
- And the Horse They Rode in On - Soul Asylum
- Empire - Queensrÿche
- Two Fires - Jimmy Barnes
- Ragged Glory - Neil Young and Crazy Horse
- Cherry Pie - Warrant
- Under the Red Sky - Bob Dylan
- Painkiller - Judas Priest
- The Wall Live in Berlin - Roger Waters
- In a Priest Driven Ambulance - The Flaming Lips
- Cause of Death - Obituary
- Lawn Boy - Phish
- The Razors Edge - AC/DC
- All Shook Down - The Replacements
- Dear 23 - The Posies
- Superchunk - Superchunk
- Third Eye - Redd Kross
- The Last Temptation of Reid - Lard
What they said...
"Thanks to Mustaine's focus on the music rather than his sometimes clumsy lyrics, Rust in Peace arguably holds up better than any other Megadeth release, even for listeners who think they've outgrown heavy metal. While the whole album is consistently impressive, the obvious highlight is the epic, Eastern-tinged Hangar 18. (AllMusic)
"The definitive masterpiece in the thrash genre, Rust In Peace is easily one of, if not the best, metal albums of all time. While some find Mustaine’s voice annoying, it almost always fits the aggression of his arrangements. Megadeth’s golden lineup play brilliantly, especially Marty Friedman, who blows through breathtaking solos with ease, not failing to impress on any of the tracks." (SputnikMusic)
"From start to finish, Rust in Peace lunged with ferocity and desperation, Mustaine and 'the new boys,' Marty Friedman and Nick Menza, laying to waste the aural battlefield with beautifully choreographed carnage. The riffs were the most tastefully brutal the band would ever write, saturated with melody, yet driven by jet engine hearts." (Lollipop Magazine)
What you said...
Marco LG: When people talk about Rust In Peace, it’s usually with a kind of hushed, canonical reverence: “One of the greatest thrash albums ever,” “Peak Megadeth,” “Untouchable classic.” I understand why people say that—but for me, when it came out, it was a genuine disappointment. And even now, after years of revisiting it, I still can’t put it anywhere near my top five Megadeth albums.
A big part of that comes down to what came before. I adored So Far, So Good… So What!. That record is a mess in all the right ways: it’s angry, it’s chaotic, it feels like the whole thing could fall apart at any moment. There’s a sense of real danger in those songs, an almost unhinged energy that fits Megadeth perfectly. It sounds like a band barely holding their lives and their music together - and that volatility is precisely what makes it so compelling.
Rust In Peace, by contrast, feels like the moment the chaos got domesticated.
The first thing that hit me back then was the production. Suddenly, everything is polished, tight, and gleaming. The guitars are razor-sharp but smooth, the drums are precise, the bass is clear in the mix. On paper, that’s an upgrade. In practice, it strips away a lot of the grime and menace that made early Megadeth so unique. Where So Far, So Good… sounds like it was recorded in a bunker with the walls closing in, Rust in Peace sounds like it was made in a pristine studio with all the edges sanded down.
Then there’s Mustaine’s vocals. On the earlier records he snarled, spat, and sneered his way through the songs. It wasn’t “good” singing in a conventional sense, but it was absolutely right for the music – bitter, unpolished, and full of bile. On Rust in Peace, his voice is noticeably cleaner, more controlled, more “sung.” Again, technically better – but that’s exactly the problem. That feral, unpredictable quality is largely gone. The sense that this guy is genuinely unhinged and might say or do anything at any moment has been replaced by a more measured performance.
The twin-guitar approach with Marty Friedman is obviously one of the big selling points of the album. The playing is phenomenal; that’s not in dispute. The leads on tracks like Holy Wars… The Punishment Due and Hangar 18 are intricate, fluid, and very melodic. But that’s also where Rust In Peace starts to feel, to my ears, less like Megadeth and more like it’s borrowing from European metal – especially German power metal. There are moments that remind me of Rage, Running Wild, even Helloween: fast, melodic, precise, packed with harmonised leads and neoclassical flourishes.
Now, I love those bands. I have all the time in the world for that style. But Megadeth, at their best, aren’t about triumphant melodicism or intricate perfection. They’re about paranoia, spite, and instability riding on top of incredible riffs. When the band leans too far into that European power-metal sheen, it feels like they’re wearing someone else’s clothes.
Songwriting-wise, I can’t deny the craft. The structures are tight, the riffs are memorable, the solos are meticulously constructed. But that’s also how Rust In Peace often hits me: as something meticulously constructed rather than something lived and breathed. I respect the album more than I feel it. The technicality is front and centre, and the emotion – at least the kind of ugly, volatile emotion I associate with Megadeth – is pushed into the background.
There are songs where the old danger flickers through. Take No Prisoners still has some of that head-down aggression. Five Magics has a bit of the weird, twisting menace that I associate with classic Megadeth. But even those tracks sit inside an overall framework that feels controlled and careful. The band sounds like elite professionals executing complex material flawlessly, not like a barely contained disaster channelling their demons through thrash metal.
Over time, I have warmed up to the album. I can now appreciate it as a landmark in technical thrash: the precision of the playing, the ambition of the arrangements, the way the band lock together. It’s a hugely influential record and a defining moment for a lot of metal fans, and I don’t begrudge anyone who holds it up as the pinnacle of Megadeth’s catalogue.
But for me, personally, it’s still not that record.
When I think of Megadeth at their best, I think of tension, spite, and a sense that everything could go catastrophically wrong at any second. Rust In Peace doesn’t give me that. It gives me brilliance, yes – but brilliance in a controlled environment. And that’s why, in my mind, it sits outside their true greats. It’s an album I admire, sometimes enjoy, but don’t love.
So while the consensus may place Rust In Peace on a pedestal, I’m comfortable standing off to the side, quietly saying: impressive, important… but not top five.
Mark Herrington: I’ve heard a lot of the songs off Rust In Peace before, but never the entire album. When this came out, I was listening to Painkiller endlessly, which came out around the same time.
There’s a lot to like here, particularly the lead guitar work, the musical prowess and the variation in song structures. Dave Mustaine’s vocals were sometimes hard to listen to, a bit shrill at times, and when he strains, I find it distracting. For example, Tornado Of Souls has fantastic guitar work and more traditional riffing, but I struggled with the vocals.
It also seemed a very dense mix, where some detail was buried. (I listened to the 2004 remix too for comparison, which lifts out more details but gets too many other changes wrong).
The excellent lead guitar work on Rust In Peace lifts the whole album; the riffing is mostly good, but occasionally drifts into a chugging monotony when it slows down. Five Magics, Lucretia and Tornado were my favourite tracks, with very good guitar.
Overall, I can understand and hear why this is so well-liked, but it's not completely my cup of tea, particularly vocally. Nevertheless, a reasonable score.
Andrew Cumming: What an album! One of the best in all rock and metal. The songwriting is so consistently high, and the band performances are extraordinarily good. Holy Wars is an epic start, but Hanger 18 is an absolute sledgehammer of a follow-up. Take No Prisoners, Lucretia and Tornado Of Souls are all outstanding. I also really like Five Magics, a lesser-known and lesser-performed song, but a real hidden gem.
Outstanding album. A big recommendation to anyone interested in exploring heavy rock or metal. It's the one moment where Megadeth came seriously close to beating Metallica to the top of the Big Four.
Steve Labram: My number one thrash album. Yes, I like a bit of melody and clever, if cynical, lyrics.
Glenn McDonald: A stonewall classic of the original thrash metal era. Each of the Big Four have that record that can't be denied, and this is Megadeth's.
Interesting aside: I was at the infamous gig in Northern Ireland where Dave almost caused a riot by espousing the virtues of the IRA. Holy Wars was his "apology" for that incident on the succeeding album. And in typical Dave fashion, if you listen to the lyrics, it's no apology at all. It's more accurate to say he's calling us idiots! Can't say I blame him.
Brian Carr: After three great but rather raw albums, Megadeth came into their own with 1990’s exceptional Rust In Peace. The heaviness remained (Take No Prisoners, indeed!), but in the context of supremely well-crafted and brilliantly performed songs. Struggles with substances have led to a revolving door of band members throughout Megadeth’s history, but the stars aligned for Rust In Peace as Dave Mustaine put together his longest-running lineup, which coincided with the band’s greatest period of success, both commercially and in quality.
As I’ve gotten older, I don’t often listen to much of the heavier things. With this week’s selection and Dave’s retirement announcement, I should listen to the 2000s output to see how it compares.
Chris Downie: For many, the legacy of Megadeth is forever tainted by the continuing antagonism of frontman Dave Mustaine towards "my former band" and indeed, his Marmite personality in general.
What is undeniable, however, is the band's legitimate claim to have been the prime state-of-the-art thrash metal band between 1985-92, a claim bolstered by the fact they, unlike many of their peers, delivered genuine late-career classics such as Endgame and Dystopia over the last decade and a half or so.
Now that Mustaine has announced he is bringing down the curtain on his chequered career, it is a fitting time to revisit their back catalogue, not least 1990's Rust In Peace, an album widely regarded as being in their top two. It's more than that. While Metallica showcased their diversity across their 80s output, Anthrax were establishing themselves as the streetwise 'down with the hardcore kids' choice, and Slayer bludgeoned all comers into submission. Megadeth cooly displayed their superior technical prowess and delivered a masterclass in thinking man's thrash metal.
The highlights are too numerous to mention; the opening ode against religious extremism that is Holy Wars... sets the standard from the outset, topped by Hangar 18 straight after, in which the duelling leads of Mustaine and Friedman (formerly of classic shredders Cacophony, alongside Jason Becker) trade off brilliantly.
Beyond the opening salvo and the other live favourite Tornado Of Souls, there are others which easily make the shortlist of all-time great Megadeth tracks; the ferocity of Take No Prisoners and the epic closing ditty of nuclear annihilation all come together to form one of the genre's greatest and most relentless masterpieces, only briefly pausing in pace for the Dawn Patrol interlude. It never got much better than this... 10/10
Philip Qvist: Quite possibly Megadeth's best album and, along with Peace Sells .... But Who's Buying?, my favourite album from these guys.
The first Megadeth record to feature new guys, drummer Nick Menza and guitarist Marty Friedman, whose guitar solo on standout track Tornado Of Souls is pretty special; the album starts with the double hard hitters Holy Wars .... The Punishment Due and Hanger 18, and continues with that pace for the whole 40 minutes.
Main man Dave Mustaine wrote most of the songs, with help from bassist Dave Ellefson on a couple of tracks; while the latter also wrote the bass-dominated Dawn Patrol.
All in all, Rust In Peace is a heavy metal and thrash metal classic. 9/10 from me this week.
John Davidson: I was never a massive Megadeth fan. I was just a bit too old to get into thrash in the mid-late 80s, though i knew of and liked a few of their songs from watching Headbangers Ball on MTV (remember when that was a thing?!)
By the time Rust In Peace came out, Metallica had crossed over to the mainstream and grunge was all the rage, which explains even if it doesn't excuse why I've never owned it, which is to my shame.
The one-two punch of Holy Wars... The Punishment Due and Hangar 18 show Megadeth at their best. Hard, aggressive guitars, thundering bass and tight, clipped drums make this a heavy metal monster. I like the combination of aggression and melody that Mustaine ( and Friedman and Ellefson) manage to deliver on this album and on those that followed.
Dave Mustaine's voice can be a bit whiny at times, but Marty Friedman's lead guitar work is up there with the best. 9/10.
Jeff Perry: Absolutely an amazing album! Holy Wars... The Punishment Due is a face-melting opening track that I have gone back to time and time again. Hangar 18 has a solo that finishes off the song like a tiger that has his grip on its prey and will not let go.
The next three songs are frantic and fly by if you're not paying attention. Lucritia slows it down just a little bit and gets you into a groove. The solo in Tornado of Souls is most likely the best solo ever put to tape in thrash metal. Dawn Patrol is pretty strange with bass and drums only, but it segways nicely into Rust in Peace... Polaris.
I consider it the second-best thrash metal album next to Master of Puppets, and for me, it has passed the test of time because it's Rust In Peace that I go back to before all others. 10/10.
Zak Browne: If someone asked me to explain heavy metal, I would say nothing. I would put on War Pigs and Holy Wars... The Punishment Due.
Ilari Mäkinen: Probably the second-best thrash metal album ever.
Jim McElhattan: Megadeth's best album. Great songs and great guitar work.
Greg Schwepe: Megadeth is music to chug by. Listen and chug a favourite adult beverage? Probably. Listen while Mustaine and Co. chug along the low E string on their guitars? Definitely. Chug and chug with all downstrokes until that guitar pick is ground down to nothing but plastic bits.
I cannot call myself a huge thrash metal enthusiast, but once, after hearing a Megadeth song on the radio that got the ol’ noggin a bouncin’, a compilation CD made it into my collection. And even though Dave Mustaine has been known to have a mercurial personality, every guitar magazine interview I’ve read with him, he came across as an OK guy. Maybe that's why I like his band and this album too?
We’ve already mentioned the chugging guitar. High on my list. Wailing solos to go along with it? Totally cool too. Hyperactive drumming to keep everything together? Sure. Apocalyptic lyrics? OK again, but to tell the truth, I’m not listening to those a lot. If Dave was singing the phone book with those same killer riffs… I’d still be listening.
I’ve found I generally like the Megadeth blueprint. So whether it’s Rust In Peace or anything else, I’ll give it a listen. 7 out of 10 for me on this one. If your neck hurts from the headbanging, you must be listening correctly, right?
Mike Canoe: Rust In Peace marks the beginning of Megadeth's "imperial phase" and the first by what many, including me, consider their classic lineup of Dave Mustaine, David Ellefson, Marty Friedman, and Nick Menza. Peace Sells... may have made metalheads' ears perk up, but with Rust in Peace, they had their "thrashterpiece" that could stand shoulder to shoulder with Master Of Puppets and Seasons In The Abyss.
Holy Wars... The Punishment Due kicks off with 90 seconds of frenetic riffing and drumming before ripping into one of their most acknowledged epics. In the pre-Internet days, I assumed it had something to do with the first Gulf War or the Middle East in general and was a little let down when I learned it was inspired by a Mustaine "Ugly American" moment and... the Punisher from Marvel Comics?
For me, Hangar 18 is faster, smarter, and, in all ways, better - not the least because Mustaine quits singing halfway through the song and the band just pummels relentlessly for the other half. To say Hangar 18 is just about imprisoned extraterrestrials is like saying Bohemian Rhapsody is about a guy who shoots another guy and tells his mom about it. Hangar 18 is an incredible allegory that still has resonance today.
Not that Mustaine is a bad singer. His angry bee swarm of a voice is one of the most distinctive in thrash, if not metal in general. He uses it to particularly great effect on Tornado Of Souls and closer Rust in Peace... Polaris.
And the band, my gods, the band, playing with pile-driving precision while not losing any passion. It's a well-worn cliché to claim that an album is "all thriller, no filler" - and I'm obviously and unashamedly biased - but Rust In Peace is one of those albums. All the album tracks, Take No Prisoners, Five Magics, Poison Was the Cure, Lucretia and, of course, the aforementioned Tornado... and ...Polaris are my favourites. Even the slow two-minute bass rumbling post-apocalyptic Dawn Patrol is great, ushered out with the squeaking of "moles de Mustaine."
This lineup lasted four albums – an aeon by Megadeth standards – and the next couple were as big or bigger, but the band was never better than on Rust In Peace.
Douglas Mackenzie: A fantastic album, a high point of 80s thrash - heavy yet accessible, and still sounds fantastic today. 5/5.
Martin Cross: I probably would have had to have been about 13 or 14 years old to get into Megadeth. It's heavy and fast, but apart from that, there's nothing that really stands out for me. 5-10.
Final score: 8.60 (109 votes cast, total score 938)
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