Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?

The album began as a Combat Records project with a $25,000 budget, which let the band hire the freelance producer Randy Burns. The band had started writing it by December 1985. Mustaine said he and Ellefson wanted lyrics that were socially aware, to change how heavy metal was seen. After the sessions for Combat, Tim Carr of Capitol's A&R department approached the band. Capitol bought the rights and hired Paul Lani to mix the final album, with Stan Katayama also credited on the mix. The cover was painted by Ed Repka and shows Vic Rattlehead as an estate agent selling a ruined United Nations headquarters.

Dave Mustaine sang and played guitar, with David Ellefson on bass, Chris Poland on guitar and Gar Samuelson on drums. Willie Dixon's I Ain't Superstitious, first recorded by Howlin' Wolf in 1961, was the only song not written by Mustaine. The band toured with Motorhead, were pulled from the last three shows over disagreements between the two managements, and then opened for Alice Cooper in early 1987.

Reception and reissues

The album reached 76 on the Billboard 200 and was later certified platinum in the United States. Pitchfork, reviewing the 25th anniversary edition, called it Megadeth's "second but first truly great album" and wrote that it treats Satan and nuclear missiles with the same awe because both are great villains. Ellefson said Dimebag Darrell, then known as Diamond Darrell, told him the album changed his life. It appears in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and Rolling Stone placed it eighth on its 2017 list of the 100 greatest metal albums.

Mustaine remixed and remastered it in 2004, adding four Randy Burns mixes as bonus tracks. The 25th anniversary edition of July 2011 added a live disc recorded at the Phantasy Theatre in Cleveland on 3 June 1987, with liner notes by Mustaine and Lars Ulrich.