Vic Rattlehead

Vic Rattlehead is the mascot of the thrash- and speed-metal band Megadeth. Vic is a skeletal figure who embodies the phrase, "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." His eyes are covered by a riveted-on visor, his mouth is clamped shut, and his ears are closed with metal caps.

His image appears on several Megadeth album covers. When the band started in 1985, he was on their first four album covers (1985–1990). "Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!", "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?", "So Far, So Good... So What!", and "Rust in Peace".

When Megadeth tried to bring back a more 'classic' vibe to their material, they brought out their old mascot. Despite Vic not appearing on any albums or compilations 1991–2000, he returned for the 2001 album "The World Needs a Hero". Since then he has appeared on the band's other studio albums "The System Has Failed", and "United Abominations" (albeit in a different form). Vic is also found on the inside cover of "Youthanasia" and "Countdown To Extinction" and the 2005 compilation "". His portrait image can also be found by joining the spine labels of the 8 albums Mustaine re-released in 2004.

Creation

The mythic creation of Vic Rattlehead is addressed in the song "Skull Beneath the Skin" from the "Killing is My Business... and Business is Good!" album:

Prepare the patients scalp
To peel away
Metal caps his ears
He'll hear not what we say
Solid steel visor
Riveted across his eyes
Iron staples close his jaws
So no one hears his cries

In reality, Dave Mustaine sketched the original drawing of Vic for the cover art, but Combat Records lost the artwork and improvised a completely different result. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyZkVwRuBYQ&feature=related] The original artwork was supposed to be recovered and placed on the re-issue of "Killing Is My Business...and Business is Good!"; however, this never came to pass.

Redesign contest

On January 29 2006, an official contest was announced on DeviantArt to redesign the Megadeth icon. The contest stated:

After two decades of rocking, the heavy metal band Megadeth’s mascot Vic Rattlehead needs a facelift and the band has commissioned DeviantArt to redesign him!! Not only do you get the chance to redesign a mascot whose image has appeared on several Megadeth albums as well as a myriad of band merchandise, you can also win the BIGGEST prizes we've ever offered for a DeviantArt contest!

The prizes were three different ESP electric guitars. The contest ended on February 14 2006, and was judged by Dave Mustaine with the results posted on DeviantArt on March 15 2006. [http://news.deviantart.com/article/20481/]

Artists

The artists for the various incarnations of Vic include:

* Dave Mustaine (original band logos)

* Edward J. Repka ("Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?" and "Rust in Peace")

* David Jude ("So Far, So Good... So What!")

* Hugh Syme ("Countdown to Extinction", "Youthanasia", and "The World Needs a Hero")

* Michael Mueller (Megadeth edition of VH1's "Behind the Music", Blackmail The Universe concert tour shirts, and the 2002 remastered edition of "Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!")

* Mike Learn ("The System Has Failed")

* John Lorenzi ("United Abominations" and "Warchest")

"United Abominations"

Recently the cover art for Megadeth's new album, "United Abominations", has revealed a redesigned Vic, using artwork from John Lorenzi one of the DeviantArt contest entries, albeit not a winning entry. Vic now appears as an elderly man rather than a skeletal figure, albeit with traits of the Four Horsemen mentioned in the album and shown inside the CD case--he is accompanied by an angel wearing white with blood-stained wings (an allusion to the Pestilence Horseman), has long black hair and a black cloak resembling the black horse of Famine, is wielding various firearms like the sword used by the War Horseman, and has pale, veinous-looking skin like that of Death, and is, of course, shown dealing death on a large scale.

ee also

*Eddie the Head
*Snaggletooth

External links

* [http://www.megadeth.com Megadeth's official website]
* [http://news.deviantart.com/article/20069/ Mascot redesign contest]