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MEGADETH
Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good: The Final Kill
Century Media 2018

MEGADETH’s classic album Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good has come full-circle, the seminal 1985 thrash record is as influential as METALLICA’s Kill ‘Em All, SLAYER’s Reign In Blood, or ANTHRAX’s Spreading The Disease. When Combat Records closed shop years ago the album was out of print. In 2002 [guitarist/singer] Dave Mustaine and [bassist] David Ellefson were approached by Loud Records to reissue a remastered version of the record. The 2002 edition featured deluxe liners with words from ANTHRAX’s Scott Ian, Mustaine and Ellefson, included in the remaster was their cover of “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”, though in a heavily ‘edited’ form due to the song’s writer Lee Hazlewood’s ‘dislike’ of the bastardized MEGADETH reworked lyrics. The 2002 version of the album closed out with demos of “Last Rites/Loved To Deth”, “Mechanix” and “Skull Beneath The Skin”.

Fast forward to 2018; MEGADETH have reissued the remaster of Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good in The Final Kill form. There is additional content to the Final Kill version that surfaced on the 2002 version; the demos are there, but the new package has select live cuts from the MEGADETH tour behind Killing Is My Business…, new liners and a non-censored version of “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”.

In terms of the original album, not much improvement ‘sonically’ can be made in 2018 from the 2002 version. Don’t get too excited about the inclusion of “These Boots” as it is a word for word version of the original. In fact, judging from the vocal performance it was more than likely recorded in 2017 or 2018 by Mustaine singing along to the original band performance tape. As you know the album features classics like “Rattlehead”, “Mechanix”, which is essentially METALLICA’s “The Four Horsemen” with different lyrics and a snarly vocal, and of course there’s “KIlling Is My Business...And Business Is Good!” The stuff to really rave about on the Final Kill edition is the addition of 7 previously unreleased live tracks from 1986-1987. Sure they’ve been cleaned up, they’re bootleg quality, but there’s musical historical value there of an album that helped pioneer thrash metal. If you didn’t pick up the 2002 version of this album then Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good: The Final Kill is worth picking up; there’s bonus content and it’s a classic.

4.0 Out Of 5.0