10 Times Megadeth Did It Better Than Metallica
9. Who Did It Better?
After Mustaine’s dismissal, what would become of the riffs he created? Firing the lead guitarist at the beginning of their recording sessions for their debut album, Metallica had no time to bin Mustaine’s work, so carried on using it. Mustaine, quick to form his own band, had equal rights, so he decided to use the riffs too.
In 1983’s Kill ‘Em All, the seven-minute-long track, The Four Horsemen, is a Heavy Metal classic containing a riff replicating a Thrashy gallop mimicking the song’s title. It is a strong entry in Catalogus Metallica, but as Mustaine once quipped in the Rude Awakening Tour, ‘there's two ways you can hear this next song. There’s our way, then there’s their way. For those of you that think this their way, this song is called The Mechanix!’
Noticeably on The Mechanix - which featured on Megadeth’s debut album, Killing Is My Business… - the main riffs are the same, but Megadeth plays the song at a true Thrash speed of 256 bpm, whereas on the album, Metallica chug along at 203 bpm. While that isn’t a massive difference, the preferred style of each band in the early days was fast and energetic, and Megadeth just pulls it off with more skill.
On the album, Metallica inserted several different riffs into the song, including their best riff during the call out section, however, they also included a parody of Sweet Home Alabama, which makes the song comical. Megadeth kept it simple, kept it raw, and kept it theirs.