Symphony of Destruction - Music Video

Music Video

To promote the commercial success of the song as a single, Capitol Records produced a music video in 1992. Directed by Wayne Isham, who also directed the videos for "Train of Consequences" and "99 Ways to Die", the video begins with shots of a burning American flag with the motto For the People imprinted on it, followed by a gun trigger being pulled, and then a man's unblinking eye, foreshadowing the assassination that occurs later in the video. Each member of Megadeth separately appear playing instruments during the video, although none of them are actually seen playing together. Rioting crowds and anarchy are shown in contrast of political figures laughing, which leads to the President and First Lady exiting a limousine to a cheering crowd, where a man with a pistol appears and shoots the president. The remainder of the video consists of nonlinear footage of the band performing and miscellaneous destruction caused by the chaos inflicted by citizens and significant collateral damage.

At first, the song was shown considerably on MTV without any concern, but later the scene where the politician finally gets assassinated was censored, because the assassination scene was deemed "too harsh". The edited version continued to be played on MTV, though to a smaller degree. The controversy was defended by Dave Mustaine, where he stated "I think it's more important that our point got across than the fact of whether or not we had to soften up a certain scene or lose it altogether."