Speaking with Colorado Springs radio station KILO 94.3 about Megadeth's new compilation release, Warheads On Foreheads, frontman Dave Mustaine looked back on the Risk album and the departure of guitarist Marty Friedman, which Mustaine believes was ultimately due to a solo that should have been but did not make it into the song "Breadline".

Mustaine: "Had Risk maybe not been recorded by Marty and recorded by somebody else, it could have been a different record. Probably the definitive straw that broke the camel's back was when Marty had a solo on a song called 'Breadline' and the label and management took it off and put a solo I had on there. And he freaked. That was it. It was sad. I love Marty. They (the label) didn't like his solo on 'Breadline'. I said 'There's three ways to do it: You either mute it, you have him come back, or I do it,' and they said, 'Well, he's not coming back, we're not paying for him to come back, and there needs to be a solo there, so you have to do it.' I said, 'I'll do it, but you have to tell him.' When we were listening to the final mixes, he's sitting there and he's totally excited, ready to listen to his solo on 'Breadline' because he loved that song and he loved the solo he did. It was a really beautiful solo, too, but it wasn't right. The solo went down and he heard my solo, and I looked over and he had tears going down his face. And I thought, 'You bastards. You didn't tell him.' And that was it. That was all it took for Marty. He quit. Although he stayed... on the outside, his body was there, but on the inside, his soul was gone."

Check out the interview clip here.

On March 22nd, Megadeth celebrated their 35th anniversary with the release of Warheads On Foreheads, a 35-track career retrospective. The anthology spans their entire studio recording career, from their first album Killing Is My Business… to their 2017 Grammy Award winning release Dystopia, and will be available as a 3-CD set, a 4-LP set and a digital edition via UMe Recordings. A limited edition, four-LP set pressed on silver colored vinyl will be available exclusively through the band’s online store, with deluxe bundles to be announced. Visit this location for details.

A very short trailer for the album has been released and can be viewed below.

“Thirty five years ago I chose the name Megadeth for my band and I see these songs as the most efficient weapons in the bands arsenal,” says Dave Mustaine. “WOF is a U.S. military term for targeting efficiency,” Mustaine continues, “it’s all about using the right tool for the job and these tracks were created for maximum destruction (or stopping power, or something else!)”

In 1984, Dave Mustaine was determined to start a new band that would be heavier and faster than his peers. Mustaine’s songwriting was rapidly maturing, and he set about combining the attitude and energy of punk, with the power and intricate riffing of metal, along with direct, sociopolitical lyrical content. With David Ellefson on bass and Gar Samuelson on drums, the band recorded their infamous 3-song demo which quickly circulated through the underground tape-trading circuit and became an underground hit leading to a deal with Combat Records.

Warheads On Foreheads starts at that beginning with the early thrashers “Rattlehead” and “Mechanix” from the band’s 1985 debut Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good, an album that would lay down the blueprint and establish Megadeth as forerunners of what would later be called thrash metal (and recently hailed by VH1 as the Greatest Thrash Metal Debut of All Time).

Megadeth was quickly signed by Capitol Records and released their 1986 major label debut Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?, which became the band’s first certified gold record and would go on to become Megadeth’s first platinum selling release. Featured on Warheads On Foreheads are “The Conjuring” and the track “Good Mourning/Black Friday”. Other songs included are “In My Darkest Hour” from their platinum selling So Far, So Good, So What! (1988), “Hanger 18” and “Holy Wars…The Punishment Due” from their Grammy nominated, platinum album Rust In Peace (1990), and “Symphony of Destruction” and “Sweating Bullets” from their 1992 Grammy nominated, double platinum release Countdown To Extinction.  Also featured are “A Tout Le Monde” and “Reckoning Day” from their 1994 platinum selling release Youthanasia, “Kingmaker” from their 2013 Top Ten release Super Collider, which hit #3 on both the Hard Rock Albums and Top Rock Albums charts, “She-Wolf” from the Grammy nominated, Top Ten release Cryptic Writings (1997) and the title track from the band’s most recent album Dystopia.

Upon its release in 2016, Dystopia reasserted Megadeth’s place at the top of the metal world, equaling the chart impact of their early nineties output, earning the band their first Grammy, as well as rave reviews.

Megadeth burst onto the scene thirty five years ago, virtually inventing a genre and selling more than 38 million albums worldwide, earning numerous accolades including a 2017 Grammy Award for “Best Metal Performance” for the title track “Dystopia,” 12 Grammy nominations, and scoring five consecutive platinum albums. With sheer determination and a relentless recording and touring schedule, Megadeth worked their way up from headlining clubs to headlining arenas, festival and stadiums, cementing a legacy that continues to grow and spread throughout the world.

Order the 3CD and 4LP sets here. For the limited edition exclusive silver colored vinyl, head here.

3CD tracklisting:

Disc 1
"Rattlehead"
"Mechanix"
"Killing Is My Business…And Business Is Good!"
"The Conjuring"
"Wake Up Dead"
"Devils Island"
"Good Mourning / Black Friday"
"Set The World Afire"
"In My Darkest Hour"
"Holy Wars…The Punishment Due"

Disc 2
"Hangar 18"
"Tornado Of Souls"
"Rust In Peace…Polaris"
"Five Magics"
"Take No Prisoners"
"Skin O' My Teeth"
"Angry Again"
"Symphony Of Destruction"
"Sweating Bullets"
"A Tout Le Monde"
"Train Of Consequences"
"Reckoning Day"

Disc 3
"Trust"
"She-Wolf"
"Wanderlust"
"Dread And The Fugitive Mind"
"Blackmail The Universe"
"Washington Is Next!"
"Head Crusher"
"Public Enemy No. 1"
"Kingmaker"
"The Threat Is Real"
"Poisonous Shadows"
"Death From Within"
"Dystopia"