Marty Friedman Says “Symphony of Destruction” Might Be Megadeth’s “First Pop Song”

Ask any Metallica fan what they think was the first “pop” song the iconic thrash metal act ever wrote, and a good chunk will likely say either “Nothing Else Matters” or “Enter Sandman.” Two iconic songs from a time period in metal where bands were trying to find their footing in the early 90s. For Megadeth fans, the question is a little harder. Is it off of Youthinasia? Cryptic Writings? Risk?

For ex-Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman, the answer may be the band’s most streamed track on Spotify — “Symphony Of Destruction.” The suggestion came during a recent interview with Brazil’s Gustavo Maiato (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).

“I wrote a lot about this in my autobiography. I have a autobiography called Dreaming Japanese, and I wrote in great detail about the writing process in Megadeth. And an important thing that I wrote in the book was the fact that no matter whose name was on the song, whose credit, all four bandmembers worked exactly the same amount of time on that writing. They all worked the same amount of time songwriting, starting the song from zero and completing it.

“And so if I remember, ‘Symphony Of Destruction’ was on the second album that I did with the band, and at that time I was more comfortable in the band because I’d been in the band for almost two years. And it was maybe our first pop song. It was like a pop song, if you could say that. And I was glad because you’ve gotta have pop songs if you wanna reach massive amounts of people. And I think we did it without losing our heavy metal fans, you know what I mean? You can make a pop song, but if you lose your core audience, it’s not something that we wanted to do.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Friedman was asked about the difference between the music that Megadeth wrote with him in the lineup versus the music that came before and after him. And of course, he was super cool and diplomatic about the whole thing.

“Oh, definitely. In my opinion, completely. Megadeth was a great band before I joined and they were a great band after I left. But my era in Megadeth has its own particular sound and a particular look, and I think it’s very different from all of the other eras. And, yeah, it was very cool.”