It’s quite usual these days that the vast majority of the classic albums are getting the reissue treatment and the labels are trying to cash in as much as possible money with the extra material providing the inducement for the consuming fans. The question is: does this extra material is sufficient enough to make us buy once again the same album? This time our attention is drawn to Megadeth’s debut album “Killing Is My Business…And Business Is Good” which has been reissued, remixed and remastered. As a matter of fact and it is…supplemented with an extra phrase on its title (“The Final Kill”) to underline to the newly resurrected material.
Let’s state, right from the start, that this is not a review of the original album…this took place 33 years ago! So, what we are doing is taking a good look at the bonus tracks and the overall sound quality. The latter aspect is incredibly improved due to Ted Jensen’s and Mark Lewis’ superb job in the remastering and remixing departments. This is definitely the way that Mustaine wanted the album to sound in 1985 but due to the low budget this wasn’t of course possible. Having said that, I believe that this advanced sound actually takes something away from the raw quality of the original album. Let’s see what else we have here…7 live tracks from various Megadeth shows in between 1986 and 1990. These come from Mustaine’s personal archives and they are actually pretty good as they are not retouched at all and they are pretty close to the raw energy of the debut album. As for the 3 demo tracks (“Last Rites/Loved To Deth”, “The Skull Beneath The Skin”, “Mechanix”), they are more or less close to the original versions although they are some minor differentiations that naturally will be noticed by the ever loyal Megadeth die hard fan.
All in all, I’d say that “The Final Kill” is surely a product to be reckoned with although I personally prefer the simpler reissue that came a few years ago. The extra material is good yet not that impressive. The choice is yours…
Highlight: Check out PledgeMusic for more limited editions of the reissue…
