Megadeth Plan “Extinction”-Level Event

Following last year’s heavy-duty 25th anniversary box set edition of Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?, EMI is slated to release another expanded anniversary edition from thrash-metal gods Megadeth, celebrating 20 years of their Countdown to Extinction album.

Countdown, the politically charged, hard-driving fifth album from the band, was released at one of the commercial zeniths of heavy metal, with Mustaine’s former band Metallica’s self-titled “Black Album” and Pantera’s A Vulgar Display of Power also earning high critical and commercial marks in 1991 and 1992. Countdown went double platinum – to this date, it’s the band’s highest-selling LP – and spun off Megadeth’s first chart hits. “Foreclosure of a Dream,” “Sweating Bullets” and “Symphony of Destruction” all peaked in the middle ranges of Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Top 40, and the latter track even hit No. 71 on the Hot 100; to this day, it’s the only Megadeth track to have done so.

In traditional EMI deluxe fashion, the deluxe Countdown features the album, remastered and contained in a lidded box with collectible art cards. The package also features a bonus live show recorded at San Francisco’s Cow Palace in December 1992. Parts of this show have surfaced on various CD singles and compilations, as well as the Warchest box set and 2008 compilation Anthology: Set the World Afire, but this is the premiere release of the entire show, newly remixed from the original tapes.

The set is due out on November 6 and will be commemorated with a special tour that same month into December. Hit the jump for the track list and the pre-order link, currently an import-only title.

Countdown to Extinction: 20th Anniversary Edition (Capitol/EMI 50999 978484 2 4, 2012)

Disc 1: Remastered LP (originally released as Capitol CDP 7 98531 2, 1992)

1. Skin O’ My Teeth
2. Symphony of Destruction
3. Architecture of Aggression
4. Foreclosure of a Dream
5. Sweating Bullets
6. This Was My Life
7. Countdown to Extinction
8. High Speed Dirt
9. Psychotron
10. Captive Honour
11. Ashes in Your Mouth

Disc 2: Live at the Cow Palace, San Francisco – 12/4/1992

1. Intro
2. Holy Wars…The Punishment Due
3. Skin O’ My Teeth
4. Wake Up Dead
5. Hangar 18
6. Countdown to Extinction
7. Foreclosure of a Dream
8. This Was My Life
9. Lucretia
10. Sweating Bullets
11. In My Darkest Hour
12. The Conjuring
13. Tornado
14. Ashes in Your Mouth
15. Symphony of Destruction
16. Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?
17. Anarchy in the U.K.

Disc 2, Tracks 2, 10-11 and 15-17 from Limited Edition! Megadeth Live promotional EP (Capitol DPRO-79862, 1992)
Disc 2, Tracks 6 and 14 from “Sweating Bullets” CD single – Capitol C2 07777 15946 2 5, 1992
All other tracks previously unreleased