Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! - Overview

Overview

Two months after lead guitarist Dave Mustaine was fired from Metallica due to drinking, drug use, violent behavior and personality conflicts with James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, Mustaine and bassist Dave Ellefson formed Megadeth in Los Angeles. Mustaine later said, "After getting fired from Metallica, all I remember is that I wanted blood. Theirs. I wanted to be faster and heavier than them".

Fueled by the desire for revenge, Mustaine elevated the intensity of Megadeth's music, speeding up existing songs such as "Mechanix," which Metallica's new line-up adapted into the slower paced "The Four Horsemen." Also, the song "Last Rites/Loved to Deth" reinterprets the introduction of Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 by Johann Sebastian Bach, speeding up the tempo. "Mechanix" is a song which Metallica reworked and retitled "The Four Horsemen". Mustaine included his original version of the song on the album to "straighten Metallica up", as Metallica referred to Mustaine as a drunk and said he could not play guitar.

After unsuccessfully searching for a vocalist for nearly six months, Mustaine decided to handle lead vocal duties himself, while also serving as the band's primary lyricist, main songwriter, and co-lead and rhythm guitarist. Early in 1984 Megadeth recorded a three song demo, and on the strength of their demo, Megadeth was asked to be signed with the New York based independent label Combat Records. Early in 1985, the band was given $8,000 by Combat Records to record and produce their debut album. However, after spending half of the album's budget on drugs, alcohol, and food the band was forced to fire their original producer and produce the album themselves, at the Indigo Ranch Studios, in Malibu, California.

The album features the first of many covers performed by Megadeth: a speed metal version of Nancy Sinatra's classic "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", with lyrics altered by Mustaine. The song sparked controversy in later years when the song's original author, Lee Hazlewood, deemed Mustaine's changes to be "vile and offensive" and demanded that the song be removed from the album. Under threat of legal action, the song was removed from all pressings released after 1995. In 2002, however, the album was re-released with an edited version of the song, with the altered lyrics bleeped. In the 2002 re-issue liner notes, Mustaine is strongly critical of Hazlewood, and notes that Hazlewood received royalties for almost 10 years before objecting to the altered version.