Last November and December, Megadeth blazed hot on the band’s “Countdown to Extinction 20th Anniversary Tour,” ripping through their entire double platinum 1992 album from start to finish before performing other classics from their recorded catalog. On the 27th September, Capitol Records/Universal Music will release Countdown to Extinction: Live, a definitive document of the acclaimed, sold-out tour. Recorded and filmed at Los Angeles’ Fox Theatre last December.

In addition to Megadeth’s blistering performance of the entire Countdown to Extinction album, including the essential “Symphony Of Destruction,” “Foreclosure Of A Dream,” “Sweating Bullets,” and “Skin O’ My Teeth,” Countdown to Extinction: Live features all of the other Megadeth classics the band performed at the epic concert, including “Holy Wars” and “Hangar 18” from 1990’s Rust in Peace, “Peace Sells” from the band’s influential, platinum certified 1986 album, Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?, and “Trust” from 1997’s platinum certified Cryptic Writings.

Megadeth’s fifth studio album, Countdown to Extinction was recorded in Los Angeles in 1992.

American tensions weren’t limited to LA, as the Gulf War was still fresh in people’s minds, the state of the environment was becoming headline news, and out of this turmoil, Megadeth was inspired to create Countdown to Extinction, considered by many to be the band’s best and most accessible album. None of their previous records were as polemical as the sonic missiles launched by ‘Countdown.’ Megadeth laced the songs with acid-tongued commentary about subjects ranging from the futility of war (“Architecture of Aggression”) to the senseless brutality of caged hunting (“Countdown to Extinction”). “Foreclosure of a Dream” sampled George Bush’s infamous “Read my lips” speech, making a statement about taxation endangering the American Dream.