MEGADETHwill release an ultra-limited “Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good!” 40th-anniversary box set on October 17.
Housed in a deluxe custom box with a resin-molded top and limited to 350 copies, this collector’s set includes:
* Metallic Gold 12″ Vinyl LP
* Hand-Signed 12″ x 12″ Lithograph
* Zoetrope Slipmat
* Metal Laser-Engraved Business Card
* 4″ Embroidered Patch with Merrowed Edge
* 3′ x 5′ Flag (Replica of Original Backdrop)
* 2-Sided Challenge Coin with Carrier Sleeve
* 20-Page 7″ x 10″ KIMB Zine
Hailed as “The Best Thrash Metal Debut Album All Time” (VH1),“Killing Is My Business…And Business Is Good!” was originally made available on June 12, 1985 on the small, New York-based independent record label Combat Records.
The LP was recorded with the lineup of Dave Mustaine on guitar and vocals, David Ellefson on bass, Chris Poland on guitar and Gar Samuelson on drums.
A few years ago, Mustaine told Guitar World magazine about MEGADETH‘s debut effort: “When our record and [METALLICA‘s] ‘Ride The Lightning’ and the SLAYER record and the ANTHRAX record were all out, that was one of the coolest times to be alive. Metal was huge and we were having so much fun. For MEGADETH, that was kind of like our senior year. And ‘Killing Is My Business’ was kind of like a summing up of everything about growing up for us.”
Regarding the recording process for “Killing Is My Business…And Business Is Good!”, Mustaine said: “Going into Indigo Ranch [Studios in Malibu, California] I was really excited. But we get there and [early MEGADETH associate] Jay Jones and Chris Poland roll in, and half the recording budget has been spent on food and drugs. It’s very well-chronicled, and it’s been talked about for [more than] 35 years. Everybody knows that happened. We had an $8,000 budget and we commenced making a $4,000 record. I was pissed. I was absolutely pissed. Any hope of us having a relationship was shattered. From that point forward Chris Poland was just a player in a band. And Jay Jones‘s time was marked.”
MEGADETH has spent the last few months recording its seventeenth studio album, due later in the year. The LP will be released via Mustaine‘s Tradecraft imprint with the Frontiers Label Group‘s new imprint BLKIIBLK.
MEGADETH is once again working with Chris Rakestraw, a producer, mixer and engineer who previously worked on MEGADETH‘s last two albums, 2022’s “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!” and 2016’s “Dystopia”.
MEGADETH‘s current lineup includes guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari, who joined the band a year and a half ago as the replacement for Kiko Loureiro.
Mäntysaari stepped in September 2023 for Loureiro, who announced earlier that month that he would sit out the next leg of MEGADETH‘s “Crush The World” tour in order to stay home with his children back in Finland. It was later revealed that the now-38-year-old Finnish musician would continue to play guitar for MEGADETH for the foreseeable future, with Loureiro seemingly having no plans to return.
Mäntysaari was born in Tampere, Finland and began playing guitar at the age of 12. In 2004, he joined the band WINTERSUN. He has also been a member of SMACKBOUND since 2015.
