Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! is the debut album by the American heavy metal band Megadeth. It was originally released in June of 1985 through Combat Records. The album received positive reviews, even from mainstream music critics
. The deluxe edition, completely remixed and remastered and featuring a new cover and several bonus tracks, was released by Loud Records in 2002.
The album's artwork, featuring a plastic skull with tinfoil, was not
intended to be the original artwork. Both guitarist/vocalist
Dave Mustaine and bassist
Dave Ellefson
had many phone conversation with Combat records to get the cover
artwork properly reproduced from a sketch given to them by Mustaine of a
picture of Megadeth mascot Vic Rattlehead
on the cover. However the studio lost the artwork, and instead made
their own and improvised the low-budget replacement, which Mustaine and
the whole band were mortified with.
"These Boots" was on the original pressing of the album, but deleted from subsequent pressings due to legal issues with the song's writer, Lee Hazlewood. It was later added back onto the 2002 remaster, albeit with edit beeps everywhere a lyric change was made.
On June 4, 2009, a newly available Limited Edition of the album was
released in Digipack LP Miniature CD. The CD itself is made to look like
a mini LP and is pressed on black plastic with grooves on the top to
imitate a LP
, this version has the original cover which was lost and "These Boots" was removed again.
Tracklist :
1. Last Rites/Loved to Deth
2. Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good!
3. The Skull Beneath The Skin
4. Rattlehead
5. “Chosen Ones”
6. Looking Down The Cross
7. Mechanix
8. These Boots
9. Last Rites/Loved To Deth (demo)
10. Mechanix (demo)
11. The Skull Beneath The Skin(demo)
Line Up :
- Dave Mustaine - lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, piano
- Chris Poland - rhythm and lead guitar
- Dave Ellefson - bass guitar, backing vocals
- Gar Samuelson - drums, timpani
