Rust in Peace: The Inside Story of the Megadeth Masterpiece
Rust in Peace: The Inside Story of the Megadeth Masterpiece book cover

Rust in Peace: The Inside Story of the Megadeth Masterpiece

Hardcover – Illustrated, September 8, 2020

by
Price
$15.67
Format
Hardcover
Pages
208
Publisher
Hachette Books
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0306846021
Dimensions
6.55 x 1 x 9.3 inches
Weight
14.8 ounces

Description

Apple Books Bestseller Geeks of Doom, "Fall 2020 Book Recommendations", "Holiday Gift Guide" Consequence of Sound, "Holiday Gift Guide" Jam Base, "Top Music Books of 2020" UDiscoverMusic, "Best Heavy Metal Gifts for Christmas" "You cannot discuss heavy metal without mentioning Dave Mustaine and Megadeth. I've known these guys since their beginning. We took them on their first national tour. This is one of the bands that sharpened the cutting edge of metal. This book tells the roller coaster story of their iconic album Rust in Peace and delves into their personal struggles to keep it all together while dealing with addiction. This struggle and eventual success is one of the things that make Dave Mustaine and Megadeth as a band so compelling. They went through it all and then some, and they came out the other end of it. It's one of the things we have in common. I am proud to have had a small hand in their sobriety during this period of their career. This book is a must read for metal fans. Herein lies their story-Glory, Destruction and Redemption."― Alice Cooper "I have a tremendous amount of respect for Dave Mustaine. Dave's always stayed true to himself and has never been interested in chasing musical trends. If you ask me that's been the key to Megadeth's success and longevity in this business."― Ozzy Osbourne "Rust in Peace is an album that means so much to so many it's worthy of this book solely dedicated to it. And now I can't wait for the movie!"― Scott Ian of Anthrax "The drug-fueled mayhem, the riots, the riffs. The triumphs and the tragedies, no holds barred. I already considered myself a knowledgeable Megadeth aficionado, but I could not put this book down! I thoroughly enjoyed taking the trip with 'Deth on a journey that, against all odds, leads us up to the rebirth of the band and one of the true masterpieces of the Thrash Metal genre."― Michael Amott ofArch Enemy "An amazing and frank look into the behind the scenes of the making of one of the greatest albums in heavy metal history."― Brian Slagel, Chairman/CEO, Metal Blade Records " Rust in Peace is probably the greatest Megadeth recording ever. Great line up, great songs and great sound. I admire Dave's style to this day. He really plays his ass off on this!!"― Kerry King of Slayer "With a foreword by Guns n' Roses' guitarist Slash, and a who's-who of music industry participants, this rollicking history is a no-brainer for metal fans."― Publisher's Weekly "An appropriately spiky telling of the tale of a dangerously spiky record."― Kerrang! "[This book]xa0offers a vulnerable insight into the tension within the band and Mustaine’s struggles with addiction."― UDiscoverMusic “An honest and unfiltered look at the most important era in the long, illustrious career of one of the greatest Metal bands of all time.”― Metal Talk Dave Mustaine is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist who has been performing for close to four decades. He is currently the lead vocalist and guitarist of the American heavy metal band Megadeth. His memoir, Mustaine , was a New York Times bestseller. He lives in Nashville. Joel Selvin (coauthor)xa0has covered pop music for the San Francisco Chronicle since 1970. He is the author of Fare Thee Well , Altamont , and coauthor of Sammy Hagar's bestseller Red , among many more. He lives in San Francisco.

Features & Highlights

  • Get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Megadeth’s iconic record,
  • Rust in Peace
  • , from the band’s lead vocalist and guitarist.
  • When
  • Rust in Peace
  • was released in 1990, the future of Megadeth was uncertain. Fresh off their performance at the record-breaking Monsters of Rock festival, and with knockout new albums from Slayer, Anthrax, and Metallica dominating the charts, the pressure to produce a standout statement record was higher than ever.
  • In
  • Rust in Peace: The Inside Story of the Megadeth Masterpiece
  • , the band's lead vocalist and guitarist, Dave Mustaine, gives readers a never-before-seen glimpse into the artistry and insanity that went into making the band's most iconic record. He recounts the arduous task of hiring the band and supporting cast, of managing egos and extracurriculars during the album's ensuing success, and succumbing to the pressures of fame and fortune—which eventually forced the band to break up.
  • And yet, Megadeth's demise was just the beginning; the birth pangs of the record were nothing compared to what came next. Alcohol, drugs, sex, money, power, property, prestige, the lies fed to the band by the industry—and the lies they told each other-threatened to eat away at the band's bond like rust, devouring it until only the music survived.
  • Featuring a foreword by Slash

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(965)
★★★★
25%
(402)
★★★
15%
(241)
★★
7%
(113)
★
-7%
(-113)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Ugh

At less than 200 pages you don’t expect much depth. I’d been waiting to read this since RIP is one of the best thrash albums of all time and I knew a bit of the history of Megadeth at the time. The book is written as block quotes from key players. That’s fine but the spacing and indentation makes this book much shorter than even the 200 pages suggests. Furthermore there is zero depth unless you count “we smoked weed then did heroin, then we got tired so we did cocaine, then we got too amped up so we did more heroin”. Repeat page after page. Intersperse with “we went to rehab but wanted drugs so we left or did them in rehab”. Repeat again. End of book. Such a disappointment further increasing my disdain for the two Dave’s.
39 people found this helpful
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Some nuggets, some score settling, big egos

Liked:
* Brutal honesty
* Everyone had their say
* Songs’ inspiration
* Admission of wasted opportunities

Disliked:
* No real mention of the fans
* Camp out way too long on the drug addictions
* HUGE egos and megalomania
* Mustaine always getting the last word

If you’re a fan of this album, it’s an interesting read, and simply amazing that they pulled this together. Even though I think Mustaine is an amazing guitar player and songwriter, I definitely had less respect for him after reading this - at best, he’s a class A jerk.

There is plenty of discussion and drama about the business side of the band that I honestly wish I could unread and forget ... I get it’s a fact of the business but it’s really ugly to read the former band members acrimoniously bickering over what was undoubtedly a team effort that required all 4 to perform at their very best. If that kind of drama is your thing, then have at it.

About half of the book delves deep into their drug use. I get that this presented a huge obstacle to overcome, but a lot more of the book could have been devoted to more meaningful and fan centric topics. What I was hoping for was a lot of discussion on how each song was conceived, crafted, produced, argued over etc. There is minimal treatment of this, basically 5 pages of a nearly 200 page book. Basically you get Mustaine claiming that it all came from him and he just needed the band members to serve as session musicians to get it done, followed by a brief summary of each song. All in all, I found it an ok, but somewhat disappointing read even though Rust in Peace is probably one of my top 5 favorite albums.
24 people found this helpful
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A mediocre read

I would recommend Mustaine's biography. This one though... uh, ummm. Only the true die-hard Megadeth fan will like this one. Rust in Peace is one of my fav albums of all time. But very little about making that album or the actual songs in this book. All about drug abuse. And a whole chapter for Mustaine and how much he loves his future wife. No thanks. I like metal and I like to read, but this is nothing more than a money-grab by Dave Mustaine. Save your money, folks!
11 people found this helpful
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A mediocre read

I would recommend Mustaine's biography. This one though... uh, ummm. Only the true die-hard Megadeth fan will like this one. Rust in Peace is one of my fav albums of all time. But very little about making that album or the actual songs in this book. All about drug abuse. And a whole chapter for Mustaine and how much he loves his future wife. No thanks. I like metal and I like to read, but this is nothing more than a money-grab by Dave Mustaine. Save your money, folks!
11 people found this helpful
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If you want the story behind the album (for true Megafan droogies) ...

Well done. All the different people involved in the production have their say about the band around the time of RIP. Marty Friedman! You rock! I love the honesty he shows around the failed reunion efforts. After reading all sides, I completely understand why it did not happen. Dave M. in his usual self promoting self -- Jr. is his usual diplomatic self. The other figures around the album get to speak their minds, and it comes across as a document into a place in time. The drug use stories in the beginning of the book are hard to read, but the fact that such a great work of metal came out of the pit are due to the great musicianship and dedication to their craft of all involved. God bless!
6 people found this helpful
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Just ok...

If you've read Mustaine's bio and Ellefson's two recent books, you really don't need this one. Much of it is a re-hash of those. I was under the impression this book would deal solely with the making of Rust in Peace, and there are portions that indeed do so. However, much more of this book is about band activities before and after the album, so I feel like I was kind of misled. As usual, Mustaine bad mouths everyone else for his shortcomings so nothing new in that regard. This is more a cash grab than a retelling of a historic classic album.
6 people found this helpful
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Not well written, very repetitive, and flat.

I’ve been a Megadeth fan since 1993 (mainly their first 5 albums) and I’ve meet the band twice - during the Youthanasia and Cryptic Writings touring cycles (Capitol Records parties). All the members of the band during that era were more than nice to a high school kid meeting his metal idols. All except Mustaine. Each time he was a jerk and he clearly didn’t care that he was being nasty to a 15/18 year old kid who was in awe just being in his presence. Nick was super nice (jumped over the sofa just to sit next to me and ask how I was doing and suggest we get a picture), Marty wanted to talk about growing up in Maryland, and David wanted to know what I liked most about the band and what other bands I was into. Dave on the other hand didn’t want to sign anything, which was fine, and he didn’t want to talk to me or my friend. He just stood by the sofa or table (catered) and made rude comments to me and whomever engaged him. When I asked him what he enjoyed the most about being in Megadeth he said “what kind of stupid f’n question is that? I am Megadeth.”Anyway, the book...

I found it to be nothing more than Dave being Dave - he had some sort of rebuttal or smart comment in reply to someone else’s statement or recollection throughout the whole book. He always had to be right. Despite him saying in the book that he wanted Megadeth to be a band and not Dave and a group of players (paraphrasing), he clearly didn’t try to make that happen based on what he shared.

The book doesn’t feel like it should only have his name on it. If anything it should have Pam’s, Marty’s, David’s, Mike’s, and Chuck’s name on it too... they did contributed to it just as much as Mustaine did (based on what made it to paper). The book is set up like an interview with each person chiming in (with out hearing the interviewer’s voice). Yes Mustaine “wrote em’ all” before getting kicked out of Metallica, but he clearly didn’t write this book... they all “wrote.” It’s just a bunch of interviews, one liners, and re-telling retellings.

It’s an easy, not well written read. I found Ellefson’s book to be a better read, but just as poorly written. Rust in Peace, the book gives you insight into Dave’s smarminess and past drug addictions (and David’s), but it’s nothing a Megadeth fan doesn’t already know. It doesn’t go into great detail, it just rehashes the same info four or five times. Just get it from the library if you’re really interested in reading it. I borrowed it from a friend and read it in a couple of days. You can get the gist of it from just about any online article/interview pertaining to the topic.
4 people found this helpful
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So Far, So Good ... That's What!

The book reads fast and is full of first person accounts.

At first, I was iffy about the interview structure of the book. I can see how it works as a defensive move -- everything is either corroborated or refuted right on the spot. (Though, who had the final edit, huh?)

It's good to get all the perspectives on each incident. Switching constantly from one person to the next, though sometimes breaking the flow, mostly makes for a good back-and-forth.

The biggest disagreements are around the publishing and the attempted reunions. Of course, I wasn't there (or I'd be in the book!) for recordings, but I favor Mustaine on this argument. There's perhaps some confusion around composition and performance. If the songs are written, then doing instrumentation of bass or drums in the studio is performance, not composing, in my interpretation.

One tragic missing voice is Menza. One hopes that Ellefson's and Friedman's points of view balance the accounts.

If you are well versed on the trials and tribulations of Megadeth and RIP, maybe there's not a lot new in here for you. It'll still be a trip down memory lane.

For a recent fan, it was all great perspective and a zoom in on RIP more than the book Mustaine did.
4 people found this helpful
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Awesome read

I started listening to Megadeth shortly after RIP came out. While it was Countdown to Extinction that won me over and was the first tour I got to see them live, I always thought RIP was a thrash metal masterpiece. I flew through this book which for me is saying something because I rarely read. I honestly wish there was more detail in this book. Actually I hope Dave eventually does the same for the Countdown album!
2 people found this helpful
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RIP Greatest Thrash Album Ever!

Metalheads, this is a must read if your a Megadeth / Thrash Metal fan. RIP is my favorite album and the way this story is told actually takes you behind the scenes. As if you were there! Great read. \m/
2 people found this helpful

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