They won’t admit it publicly lest it undermine their credibility as fight sport journalists, but several SAVSCI staffers are reportedly as stoked about seeing MEGADETH perform live at Affliction: Banned as any of the fightin’ on the card. In an informal survey of the staff “Hangar 18″ was voted the favorite song performed by the band. Here they are in a clip from 2005 performing it live in Argentina. Most of you already know this, but at the end of the song you’ll hear a couple of the sickest guitar solos ever performed by humans.

LITTLE KNOWN FACT: Megadeth was given guided tours of both Hangar 18 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio *and* Area 51 in southern Nevada during recording of the “Rust in Peace” album on which the aforementioned song appears making them some of the few, if not only, people without high military security clearance to ever see inside. Then President George Bush Sr. commented in 1990 that “few things are more important than our nation’s security, but heavy metal is obviously one of them” before shouting into the microphone “MEGADETH RULES!!” while making the classic Ronnie James Dio ‘devil horns’ gesture with both hands.***

and while we’re at it, here’s a live clip of “Sleepwalker” from the band’s latest album “United Abominations”. That this album exists at all has to be considered nothing short of a miracle. In 2004, bandleader Dave Mustane announced that Megadeth wouldn’t record any future music as he turned his attention to a solo career. Then, in May 2007 like a freak thunderstorm bringing life to the parched desert of American music the band released “United Abominations”. The magnetic waves caused by the album’s sheer awesomeness briefly closed the US financial markets and disrupted air travel.***

***this isn’t really true…