My favorite by Megadeth that is. I believe Dave Mustaine is an immensely talented individual that just kind of cracks me up with his choice of lyrics and topics for his songs.
they also had pretty epic album art
Megadeth is classified (mostly) as thrash metal and this album is credited with launching Megadeth into the "mainstream" metal circuit. It depends on your perception whether or not that is a good thing but I would imagine that since getting more notice from the public normally means more money, I would be willing to bet that Megadeth was comfortable with it. IGN named "Rust in Peace" one of the most influential metal albums of all time.. and i would imagine they are not alone in this opinion. Even though the album is 28 years old I can put it on and still appreciate pretty much all of it.
There are only 9 songs on this album but the best part is that they are 9 good songs. I have purchased albums in the past that cost just as much as this one but only 2 or even 1 song on the album was any good (Helmet.) I would prefer a shorter album where all the songs are pretty awesome.
The funny thing about Megadeth's choice in song topics is that it is pretty much all over the place and I have to believe that Dave's (he normally writes all the songs) interests are probably similar to my own in that he features fantasy and sci-fi in his songs, as well as a little bit of politics / global issues.
"Holy Wars" is a song about how stupid well, wars over religion, are.
"Killing for religion.... something i don't understand"
The next track entitled "Hanger 18," is obviously about aliens and shows how Dave believes they have / had them in New Mexico.
Whether or not you believe in that sort of stuff doesn't take away form the fact this is a great song and has some great riffs and epic guitar solos in it.
have a listen:
this was probably considered quite great production value in 1990
The rest of the album features songs about how we are destroying the environment followed by a song about wizards that have to master magic in order to overthrow an evil ruler. It is called "Five Magics" and is one of my favorite tracks on the album. This is followed by a song that you can't really tell what it is about called "Tornado of Souls." Upon doing some research it turns out the song is about his recent failed relationship.
That's a very wide range of topics for one album.
If you enjoy metal but don't like to get too hardcore, this might be a great album to check out.
As always I welcome your comments and criticism.