Warthur The fast, complex, and combative debut of Megadeth sees the band at their rawest and fastest. Whilst future releases would benefit from better production due to the band not drinking half the recording budget, and would see them slow down their compositions so as to better develop the individual sections, Killing Is My Business stands out as some of the fastest thrash metal any of the Big Four have ever made. Beginning with a little Bach and concluding with an insanely quick rendition of The Mechanix, the album might be sloppily mixed - Dave's vocals in particular are buried - but that doesn't hide the talent on offer, particularly the furious basswork from David Ellefson.

Kingcrimsonprog Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good is Megadeth’s debut full length studio album and was released in 1985, two full years after Slayer, Metallica and Anthrax released their debut albums which would be responsible in a large part for the form and direction of the entire subgenre of Thrash Metal for the next few years. Given their late entry onto the sphere of professional recordings, in a fickle music industry it is doubly impressive how important the band would become and how they became popular soon became.

Sharing its year-of-release with other important debuts such as Overkill’s Feel The Fire and the unfortunately late Exodus debut; Killing Is My Business And Business… Is Good is a highly important album that anyone with a serious interest in Thrash Metal absolutely needs to have in their collection that provides modern listeners with an insight into the early years of the movement and which all Megadeth fans should pick up at some time or another.

The poor, but charming production job is often talked about, as are the connections with Metallica and the band’s drug habits at the time, but judged on a purely musical Merit Killing Is My Business’ is an absolutely fantastic album of well written and well performed material with a brilliant youthful energy and audible anger/determination that makes the album ‘feel’ different to all of the band’s later work.

Tracks like ‘Rattle Head,’ ‘Loved To Deth,’ and the amazing Title Track are what Thrash Metal is all about and still stand up to this day. There is variety to be had too in the second half of the album with ‘Chosen Ones,’ ‘Looking Down The Cross,’ which add some different flavour to the release.

The band’s level of musicianship is impressive considering all the surrounding circumstances and the line up featuring Dave Ellefson on bass, Chris Poland on guitar and Gar Samuelson on drums gel well together on their first of two releases made together. Listening to this album it is no surprise that they would go on to write the classic Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying? record only a year later, something which a weaker line up would no doubt have been incapable of.

The tracks on this album are all great and it is a genuine delight when the band stick one into their setlist live, and can be enjoyed over and over again without becoming stale. Overall; Killing Is My Business’ is a hugely underrate record full of great songs, a must for Megadeth fans and essential for any Thrash Enthusiast as well.

Stooge From beginning to end, Killing Is My Business meets the purpose that the two Daves set out to do by creating a ultra-fast/utra-furious sound. “Loved You To Death” and the title-track kick off the album with a great deal of aggression. The band sounds tighter on tracks “The Skull Beneath The Skin” and “Chosen Ones” while maintaining the intensity.

The classic track on this album has to be “Rattlehead”. It’s one of the fastest songs on a thrash album full of quick ones, but the lead breaks by Mustaine and Poland are also very entertaining, and the lyrics make it something of a thrash anthem (using the name of their recognizable mascot as a song title helps).

“Mechanix” should sound familiar to Metallica fans since it’s almost note-for-note what “The Four Horseman” was in it's early stages. Aside from the intro, this is pretty much the song in its original form (including the lyrics). I honestly prefer what Metallica did with it after Mustaine was dismissed, but Dave has to be recognized for having wrote the lion’s share of the song, which helped give thrash it’s sound.

The hardest part of the album to listen to is their cover of “These Boots”. It was definitely considered to be a joke instead of a genuine tribute, but these types of humor-laced tracks don’t often age well to me. To make things worse, the remastered version bleeps out a good deal of the lyrics censored by an annoying BLEEEEP. Censored or not, I’m not a fan.

This album set the tone for Megadeth’s sound that they would use for much of their career, and they’d smooth out some of the rough edges in the near future. Good album, great album considering it’s their debut!

bonnek Judging from the original 1985 release, Megadeth's debut was a hurried affair that didn't get the consideration and song writing maturity that Dave would reach a year later. Luckily the 2002 remix has made me appreciate the album, or rather, you can actually hear what's being played.

It is inevitable to compare this album to Metallica's debut from two years earlier. Safe to say the comparison isn't in Megadeth's favor. When looking forward to what Slayer did only one year later, the album sounds dated, clichéd and clumsy at times. But I do love the aggression, anger and bite it has. Dave was pissed and the skull you see on the cover is probably how he fancied Hetfield's skull served for breakfast. All songs have a direct emotional punk quality that come much appreciated here. The actual songs are fairly unremarkable, and "The Mechanix" doesn't hold up well compared to the real thing.

Not the best way to start, but Mr Rattlehead would be back, and how!

Pelata I have a love/hate relationship with Megadeth. I love the music I have heard, but depending on my mood I hate Dave Mustaine's voice (sometimes I can tolerate it, other times not). I have owned different CDs of theirs over the years (most notably Rust In Peace and Countdown To Extinction) but have never even heard Killing...; until now, that is.

It's only 8 songs, which as it turns out, is kind of a blessing. There are a few cool tracks here, "Rattlehead", "Skull Beneath The Skin" and the title track...but the other songs do nothing for me. I listened 3 times to this album and "Mechanix" is better as "The Four Horsemen", "These Boots" is flat out stupid, and the others suffer from a combo of Dave's voice and kind of boring (to me) riffs. I admit though, that the three I like, I happen to like quite a bit.

Verdict: I can understand Megadeth's place in the Metal pantheon, I just can't really get into them overall in terms of buying their albums. I think I'd be content with a good anthology.

The Angry Scotsman The debut album my Megadeth and its leader, the brilliant and blood thirsty Dave Mustaine, "Killing is My Business..." achieves exactly what Dave set out to do: Be faster, more intense, and more technical than Metallica.

This is a great album. Fast. Intense. A true thrash metal album, as it an assault from start to finish. The Megadeth sound is here though. Complex riffs, great guitar work, awesome song structure and just well composed songs. All the instruments work together well. Awesome solos, (complimented by great rhythm work). The drumming is good on the album, not the best but holds its own and then some. Gar Samuelson was originally a jazz fusion drummer (played with Chris Poland in a jazz fusion band) and lays down some great beats.

However, that brings me to a major downside of the album. Sound quality. Usually this is not an issue for me. On this album though the quality is poor enough that it DOES detract from the sound. While impressive, I found this album unlistenable. It sounds like a mess, and makes it tougher to really appreciate the instruments (especially the drumming). With a band like Megadeth you need to hear it all for the full scope of it all. I did cave and get the remaster (I am a stubborn traditionalist) and the sound quality is much better! Guitar and drums heard so much better, and my opinion of this album soared. Must say though, the censored version of "These Boots" on the remaster is terrible. Complete song killer.

Great album and impressive debut. Fast, complex, intense, well composed and structured. Impressive display of skill and musicianship.

Four Stars (but please get the remaster!)

UMUR Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! is the debut full-length studio album by American thrash metal act Megadeth. The album was released in June 1985 by Combat Records. After being kicked out of Metallica, Dave Mustaine opted to create his own band and named it Megadeth. Megadeth released the Last Rites demo in March 1984 but it took a while before the band were able to record and release their debut album. The early days of Megadeth were quit chaotic. Dave Mustaine had several fall outs with guitarist Chris Poland and the formers alledged alcohol and drug abuse probably didn´t make things any easier.

The music on the album is old school American thrash metal, which means that there are lots of traditional heavy metal elements in the music as well as thrash metal ditto. Traditional heavy metal elements are something that Megadeth have actually always included in their music. While the music is unmistakably the sound of Megadeth, there are a couple of factors that make this album a sub par effort to my ears. The production by Dave Mustaine and Karat Faye is pretty horrible, lifeless and without punch. Noisy and messy. I have the 2002 remixed and remastered version and the production doesn´t even sound good on that one. The original version is even worse. The songs are generally not that interesting either. There´s not one song here that would ever make it into a Megadeth live set if you ask me. The choice to include Mechanix, which is a song Dave Mustaine played and co-wrote with Metallica, is more a curiosity than a good song. To those who don´t know Metallica´s version of Mechanix it is called The Four Horsemen and appear on their debut full-length studio album Kill ´em All (1983).

So all in all Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! is not a very succesful debut album by Megadeth, but fortunately the band went on and produced what many consider a classic thrash metal album in their second effort Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? (1986). A 2.5 star rating is warranted.

Valarius By now everyone knows the story of Dave Mustaine being kicked out of Metallica and forming Megadeth. His goal with his new band was to create something faster, heavier and more extreme than his former band. It’s been said many times over the years how Megadeth’s debut album has a raw energy to it, and that it oozes of bloodthirsty hatred aimed towards Hetfield and Ulrich, and whilst this is all true, I sadly feel that this comes at the expense of actually writing good tunes.

Oh sure, the music is fast, the vocals full of spite and bitterness, the songs raging with angst and rebellion, but seriously, it all sounds so repetitive to me. The terribly cheap production really butchers that annoying wailing sound which is supposed to be a guitar solo and the vocal melodies sounds like something a five-year old would come up with upon their first attempt at music.

High points are rare, but there are one or two noteworthy moments. By noteworthy I mean ‘looking for anything positive’. ‘Last Rites – Loved To Deth’ is easily the best song on the album. All the others have the odd riff here or there, but nothing that can truly save this album. Of course then there’s ‘Mechanix’, the infamous song that Mustaine likes to introduce as “There’s their version, and there’s OUR version”. Well, I’m sorry to say I don’t need all that sentimental ‘oh but this is the original’ stuff, ‘The Four Horsemen’ is a much better song.

Megadeth are a fantastic band, and this is really the only record of theirs I don’t like, but it’s a good thing Mustaine is a former member of Metallica. If this was the first album of any other Thrash Metal band from 1985 I seriously doubt they’d still be around today.

God-awful debut, but thankfully things can only get better.

ydewata This is the first output of Dave Mustaine after he was kicked from Metallica. The music was raw and you could feel a lot of anger in the songs. You can even feel the anger in his riffs. What makes the album unique is/was, Chris and Gar were originally jazz/fusion musicians rather a "metalhead". However, the album opened the door for Megadeth as well as opened the eyes of the critics -- the fact that Mustaine was able to stand on his own. His own band. Honestly, I see the music is very much away from the ones put out by Metallica in their debut. The only similarities probably the song "Mechanix", with different lyrics.