This is the strongest, angriest Megadeth album of them all. It has "REVENGE" written all over it in blood. When Dave Mustaine got kicked out of Metallica and saw them making hits out of his own songs he decided enough was enough. He formed Megadeth and played faster, heavier and better than Metallica. Noticeably, "Mechanix" is the perfect example of Mustaine's thirst for vengeance, as it pissed all over Metallica's slower version, "The Four Horsemen".
Dispite the production the whole album was very solid... until Nancy Sinatra heard the spoof of one her songs, "Boots Are Made For Walking". Her agents demanded ludicrous royalties and so the band made the difficult decision of dropping the song from further copies of the album. Even thought it later reappeared on the deluxe edition, it was censored. The Sinatra gang believed the new lyrics were unacceptable and would not allow Megadeth to use the song unless they dropped the words.
However, if you have a CD burner, do what I did... Buy this version if you can't find the original in second hand shops, then download "These Boots" and burn a new copy with the song as track 4. Try a european version of that search engine (the one with a black dog... can't tell you what it's called) and type "Megadeth Boots" in the mp3 section, they'll deliver a pretty good quality file.
I hope I don't get my arse kicked for advertising here.

I'll keep this short. This is a great thrash album and a groundbreaker of the genre. It easily compares to Metallica's "Kill 'Em All" and definitely influenced the entire thrash scene. It also contains some great songwriting and has a very "hungry" performance.

I would *NOT* however, recommend that you begin your Megadeth experience here. The album is somewhat poorly produced, with some midrange EQ problems that make it sound a bit like somebody is playing it in another room than the one you're in. They also added a bit too much reverb, presumably to cover Dave's voice up. Dave's voice is raw, to say the least. But the lo-fi actually works to a degree and if you like raw production (i.e. black metal fans) it shouldn't bother you greatly.

Note that the older copies have "These Boots" which is a great cover/adaptation of the old Nancy Sinatra hit. You will *NOT* get that song on the newer releases.

I recommend this to round out your Megadeth collection after getting the other albums up through and including "Rust in Peace." Or if you just like early, raw thrash, it's a good listen.

I was only 4 when Dave Mustaine got booted from Metallica and to this day, i'm 26 now, you can't mention the name Megadeth without someone being a smartass and throw dirt at you like you talked about a communist party in the american parlament. Metal fans should unite because we have more in common than what separates us. For the record, Megadeth's music is unique and not a watered down version of Metallica's as some ignorant people put it that have never actually heard a Megadeth song in their life.

Moving on to the music...

Megadeth's debut album can best be described as an uncontrolled beast let out on mayhem. The raw energy of this album is unique from anything else that i've heard.
The guitars spark and the solos are in your face shreiking and the drums add a dimension being jazzy yet metal from the late Gar Samuelson whom had his roots in jazz music.
On this album you can hear the first of Dave Mustaines amazing abilities as a composer with inticrate arrangements and classic riffs.
The lyrics are somewhat infantile on many songs and you can hear that Dave Mustaine has yet to master the art of writing lyrics. All in all this is a classic album in the genre of thrash.
Unfortunatley the production is not the best and it appears as the music is coming from one mic placed in a corner of the room far away from the instruments. Not very good at all. Considering that the band members where heavy drug addicts at the time you can't really blame them for fireing the producer half way through the recording process doing things their own way. For it is also part of the history and myth that they created being gods of metal. Well they were a few years ahead of themselves...

Allright, I have the remastered version of this album. And you know what? I think it sucks. Why does someone want to have a THRASH metal album remastered? Thrash metal sounds best with a raw production. I really don't understand how people say they can't hear the instruments clearly on this original release. Do you need a hearing aid? I can hear the instruments just fine. I do agree that the drums are a little in the background, but that is the only problem I have with this version of the album. Think about it, many of the great metal albums have bad productions. Noone complains about those, but they sure have whined about this one ever since it was released. Oh well, I'll talk about the album and quit complaining myself.

This album is not quite your average metal music. It is highly technical and fast. It doesn't sound like ANYTHING you've heard before. There is nothing average about this album, and it is raw, reckless and totally unpredictable. There are NO other bands that have this kind of musical originality. Dave SHREDS on this album. His solos scream. Gar Samuelson is THE drummer on this album. To put it one way, this kind of music honestly makes you want to kill. I have never heard such a truly angry album like this. People say Slayer is brutal, but they just are too cheesy sounding for me. This album possesses true anger. If you want to hear something different from the same old predictable beats, try this out. When you hear the beginning of Loved to Death, you'll know what the attitude is.

I really didn't like this cd at first. I thought it sounded horrible, and I couldn't understand a single word said. But it grew on me rather fast and it is now one of those discs that is always in my car when I'm going somewhere. Dave and crew are remastering this cd, so I expect a better sounding version to be out within the next 6 months. And please, lets get something straight here... Mustaine was in Metallica, and Mechanix was his song. Its on the "No Life Till Leather" Metallica demo tape from when Dave was still in the band. Metallica did use a lot of stuff Mustaine contributed to though... Look at the liner of "Kill Em All" and you'll see.

As for the songs included in this cd, I really like every one of them. I wish I could fast forward through the into "Last Rites" every once in a while, depending on my mood, but that is a minor thing. My favorites are: ever song on the cd. Like I said, it may take a while to warm up to, but once you do, you won't be able to put it down.

To those of you who have read the bad reviews of this cd here on Amazon, I highly recommend that you give it a listen for yourself. Personally, I think this is some of the most unique music in my collection. Buy it.

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