martindavey87 July 5th, 1999.

Megadeth were performing on an episode of World Championship Wrestling’s Monday Nitro. It seemed odd that a metal band would perform at a wrestling event, and much like Kiss did a few weeks prior, it bombed. Nobody wanted to see it. Nobody did see it. And it accomplished nothing.

Except for changing my life.

Performing ‘Crush ‘Em’ to coincide with the return of wrestler Bill Goldberg from a break (Goldberg starred in the movie Universal Soldier: The Return, of which this featured on the soundtrack), the song played repeatedly over the following weeks, and 12 year-old me was absolutely hooked!

‘Crush ‘Em’ itself is a huge departure from Megadeth’s typical sound. With the 90’s coming to a close, Dave Mustaine tried his hand at writing mainstream rock songs, hoping to appeal to bigger audiences with the album ‘Risk’. He failed. Big time. But ‘Crush ‘Em’ served one purpose, and it served it well. It was intended as a sports anthem, with hopes that it’d be played in arenas at games, and for a while, it was. With its pounding bass line and thunderous guitars, the chanting of “Crush! Crush ‘Em!” is tailor-made for getting crowds psyched up. It’s simple, it’s catchy, it’s effective.

As for this single release however? Meh. There’s just two songs. An album version, and a radio version, which basically skips one verse and the outro. Nothing special, nothing fancy, no gimmicks or novelties. Just two different versions of ‘Crush ‘Em’. Fantastic song, and I genuinely mean that. But don’t bother getting this single unless you’re a huge, huge fan that absolutely must own everything regardless of how pointless it might be. Just get the ‘Risk’ album instead.

And yeah, that is a recommendation for ‘Risk’. That album is awesome!