Chris Poland

Although Dave Mustaine is frequently cited as the architect behind Megadeth’s razor-sharp early guitar work, Chris Poland supplied a crucial counterpart in the twin-guitar lineup that defined two landmark first-wave thrash albums: 1985’s Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good! and 1986’s Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?, both widely viewed as touchstones for innumerable subsequent bands. Poland entered the world on December 1, 1957, in Dunkirk, NY, where his formative listening leaned toward jazz-fusion rather than metal, prompting a move to Los Angeles in the late ’70s to join a fusion outfit alongside fellow New Yorker Gar Samuelson on drums. Their paths intersected with Mustaine’s in 1984, cementing the classic Megadeth roster completed by bassist Dave Ellefson. Alongside Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, the band helped pioneer thrash metal, drawing from Motörhead and early Iron Maiden while pushing back against the dominant hair-metal climate of the era. The Mustaine-Poland-Ellefson-Samuelson configuration looked poised to rank among metal’s enduring greats, yet Poland and Samuelson departed in 1987 amid strained conditions widely attributed to pervasive substance issues within the group. Poland briefly played bass for the Circle Jerks before issuing his solo debut, Return to Metalopolis, in 1990. Over the ensuing years he continued releasing occasional solo efforts and one-off projects with Damn the Machine and Mumbo’s Brain, while contributing to Megadeth on a limited studio basis—appearing on demos for 1990’s Rust in Peace and on 2004’s The System Has Failed. He remains active with OHM and has guested on Lamb of God’s As the Palaces Burn (2003) and Ashes of the Wake (2004).