On June 12, 1985, MEGADETH released their debut album Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good! through Combat Records in the United States. Recorded on an infamously tiny budget, the album is a raw, ferocious declaration of intent from Dave Mustaine, who had been fired from METALLICA two years earlier and was consumed by the need to prove himself. The result was some of the fastest, most technically aggressive thrash metal committed to record at that point. Tracks like "Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good!" and "Looking Down the Cross" established the template for Mustaine's relentlessly combative approach to the genre. Despite its rough production, the album is regarded as a foundational document of American thrash metal and a crucial entry point into MEGADETH's extraordinary catalog.