In a new interview with Ultimate Guitar, Chris Poland shared what he didn’t like about ‘Peace Sells.’
“That genre exploded,” the guitarist replied when asked whether 1986 was the best year for classic metal albums. “And it was the bands you just mentioned were the bands that started that genre. Once it caught on, it started a whole avalanche of bands like that.”
He continued, “And then all the bands today, a lot of those really heavy bands, they came out of that. But it was very bizarre, man. When me and Gar [Samuelson] first started playing that, Gar told me, ‘This stuff’s super challenging, so you’re gonna really like it.’ And I did. It was fun to play. It was challenging.”
“But I just wish we would have been more on top of our ‘tone game’ when we made ‘Peace Sells.’ But hey, people argue with me about that all the time. They’re like, ‘No, man, you couldn’t have made that record sound any better,’ they tell me. And I finally just say, ‘Yeah, I guess so,'” Poland revealed.
The musician ended his answer, saying, “And I do like the original, but I like what Dave did when he remastered and re-recorded everything. I do like that, too.”
Producer Randy Burns previously praised Megadeth’s performance on ‘Peace Sells.’ Dave Mustaine joked he had ‘Polanditis’ for praising Chris Poland so much. Burns and the band knew the album would be huge.
“It was the only time in my entire career where I walked in, heard the band and went, ‘Holy sh*t, this is going to be a hit record,'” he explained during an interview on the Disturbing the Priest podcast.
Burns added, “I was totally blown away by Chris Poland. He was just such a talent. [There] was a little bit of tension between me and Dave Mustaine, [because] it was obvious that I was infatuated with Chris’s playing. I mean, he has this beautiful tone, and this legato thing, and everything’s so melodic. Dave, not so much. Dave was more typical metal guy, although his overall composition was very, very good.”
“He resented my paying attention to Chris so much. His comment was, ‘You’ve got Polanditis, I know what this is about,'” he concluded.
Megadeth’s second album ‘Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying?’ arrived on September 25, 1986. David Ellefson and Gar Samuelson also joined Poland and Mustaine.
