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The opening song on the album, "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" finds its thematic inspiration derived from the Northern Ireland conflict, in which the largely Catholic nationalist community were in conflict with the mainly Protestant loyalist community over the sovereignty of the six counties of Northern Ireland. Mustaine's feelings concerning religion, amongst other things, are outlined in the song. In an interview with the UK magazine Guitarist, Mustaine says that he was inspired to write the song in Northern Ireland, when he discovered bootlegged Megadeth T-shirts were on sale and was dissuaded from taking action to have them removed on the basis that they were part of fund raising activities for "The Cause'. Dave liked how "the cause" sounded and unknowingly dedicated a performance of Anarchy in the U.K. to it, where the audience quickly started to riot. Megadeth was forced to travel for the remainder of the tour in a bulletproof bus. This incident further inspired the song, with the popular Marvel comic book character, The Punisher acting as a lyrical inspiration.
Nick Menza thought of the concept for "Hangar 18", a song about UFO conspiracy theories, Area 51 and Hangar 18, a film which was later featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. According to Menza, "Hangar 18 is a military installation that holds UFO artifacts and alien creatures as far as we know." Mustaine remarked that "The idea's based on a place in the four corner state region of the United States... it's a place where the military intelligence is housing alien aircraft and alien life-forms. Not that I subscribe to this point of view or any of that kind of BS, but Nick is way into it."
Politics, warfare, and the environment are some of the main topics explored throughout the album. The track, "Rust in Peace... Polaris", covers the topic of intercontinental ballistic missiles and their effects on the world with "Polaris" referring to Lockheed's Cold War Polaris missile. Mustaine revealed in a March 2012 interview that the track was his third song ever composed while still a teenager prior to joining his first band and was originally titled "Child Saint".
"Take No Prisoners" is a song about Prisoners of war and the killing of not just the enemy, but one's own soldiers, while "Dawn Patrol" is a song about the environment being destroyed by global warming and greenhouse gases, and the life of humans after a nuclear war. "Five Magics" and "Lucretia" are fantasy inspired songs; "Five Magics" is based on the novel Master of the Five Magics and "Lucretia" is about a "ghost who lives in Mustaine's attic". "Tornado of Souls" is about dysfunctional relationships and the hardship of breaking up, and "Poison Was the Cure" is a song about Mustaine's issues with heroin addiction.
Read more about this topic: Rust In Peace
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