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List Price: $16.98 | | Label: Capitol
Salesrank: 3871
Released: July 27, 2004 |
| Our Price: $5.72 |
| Used Price: $5.85 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? Track Listing:
1. Wake Up Dead
2. The Conjuring
3. Peace Sells
4. Devil's Island
5. Good Mourning / Black Friday
6. Bad Omen
7. I Ain't Superstitious
8. My Last Words
9. Wake Up Dead (Randy Burns Mix) - previously unreleased
10. The Conjuring (Randy Burns Mix) - previously unreleased
11. Peace Sells (Randy Burns Mix) - previously unreleased
12. Good Mourning / Black Friday (Randy Burns Mix) - previously unreleased
Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? Reviews:
A solid vitriol filled effort from the bands earlier period 
2008-07-26 - I've had this album in one form or another since it came out in the 80's, so I've had plenty of time to listen to it, and I've come to this conclusion:
This is one of Megadeth's angriest and fastest albums, if Pantera defines heavy metal agression, Megadeth defines the heavy metal tantrum. The riffs are complex, the beats are fast, and the songs are hard and angry. Make no mistake though - this is a very technical group of songs played well by virtuoso musicians.
The writing isn't quite up to par with later work on "Rust in Peace" and "Symphony of Destruction" - there are no single songs that blow me away. All of the songs follow a similar pattern of building up from a slow intro more often then not into a thrash metal grind-fest. For that reason and others, many of the songs sound the same - which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Megadeth found something that worked and they went with it. However, on later albums, Mustaine and his band branch out a bit more creating a more interesting result.
What you'll hear a lot more of on this album than others are thrash anthems, lots of grinding guitars, fast and nimble drumming, and a very angry Dave Mustaine. The intensity of the songs are almost overwhelming. This is the lineup of songs that would be the most likely of any in this groups catalog to whip mosh pits into a frenzy.
Right away, you can tell what the remastering is doing for this album. Not to take away anything from Menza/Friedman on later albums, but I'm convinced Gar Samuelson and Chris Poland are the most definitive lineup Megadeth has had, if not the most talented - so it's kind of a shame they had to break with those guys. (Chris Poland does play on "The System has Failed" released almost 20 years later and shows he still has his chops).
Below is a track by track rating for people who are interested in that sort of thing.
My scale - not approved by anyone....
1 = So offensively awful, my cd player practically vomits it
2 = Bad enough to skip over
3 = Good filler - works in the right mix
4 = I'll put the CD in to listen to this track
5 = I'll pull the record out of it's sleeve and bust out the cleaning solution to listen to this track
Title/BPM/Key
1) Wake up Dead(4)/162/E - Mostly instrumental, a grinding testament to the musicianship in the lineup used on this recording. The remaster gives the drums and the bass an emphasis that was sadly missing from the original, and the results rock!
2) The Conjuring(4)/??/E - Has a nice grinding jam in the break
3) Peace Sells(4)/138/E - Starts with the famous bassline that MTV still uses in it's ads today. Angry anti-establishment anthem. Ends with one of the more memorable chants - "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying....". Use to get pumped up for whatever....
4) Devils Island(3)/180/ - A little dated and hampered by Mustaine's pre-recovery vocals (ie. basically shouting and roughly in tune in places). Still has the grinding thrash guitars and some excellent drum-work.
5) Good Mourning/Black Friday(3)/186/E - Sort of a prog anthem. Starts with a slow dirge and slowly gains intensity until it reaches a climax of rapid fire drum hits to chants of "Black Friday"
6) Bad Omen(3)/240/E - Contains possibly the most technically challenging opening on the album with Ellefson and Poland playing fast scales in unison. The whole thing culminates in a super-fast grind in E with Poland basically running rough-shod over everything with his expert fretwork.
7) I Aint Superstitious(3)/156/F# - A 3/4 swing riff with the obligatory thrash break.
8) My Last Words(4)/270/D - I remember hearing this the year it came out on college radio (the only place you had a prayer of hearing this kind of music back in those days), so for me, it's probably the most memorable song on the album, the remaster really gets rid of the muddiness in the guitar that hampered the original mix, and what a huge difference it makes! Like other songs on the album, it starts with a slow guitar/bass duet, then morphs into a driving thrash beat that culminates into a call/response grind.
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The following bonus remixes were also included. Each one is worthwhile to listen to a slightly different version of the song, but overall doesn't really add much to the record. But - I'm never going to complain about getting more for my dollar, so with that said......
Seems like the approach taken on this remix songs was to maintain the gating etc on the drums, but beef up the low and high ends a bit. I prefer the original remasters, but these are also ok.
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Wake up Dead
The Conjuring
Peace Sells
Good Mourning/Black Friday
Yeah, the remastering/mixing sucks... but it's still their best
2008-06-11 - Megadeth at their raw, drugged out, punky and pissed off best. "Killing Is My Business..." is rawer, but a little too raw... the songs are there, just not as fleshed out and polished up as they needed to be for repeat listening. "So Far..." has some of the single best 'deth songs, but the duds kill it as an album. And the mighty "Rust" is a little too robotic and polished...
On "Peace", Dave was still drugged out and pissed off... the music may be metal, but the attitude is almost pure punk fury. The song "Peace Sells" almost serves as a single song definition of metal in the mid-'80s... who DOESN'T get an evil little smirk just hearing the opening bass line?
Worst feature... Chris Poland's guitar tone on leads. Yeah, it's a fat, screaming, liquid overdrive, but it's TOO much... coupled with his shaky (read: out of tune and off key at times) vibrato.... a Fender Twin overdriven THAT much should only be used by a pro that can HIT the note, HOLD the note, and VIBRATO that note between the proper pitches.... am I the only one who thinks some of his solo lines occasionally sound like the proverbial dying cat???
Remastered took the fun out of the album 
2008-06-04 - I'm reviewing the remastering of this album. Megadeth certainly isn't one of my favorite bands, nor is Metallica. I listen to them every now and then, but that's really it. Why should you care? Well, you shouldn't. haha but seriously, Megadeth never got the critical acclaim Metallica did. Also the musicianship of Metallica is far superior to Megadeth. Metallica have a tightness about the way they play together. Now I think that Kirk Hammett is overated, but even so Metallica is a much better band.
What sets Megadeth apart is their sound. Metallica always sounded very polished, but Megadeth had a very crass sounding. The guitars were always overily distorted and angry, the drums sound flat but absolutely shred and Dave's voice is in the background where it should be. There's nobody that would argue that Dave is a good singer, but his voice is Megadeth. His voice is creepy, like an Alice Cooper type voice that just adds to the creepiness of their albums. A Megadeth album is like a slasher movie.
BUT.... When you listen to the remastered album everything becomes to perfect. The guitars have lost their edge, the vocals no longer blend in but stand out and there is more bass. It's just not Megadeth. Megadeth is loud and in your face and not polished. It's supposed to be abrasive. But Dave has remixed the albums and taken the shine away from them. Instead of being a politically fueled punch in the face, it's just another metal album. The CD's sound better they way the first came out. They'd probably even sound better on a record because of all the extra noise. It's those little things that make it a Megadeth album.
Dave will always be trying to one up Metallica. It's just the way it is. Like their later stuff, the remix is a yawn. Dave once said about Youthanasia "Try and find a mistake in the album. You won't" It's that in your face, I don't care attitude the album has lost and that's what makes it cool.
Solid remastering effort for a timeless album
2008-01-29 - Peace Sells might be recognized in history as Megadeth's coming-out party. The band's debut album did well for an independent label, but upon graduating to Capitol Records, Megadeth had become a force to be reckoned with in the thrash metal genre. Peace Sells is the first album of that saga.
In 2004, Peace Sells got a well-deserved makeover. Some welcome additions are the fattening of Gar Samuelson's drums and David Ellefson's bass. Together, the rhythm section as a whole sounds beefier, thicker. Nuances of Samuelson's tasteful, jazz-inspired playing are heard just as they were recorded in the studio. Ellefson's bass lines are also given a boost in the lower frequencies, but perhaps are unnecessarily loud in the intro to "My Last Words". Luckily, about a minute and a half into the song, the bass makes more room for the other instruments as the volumes are changed.
Dave Mustaine was the grandmaster behind the album, and his vocals are for the most part well-preserved. They never seem to overtake the mix, and never seem to be drowned out by the busy instruments in the background. If prompted, I could name an instance or two where I noticed some differences, but nothing changed the music experience for me, which is a good thing. The guitars are at times too loud, at times too soft. For instance, the beginning of "Black Friday" is crowded with many different melodies and pattern, and volume levels become a bit of an issue here.
Anyone who is Megadeth fan shouldn't need to ask about the songwriting. Peace Sells was one of Megadeth's more nihilistic experiments; certain songs may make Dave Mustaine feel uncomfortable nowadays. "Black Friday" is about an serial killer, and there are a lot of evil, Satanic themes in this song. "Wake Up Dead" is a song that is distinctly Megadeth and features a chunky and progressive rhythm guitar style that is uniquely Dave Mustaine. "Bad Omen" and "The Conjuring" are inspired by witchcraft and, again, Satanic themes. The former includes some of Ellefson's trademark nimble, impressive bass playing; the latter is a rocking tune with a pace that picks up towards the end of the song. The album's title track "Peace Sells" is a tongue-in-cheek (but, at the same time, sneering) response to the mainstream world's perception of the band. As if the name of the band weren't a dead (pun intended) giveaway, a major theme of this album is death; the music and lyrics (Dave Mustaine, ladies and gentlemen) are dark and heavy to reflect that theme, yet is contrasted by the jazz-inspired licks of Chris Poland (lead guitar). Poland's guitars sing when they need to; this remastered version doesn't seem to fail, in that regard.
It's a great album for a fan of the band. For all newcomers, Peace Sells is a great way to start your Megadeth collection. It was a truly pivotal point in the band's career. The album contains three mixes, the "Randy Burns mixes," of songs on Peace Sells that never saw the light of day. This is mostly filler material, but it's an added incentive to buy the album if you're an obsessive Megadeth fan like myself, but the remastered music was the main draw for me as I already own the original version.
Interesting to note: Peace Sells was the first Megadeth tagged with the "Parental Advisory" notice. On the original, this notice was written in red, across the back of the album. This inspired the song "Hook in Mouth," a song about the P.M.R.C. and censorship, which appeared on the next Megadeth LP.
Peace Sells...But Which Is Worse? 
2008-01-19 - (the 1986 original)
Jeez, I don't know who sounds worse, Mark Slaughter or Dave Mustaine. Both of 'em sound like they've either had their vocal chords cut, or been huffing on the helium too much. In fact, Slaughter sounds like a girl while Mustaine sounds like Donald Duck.
Quack Quack Quack... Quack Quack Quack... Quack Quack Quack...
I'll give it two stars for the riffs, but decent riffs can't save a turkey like Megadeath. At least Dave's vocals have improved over the years. Not on this Disney cartoon.
