"It's a place where the military intelligence is housing alien aircraft and alien life-forms. Not that I subscribe to this point of view or any of that kind of b. s., but Nick is way into it. I mean, the guy thinks that Jesus was a Martian." Dave Mustaine The best line-up of Megadeth Dave Mustaine, David Ellefson, Marty Friedman and Nick Menza began with 1990's Rust in Peace, a peak effort from the band, in a peak year for thrash metal. 1990 also saw insanely heavy albums by Anthrax, Slayer, Ministry and Pantera, but Megadeth, as usual, had the most to prove. "Holy Wars" was great if you watched a lot of CNN, but uber-geeks hold the ultimate level of respect for "Hangar 18." The first half of the song is carried by an infectious hook, simple yet classically-influenced, with lyrics about the oft-mentioned United States Air Force base east of Dayton, Ohio. The facility has long been thought by conspiracy theorists to house captured extra-terrestrial life. Or it could be full of planes. Who knows? The protagonist of the song, in true, paranoid, Mustaine style, fears knowing too much, as much a nod to H. P. Lovecraft as to believers in aliens. The rest of the song features a guitar duel between Mustaine and Friedman, still hummable to this day. The music video almost does the song justice, and has its own unique charm. Kids watching MTV in 1990 were not expecting to see E. T. suffer the wrath of a surgical saw.
Check out "The Champ" by my alter ego, Greg Forrest, in Heater #12, at http://fictionmagazines.com.
I used to do a mean Glenn Danzig impression. Now I just hang around and co-host The Workprint podcast at http://southboundcinema.com/.
