Review Summary: Occultism, arena rock and a blues cover
1986 saw the releases of what many would consider genre-defining classics of Thrash Metal with Metallica's
Master of Puppets and Slayer's
Reign in Blood being the most notable examples. Megadeth, in an attempt to forge their own identity, try to hybridize the most successful components of the music of their contemporaries with elements of arena rock, while upgrading the level of musicianship. The result,
Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?, ends up being a somewhat awkward mixture of diverging ideas that lacks a cohesive artistic vision.
Most of the ealy Thrash Metal acts released an energetic and youthful but fairly straight forward debut album and only really came into their own on their second album. Metallica's
Kill 'Em All was fun and sounded fresh but does not measure up to
Ride the Lightning, which was much more ambitious and multi-dimensional. Similarly, Slayer released the stellar
Show No Mercy but
Hell Awaits ended up being ultimately more representative of their style as well as far more influential to the developing underground scene. After the frantic and messy
Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! Megadeth also tried to step up their game for their sophomore release. They looked to their contemporaries for ideas. In this regard, the inclusion of several songs that attempt to explore the more violent and occult side of metal is notable, perhaps motivated by the success of Slayer with incorporating such themes at the time. 'The Conjuring', 'Bad Omen' and 'Good Mourning/Black Friday' all start off with creepy and haunting intros, with the latter two songs conjuring some apocalyptic sentiments, before transitioning into a violent outburst of furious riffs. On these two tracks, however, Megadeth lose sight of where they are heading about halfway though the songs, as the music starts feeling somewhat static, which is unfortunate, given the very effective build up in both tracks. 'The Conjuring' remains fairly convincing throughout but still does not manifest the same level of power and terror as a good Slayer song. I suppose the band noticed that they weren't quite operating within a framework that was suitable for them, considering that they largely dispensed with such ideas on later albums.
'Wake up Dead', 'My Last Words' and the title track incorporate some of the aforementioned arena rock tendencies in form of the bouncy hooks, shouted choruses and an abundance of flashy guitar solos. These tracks end up being fairly upbeat with 'Wake up Dead' featuring Mustaine's best lead guitar work on this album. This isn't saying too much however, since a lot of Mustaine's soloing here is messy and unexceptional (Chris Poland, the second guitarist, is the superior lead player). The title track is fairly uninspired as a metal song, perhaps mainly meant as a vehicle for the lyrical message and to appeal to a larger audience with its catchy phrases and guitar showmanship, which seems especially likely given the fact that a music video for the track was released. 'Devil's Island', perhaps the weakest of the original songs on the album, falls somewhere in between the two aforementioned categories, featuring an intro riff based on what could be considered one of the most cliché ideas in metal along with another hooky, shouted chorus. As such, the album suffers not just from the inconsequential nature of individual tracks, but also from the lack of thematic unity when the album is seen as a whole. The band's decision to include a blues cover on a Thrash Metal further exemplifies this problem.
The few great moments hint at the unrealized potential in this album, which is ultimately short-sightet and caught up between incongruent ideas.
Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? is worth a listen if you are looking for an accessible Thrash Metal album that points into a few different directions in which the genre developed at the time, but the ideas on this album were ultimately realized in a more complete and articulate fashion by other bands.
