“Kill the King” by Megadeth

Megadeth's "Kill the King" arrived in 2000 as one of the fresh tracks sweetening the compilation Capitol Punishment: The Megadeth Years, and it went out as a single that same year. Dave Mustaine wrote it alone, words and music, and produced it, with Bill Kennedy engineering, mixing and co-producing.

New songs bolted onto compilations are often an afterthought, but this one drew praise. Drowned in Sound heard a basic riff that does its job, then a chorus that keeps pounding until you're hooked, and reckoned the song earned its spot, unlike the leftover B-sides that tend to fill out such collections. AllMusic called it solid. It kept turning up afterward, on Warchest, Greatest Hits: Back to the Start and Anthology: Set the World Afire, and a music video followed in 2005.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.