Youthanasia is Megadeth’s sixth album, released in on Halloween in 1994. This album is a lot darker than their previous albums. The songs sound similar to Countdown, but a lot more serious. It is the first Megadeth album to have 12 tracks (the most they have ever had). Youthanasia is the band’s longest album. Youthanasia is also different from their previous albums in that they built their own studio, recorded near where they (except Nick) lived, in Arizona, recorded as a band, and wrote all the songs while they were recording. Nothing from the past influenced this album. The band acted as a tetrarchy, instead of Mustaine leading and Ellefson second-in-command.
This album, like Countdown, also does not feature Vic Rattlehead on the cover. Instead, it features their most elaborate cover to date: babies hanging from a clothesline. Some old lady is “hanging them out to dry.” The clothesline of babies stretches out for miles. The sky is very dark. The Megadeth logo is compressed, and is now a very dark metallic color. The title is only on the side part of the CD, where it is usually black, but here, it is clear. This cover relates to a lyric in the title track “Youthanasia,” “We’ve been hung out to dry.” Vic appears on the back of the CD as “Father Vic,” wearing a black cloak and holding a baby. A picture in the booklet shows Father Vic in an alleyway holding a baby upside down while an old lady looks on in horror (her back is to us). The cassette does not feature Vic Rattlehead.
This album marked the band’s first venture into the Internet, their web site Megadeth, Arizona, at the time located at bazaar.com. It was originally just to promote the album, and was supposed to be up for 3 months only. It was so popular, it stayed on until May 1995 (it started in October 1994). At that time, an awards ceremony was held and the web site was turned into a ghost town rather than taken down. It stayed that way until 13 June 1997, when it was resurrected.
There
were three videos released off this album, “Train Of Consequences,” “A
Tout Le Monde,” and “Reckoning Day.” “A Tout Le Monde” was banned
from MTV because it deals with suicide, in particular, the line, “Moving
on is a simple thing…” It is currently not available anywhere except
on the web, at
Reckoning Day
(Music by Mustaine/Friedman;
Lyrics by Mustaine/Ellefson)
I like the way that I make you itch
And all the reasons I give you to bitch
And how I make you wanna scream in pain
And feel your life is just a losing game
I like the way that you let me in
The way you look when the walls cave in
I like the way that your stomach knots
And how you cry for it all to stop
I like the way that you fool yourself
And make believe there’s nobody else
I like the way that you stand in line
And beg salvation from the empty skies
Chorus
Don’t want no revenge
Ain’t no pay back time
It ain’t called getting even
Here comes the reconing day
I like the things that you try to fake
And your face when I see you break
And that you say you will pray for me
You realize you are prey for me
I like the way you stay on attack
No matter what, I keep coming back
And how you try to hold me down
But you end up driven to the ground
Chorus
Chorus
Train Of Consequences
(Music & Lyrics by Mustaine)
I’m doing you a favor
As I’m taking all your money
I guess I should feel sorry
But I don’t even trust me
There’s bad news creeping up
And you feel a sudden chill
How do you do? My name is Trouble
I'm coming in for the kill…
In for the kill…
Ooh, and you know I will
Chorus
Set the ball a rollin
I’ll be clicking off the miles
On the train of consequences
My boxcar life o’ style
My thinking is derailed
I’m tied up to the tracks
The train of consequences
There ain’t no turning back
No horse ever ran as fast
As the money that you bet
I’m blowing on my cards
And play them to my chest
Life’s fabric is corrupt
Shot through with corroded thread
As for me I hocked my brains
Packed my bags and headed west…
I hocked my brains…
Headed west
Chorus
Solo
Chorus
Addicted To Chaos
(Music & Lyrics by Mustaine)
Only yesterday they told me you were gone
All these normal people will I find another one?
Monkey on ny back, aching in my bones
I forgot you said, “One day you’ll walk alone.”
I said I need you, does that make me wrong?
Am I a weak man, are you feeling strong?
My heart was blackened, it’s bloody red
A hole in my heart, a hole in my head
Pre-Chorus
Who will help me up?
Where’s the helping hand?
Will you turn on me?
Is this my final stand?
Chorus
In a dream I connot see
Tangled abstract fallacy
Random turmoil builds in me
I’m addicted to chaos
Light shined on my path,
Turn bad days into good
Turn breakdowns into blocks, I smashed ’em cause I could
My brain was labored, my head would spin
Don’t let me down, don’t give up, don’t give in
The rain comes down, cold wind blows
The plans we made are back up on the road
Turn up my collar, welcome the unknown
Remember that you said
“One day you’ll walk alone”
Pre-Chorus
Chorus
Solo
Pre-Chorus
Chorus
Chorus
A Tout Le Monde
(Music & Lyrics by Mustaine)
Don’t remember where I was
I realized life was a game
The more seriously I took things
The harder the rules became
I had no idea what it’d cost
My life passed before my eyes
I found out how little I accomplished
All my plans denied
So as you read this know my friends
I’d love to stay with you all
Smile when you think of me
My body’s gone that’s all
Chorus
A tout le monde
A tout mes amis
Je vous aime
Je dois partir
These are the last words
I’ll ever speak
And they’ll set me free
If my heart was still alive
I know it would surely break
And my memories left with you
There’s nothing more to say
Moving on is a simple thing
What it leaves behind is hard
You know the sleeping feel no more pain
And the living are scarred
Chorus
Solo
So as you read, know my friends
I’d love to stay with you all
Please smile, smile when you think about me
My body’s gone that’s all
Chorus
Chorus
Elysian Fields
(Music by Mustaine;
Lyrics by Mustaine/Ellefson)
Uneasy feeling, burning out my eyes
I hope the end is less painful than my life
I stand on trial before the gods
On judgement day
A blink of an eye between
The cradle and the grave
Pre-Chorus
One last look at visions of flesh
The last best hope of man on earth
Pontius Pilate still washing his hands
The world don’t want to be saved
Only left alone
Chorus
(Elysian Fields…) We are storming the heavens
(Elysian Fields…) To raise the swords and sheilds
(Elysian Fields…) We ascend to our destiny
(Elysian Fields…) To the Elysian Fields
Soaring to the sun
With blood upon their wings
Superstitious dust left twisting in the wind
Man still has one belief,
One decree that stands alone
The laying down of arms
Is like cancer to their bones
Pre-Chorus
Chorus
Harmonica Solo
Chorus
Chorus
The Killing Road
(Music & Lyrics by Mustaine)
Again we stalk the stage
At mach speed we engage
Feeding people’s rage
The big cat’s left it’s cage
Back in the bus again
To catch another plane
This behavior’s quite insane
But we do it for the fame, yeah
Chorus
I lost my mind, I lost all my money
I lost my life to the killing road
I lost my mind, I lost all my money
I lost my life to the killing road
The road will never end
It always starts again
Another show’s around the bend
Another long lost friend
Faceless as the snow
There’s nothing special about the road
It’s just another haul
It’s just too damn long that’s all, yeah
Chorus
Solo
Chorus
Chorus
Blood Of Heroes
(Music & Lyrics by Mustaine)
Walking stiff let me tell ya
Better left for dead
And now we are on a mission
Well it’s full speed ahead
My legion’s when we do the crime
Let’s get one thing straight
To get there early is on time
And showing up on time is late
Ladies and gents, we’re still alive
By the skin of our teeth, now it’s killing time
Angel in our pocket, devil by our side
We ain’t going nowhere ’cause heroes never die
Chorus
Still alive
Blood of heroes
Never die
They never die
Still alive
Blood of heroes
Never die
They never die
We’ve been run down every hill
Chased up all the dead end streets
But if you try to cut us out
You’ll get a kick in the teeth
Ladies and gents we’re still alive
By the skin of our teeth, now it’s killing time
Fasten up our head belts,
Time to ride the skies
It’s time to be immortal, 'cause heroes never die
Solo
Chorus
Blood of heroes
Blood of heroes
Blood of heroes
They never die
Still alive
Blood of heroes
Never die
Blood of heroes
(Repeat)
Family Tree
(Music by Mustaine/Ellefson/Menza;
Lyrics by Mustane)
Forgotten things remembered
The tigers eat their young
The body stayed but inside the head
The mind was on the run
Conspiracy of silence
The only way out of pain
Is turn around, run through it man
Too wet to come in from the rain,
Tell them...
Pre-Chorus
I know they were doing it to you
But don't try doing it to me
Chorus
Let me show you, how I love you
It’s our secret, you and me
But keep it in the family…
When you hear them saying “trust me”
Don’t wait to see what’s next
Thrown to the wolves forever trusting
Raised in a form of living hell
Sing a one note song of rage
Live and die within your heart
So beware in the shadows
Your family tree waits in the dark
I say...
Pre-Chorus
Chorus
Let me show you, how I love you
It’s our secret, you and me
Let me show you, how I love you
But keep it in the family tree
Let me show you, how I love you
It’s our secret, you and me
Let me show you, how I love you
The secret of the family tree
Solo
Chorus
Let me show you, how I love you
It’s our secret, you and me
Let me show you, how I love you
But keep it in the family tree
Let me show you, how I love you
It’s our secret, you and me
Let me show you, how I love you
The secret of the family tree
(Repeat Chorus)
Youthanasia
(Music & Lyrics by Musaine)
Who’d believe with the way things are here
We’d be going anywhere telling people how to live?
Who’d belive we’d spend more shippin’ drugs and guns
Than to educate our sons? Sorry, that’s what they did
Chorus
I can’t help but think,
I can’t help but think,
I can’t help but think,
Someone’s foresaken you and me
Luck deserted me and the truth beat out my brains
Men rise on stepping stones of their selves to higher things
I’ve stepped over lots of bodies on my way
Thanks for the information don’t need no more anything
Chorus
We are the damned of all the world
With sadness in our hearts
The wounded of the wars
We’ve been hung out to dry
You didn’t want us anyway
And now we’re making up our minds
You tell us how to run our lives
We run for Youthanasia
Solos
We are the damned of all the world
With sadness in our hearts
The wounded of the wars
We’ve been hung out to dry
You didn’t want us anyway
And now we’re making up our minds
You tell us how to run our lives
We run for Youthanasia
We are the damned of all the world
With sadness in our hearts
The wounded of the wars
We run for Youthanasia
I Thought I Knew It All
(Music by Mustaine/Ellefson/Friedman/Menza;
Lyrics by Ellefson/Mustaine)
Somewhere there’s a reason
Why things go like they do
Somewhere there’s a reason
Why somethings just fall through
We don’t always see them
For what they really are
But I know there’s a reason,
Just can’t see it from this far
Pre-Chorus
Maybe I don’t like it, but I have no choice
I know that somewhere, someone hears my voice
Maybe I don’t like it, but I have no choice
I know that somewhere, someone hears my voice
Chorus
I thought I knew it all (I thought I knew it all)
I thought I had it made (I thought I had it made)
How could it end this way? (How could it end this way?)
I thought I knew (I thought I knew)
Somewhere there’s a reason
Why things don’t go my way
Somewhere there’s a reason
That I cannot explain
Just like the change of season,
Just may not be my turn
But I know there’s a reason,
The lesson’s mine to learn
Pre-Chorus
Chorus
Solo
Chorus
I thought I knew
Thought I knew…
(Repeat)
Thought I knew
Black Curtains
(Music by Mustaine/Friedman;
Lyrics by Mustaine)
Hey… look around you
Everything’s helter skelter
Listen up… I warn you
Run for cover, run
Bang… it happened
Time’s up, armageddon
Fire… meltdown
The sky is crumbling in
Chorus
Black curtains… never ending
Black curtains
Escape... you’re joking
Can’t find no place to run
Hair… is burning
My flesh is bubbling up
Blood… is boiling
Taste copper on my toungue
Fate… is coming
Welcome it with a smile
Chorus
Black curtains… never ending
Black curtains… fall
Am I dreaming? My heart pounds my chest
Held for ransom in a spider’s web
Suffocating, no one hears my calls
Never ending, till the black curtain falls
Solo
Snakes… surround me
Offering their death kiss to me
Down… I’m drowning
How long, I hold my breath
My legs are paralyzed
Pray... don’t find me
My life is fading fast
Chorus
Black curtains… never ending
Black curtains… fall
Black curtains… never ending
Victory
(Music & Lyrics by Mustaine)
Now, one day I started telling everyone
That “Killing Is My Business…” and I was hung like a martyr
For “Looking Down the Cross” my “Skull Beneath The Skin”
Prophisized “Last rites/Loved to Death” my friends
Then I started seeing “Bad Omens” in my head
“Good Morning/Black Friday” will I “Wake up Dead”?
If “I Ain’t Superstitious” then this won’t mean a thing
But some crazy shit has happened since “The Conjuring”
Pre-Chorus
Not even close…
Not even close…
Not even close…
To overdose
Chorus
Had fingers in my eyes, had needles in my veins
A knife right through my heart, I am a Victory
Had fingers in my eyes, had needles in my veins
A knife right through my heart, I am a Victory
Came “Anarchy” to “Set the World Afire”
Pain of “Hook in Mouth”, “In My Darkest Hour”
Corruption of the world “Peace Sells… But Nobody’s Buying”
Ignorant religion “Holy Wars” and the dying, yea
“Tornado” nearly got me By the “Skin of My Teeth”
“This Was My Life”,“Forclosure of My Dreams”
May the past “Rust in Peace” in “Hangar 18”
And “Countdown to Extinction” Just be a bad dream
“Lucretia” said…
Pre-Chorus
Chorus
Solo
Pre-Chorus
Chorus
Chorus