Megadeth had many guitarists since it was founded by Dave Mustaine and back in 2017 he ranked the best guitarists that were in the Thrash Metal band in his opinion. Mustaine is the only musician that is in the band since the beginning.
The 8 best Megadeth guitarists ranked by Dave Mustaine:
8 – Jeff Young
Jeff Young was in MEGADETH from 1987 to 1989 and played on the “So Far, So Good… So What!” album.
7 – Chris Broderick
Chris Broderick was in the band from 2008 to 2014 and played on the albums “Endgame”, “Th1rt3en” and “Super Collider”.
6 – Mike Albert
Mike Albert was in the band as a touring member only, having temporarily replaced Chris Poland on a 1985 tour. He never played on a Megadeth album.
5 – Al Pitrelli
Al Pitrelli was in Megadeth from 2000 to 2002. He only played on the album “The World Needs A Hero” back in 2001.
4 – Chris Poland
Chris Poland was a member of Megadeth from 1984 to 1987 and a session musician in 2004. He played on the band’s debut album “Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good!”, in the classic album “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?” and “The System Has Failed” (2004).
3 – Glen Drover
Glen Drover was in the band from 2004 to 2008 and played the guitar on 2007’s “United Abominations” album.
2 – Marty Friedman
Marty Friedman was in the band from 1990 to 2000 and played the guitar on the classic albums “Rust In Peace”, “Countdown To Extinction”, “Youthanasia”, “Hidden Treasures”, “Cryptic Writings” and “Risk”.
1 – Kiko Loureiro
The Brazilian guitarist Kiko Loureiro left Angra and joined Megadeth in 2015 and recorded the band’s acclaimed album Dystopia (2016).
In an interview with Music Radar back in 2012 he talked about the talented guitarists that played in the band too:
“I was just thinking that the other day. Of course, the fans all have their own favourite guitar players in the band besides me. Some are very vocal, some even spiteful in the things they say… quite often their favourite will be whoever was in the band when they got into Megadeth.
“I wouldn’t ever deny anyone of that – if someone prefers Marty [Friedman], we did several albums together, that’s totally fine. I don’t need our fans to like every single thing I’ve done for me to respect them. You can like only one thing of mine and hate everything else; I’ll still be grateful for that.”
Megadeth
The group was formed in 1983 after Dave was fired from Metallica. Since then, the band has released 15 studio albums, four live albums, two EPs and five compilations. The band has gained international fame and became well known for always changing their lineup due to Mustaine’s constant personality issues and the fact that the singer didn’t want band addicts on his tours (even though he knew he had serious drug problems himself).
Megadeth sold 38 million records worldwide, earned platinum certification in the United States for six of its fifteen studio albums, and received twelve Grammy nominations. They won their first Grammy Award in 2017 for the song “Dystopia” in the Best Metal Performance category. The band’s mascot, Vic Rattlehead, regularly appears on album artwork and live shows.