Dave Mustaine was asked by Poland's Mystic Festival to name MEGADETH's greatest achievement. He did not reach for the platinum certifications or the Billboard No. 1 the band collected this year.
"Just getting respectability for metal guitar players," he answered. "I think that's really great, because when we first started out, metal guitar players were really great, but people just didn't have any respect for them because the bands that they were in were teeny little bands. And as we went along and opened more doorways, some of the doors we had to kick in, but we opened doors for ourselves and other people."
Asked whether "Peace Sells", from 1986's "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?", was the turning point, Mustaine said he did not experience it that way at the time — but he knew something had shifted while he was writing it.
"I knew when I wrote the song that there was a part in the middle, the middle eight part, that was the first time I had come up with a part that melodic," he said. "Everything else was really aggressive, where they rip your face off kind of stuff. And 'Peace Sells', the tempo was slower, the riff was slower, and the sarcasm in the lyrics, 'What do you mean?' You know? That was the beginning of my character really coming into focus for me as a frontman, as a singer, as a lyricist."
He also picked his three favourite MEGADETH songs: "Symphony Of Destruction" from 1992's "Countdown To Extinction", "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" from 1990's "Rust In Peace", and "Peace Sells". The reasoning was consistent across all three.
"'Symphony' and 'Holy Wars' because of the stance in the lyrics that we need to be together. 'Peace Sells' because 'Peace Sells' is one of those songs that shows the wit, the sarcasm and the desire for metal fans to have a better life. When they sing, 'I'll be the first in line', that means they want something better too."
MEGADETH have since announced "Breakout: Hibernation Of The Nations", the European chapter of their multi-year farewell run. The 24-date arena tour opens March 9, 2027 in Belfast and closes April 13 in Lisbon, with BLACK LABEL SOCIETY and TESTAMENT along for the whole thing. It visits 12 of the 22 markets where the band's self-titled final album landed in the Top 5.
That record entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 with 73,000 equivalent album units in the week ending January 29, 2026, 69,000 of which were pure sales. It also topped the charts in Australia and Austria and hit No. 2 in Finland, Sweden and Belgium.
The current lineup is Mustaine, guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari, bassist James LoMenzo and drummer Dirk Verbeuren.
Source: blabbermouth.net