580 Hello Megadeth - Wake Up Dead

Chart  entered : 19  December  1987

Chart  peak : 65

Number  of  hits : 11

The  third  thrash  metal  group  to  break  through  in  1987  left  it  until  the  end  of  the  year.

We  already  met  Dave  Mustaine  in  the  Metallica  post. He  was  the  original  lead  guitarist  for  them  but  was  sacked  in  1983  over  problems  with  substance  abuse.  He  got  together  with  bassist  David  Ellefson  ( born  1964 )  to  form  a  new  group . The  name  was  taken  from  a  political  pamphlet  about  nuclear  destruction. After  protracted  auditions  they  took  on  Gar  Samuelson   as  drummer  and  Dave  decided  to  take  on  the  lead  vocals  himself.  Another guitarist  Chris  Poland  ( born  1957 )  joined  just  before  they  signed  a  deal  with  New  York  independent  label  Combat  Records.

Their  debut  album  "Killing  Is  My  Business..and  Business  Is  Good !"  was  released  in  June  1985. Dave's  declared  aim  for  the  band  was  to  be  "faster  and  heavier"  than  Metallica. He  got  the  first  part  right ; the  album's  short   with  most  of  the  songs  coming  in  at  under  4  minutes  but  generally  it  sounds  like  a  lighter  take  on  Metallica's  sound  for  all  the  lyrics  about  sex, death  and  the  occult. Dave's  vocals, from  the  theatrical  school  of  Bruce  Dickinson  and  his  like,  are  no  better  than  adequate  and  the  production  is  thin  because  the  band  spent  most  of  their  advance  on  drugs  and  alcohol. Nevertheless , the  album, from  which  no  singles  were  released, drew  a  favourable  reception  from  the  metal  community  It  also  got  major  labels  interested  in  the  band  and  although  Combat  funded  the  initial  sessions  for  the  next  album , Megadeth  signed  with  Capitol  who  took  over  the  project.

"Wake  Up  Dead"  was  their  first  single  in  the  UK, coming  from  their  second  album  ,"Peace  Sells  But  Who's  Buying ?"  but   released  more  than  a  year  after  the  album  came  out  in  the  States. I  can't  account  for  this; they  had  played  some  UK   dates  in  1987  but  they  were  much  earlier  in  the  year.

"Wake  Up  Dead"  had  zero  crossover  potential. Dave's  spartan  lyrics  about  an  adulterer's  fear  of  his  partner's  murderous  ire  are  just  tunelessly  growled  linking  passages  between  displays  of  guitar  pyrotechnics  split  roughly  50/50   between  solos  and  heavy  riffing   with  changes  in  time  signature  to  prove  their  musical  prowess. Definitely  one  for  converts  only.

And  that's  it  for  1987  which  seems  to  have  taken  forever.