Capitol Punishment: The Megadeth Years

Capitol Punishment: The Megadeth Years
Greatest hits album by Megadeth
Released	October 24, 2000
Recorded	1986-2000
Genre	Heavy metal, hard rock, thrash metal, speed metal
Length	1:05:53
Label	Capitol
Producer	Various
Megadeth chronology
Risk (1999) Capitol Punishment: The Megadeth Years (2000) The World Needs a Hero (2001)

For the article on the death penalty, see Capital punishment. For the professional wrestling event, see WWE Capitol Punishment.

Capitol Punishment: The Megadeth Years is a greatest hits album by heavy metal band Megadeth, released in 2000, through Capitol Records. The album featured the Dave Mustaine/David Ellefson/Jimmy DeGrasso/Al Pitrelli line-up on the new tracks "Kill the King" and "Dread and the Fugitive Mind". The album features a hidden track, "Capitol Punishment", which is a medley of numerous previous Megadeth songs.

Background

The title of the album is an allusion to the band's persistent difficulties with their record label, Capitol Records. Megadeth ultimately left Capitol and signed with Sanctuary Records, but were contractually obliged to release one further album with Capitol, hence the greatest hits compilation. With the exception of material from the band's debut album, Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!, which was released on Combat Records rather than Capitol, the compilation contains songs from all Megadeth's previously released albums at the time, in reverse-chronological order. In addition to the new track "Kill the King", Capitol insisted on the inclusion of "Dread and the Fugitive Mind", a track recorded for the album The World Needs a Hero, then in the production stage. The band agreed simply to release themselves from their obligations to Capitol, but the enmity between band and label was memorialized in the title of the album, intended to demonstrate that working with Capitol was a form of punishment. It is out of print. As of December 2005, Capitol Punishment had sold 200,000 copies in the U.S.^[1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Drowned in Sound	(8/10) [3]
Q	[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[5]

Nick Lancaster of Drowned in Sound criticized the compilation for including too many tracks from albums like Cryptic Writings and Risk instead of earlier, heavier material. Lancaster took particular aim at the inclusion of the "ludicrously moronic" "Crush 'Em". Despite that, he did give praise to the two then-new songs "Dread and the Fugitive Mind" and "Kill the King", citing them as a "return to form."^[3]

Similarly, Steve Huey of AllMusic also criticized the album for focusing more on commercial material at the expense of the band's earlier thrash material, as we as the exclusion of soundtrack songs like "Go To Hell", "Angry Again" and "99 Ways to Die". Huey summed up the compilation as "more of a sampler for casual fans", finding the release "too incomplete" and "too scattershot" otherwise.^[2]

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Album	Length
1.	"Kill the King"	Dave Mustaine	Mustaine	New song for this release (2000)	3:46
2.	"Dread and the Fugitive Mind"	Mustaine	Mustaine	New song, later featured on The World Needs a Hero (2001)	4:26
3.	"Crush 'Em"	Mustaine, Bud Prager	Mustaine, Marty Friedman	Risk (1999)	4:59
4.	"Use the Man"	Mustaine	Mustaine, Friedman	Cryptic Writings (1997)	4:37
5.	"Almost Honest"	Mustaine	Mustaine, Friedman	Cryptic Writings	4:04
6.	"Trust"	Mustaine	Mustaine, Friedman	Cryptic Writings	5:12
7.	"À Tout le Monde"	Mustaine	Mustaine	Youthanasia (1994)	4:31
8.	"Train of Consequences"	Mustaine	Mustaine	Youthanasia	3:28
9.	"Sweating Bullets"	Mustaine	Mustaine	Countdown to Extinction (1992)	5:04
10.	"Symphony of Destruction"	Mustaine	Mustaine	Countdown to Extinction	4:03
11.	"Hangar 18"	Mustaine	Mustaine	Rust in Peace (1990)	5:13
12.	"Holy Wars... The Punishment Due"	Mustaine	Mustaine	Rust in Peace	6:35
13.	"In My Darkest Hour"	Mustaine, David Ellefson	Mustaine	So Far, So Good... So What! (1988)	6:19
14.	"Peace Sells"	Mustaine	Mustaine	Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? (1986)	4:04
Total length:					1:06:21

Hidden track (US version)

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Album	Length
14.	"Capitol Punishment" (Hidden medley track)	Mustaine	Mustaine	New song for this release	5:17

Bonus track (Japanese version)

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Album	Length
15.	"Wake Up Dead"	Mustaine	Mustaine	Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?	3:40

Charts

Year	Chart	Position
2000	Billboard 200	66
	New Zealand	41

Year	Single	Chart	Position
2001	"Kill the King"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	21

References

1. http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=45667
2. Allmusic Review
3. Drowned in Sound Review
4. Album reviews at CD Universe
5. Brackett, Nathan; Christian Hoard (2004). The Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York City, New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 534. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.