Dave Mustaine’s Rust in Peace: The Inside Story of the Megadeth Masterpiece dives into the chaotic birth of 1990’s metal opus

It’s a near-miracle that Megadeth‘s 1990 album, Rust in Peace, a huge progression for the band and one of the most lauded thrash metal albums of all time, came together at all. With singer/guitarist Dave Mustaine and bassist Dave Ellefson in and out of rehab battling crippling addictions to drugs and alcohol and two new members to integrate into the band (guitarist Marty Friedman and drummer Nick Menza), Rust in Peace was birthed in near-chaos. Dave Mustaine dives into that tumultuous period of the band’s history in Rust in Peace: The Inside Story of the Megadeth Masterpiece (Hachette), a new oral history book that details the insane circumstances that created the classic fan-favourite album.

Although credited to Dave Mustaine (with Joel Selvin, author of the great Altamont), the book is really an oral history of that era of the band, with substantial input from Ellefson, former guitarist Marty Friedman (who entered the band right before the album), the band’s minders/bodyguards from that period, and many more. That setup provides a conversational tone as if all the participants were sitting around and telling stories of their halcyon days, but given the simmering acrimony between many of the participants, that’s fairly unlikely.

The oral history structure does present some drawbacks; there are often two subjects detailing the same story back-to-back, without any new input or perspective. On a particularly fun and petty point, it’s clear that Mustaine has seen everyone else’s comments in advance; he’s the only one (his name is on the cover, after all) who gets to respond to the others, giving him the final say in all matters of the band’s story.

In some ways, Mustaine’s control of the narrative says as much about the band’s messy internal dynamics as any of the stories in the book. While the bickering between ex-members is nothing new, there are plenty of incredible stories here, from the insane amount of drugs Mustaine and Ellefson were ingesting on a daily basis to incredible tidbits like how Pantera’s guitarist Dimebag Darrell almost joined the band — they wouldn’t also take his brother, Pantera drummer Vincent Paul, so the deal was off.

With valuable insights into the chaotic period leading up to the album, a track-by-track analysis of every song on the album by Mustaine, and a sometimes catty Behind-The-Music feel, Rust in Peace is a must-read for Megadeth and metal fans in general, while serving as a highly-readable look at a band that narrowly escaped total self-destruction to create one of the most celebrated thrash metal albums of all time.

Rust in Peace: The Inside Story of the Megadeth Masterpiece is available now.