"Set the World Afire" is a song by the American

thrash metal Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...

band

Megadeth Megadeth is an American thrash metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1983 by vocalist/guitarist Dave Mustaine. Known for their technically complex guitar work and musicianship, Megadeth is one of the "big four" of American thrash metal along wit ...

. It is the second track from their third studio album, '' So Far, So Good... So What!'', which was released in 1988 by

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

Development

"Set the World Afire" was the first song frontman

Dave Mustaine David Scott Mustaine (born September 13, 1961) is an American musician. He is the co-founder, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and primary songwriter of the thrash metal band Megadeth, as well as their sole consistent member. Mustaine has releas ...

wrote after being kicked out of Metallica. On the topic, Dave Mustaine said "The first song that I wrote on my way back from New York was written on the back of a cupcake wrapper, if you can believe that." The song was originally titled "Megadeth", inspired by a political pamphlet Mustaine had read on the bus ride after being kicked out. After the band decided to use the song title for the name of the band, they retitled the song to "Set the World Afire".

Music and lyrics

The lyrics of the song are about nuclear holocaust. The beginning of the song features a quiet sample of "

I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" is a pop song written by Bennie Benjamin, Eddie Durham, Sol Marcus and Eddie Seiler. It was written in 1938, but was first recorded three years later by Harlan Leonard and His Rockets.

", a 1941 song by

The Ink Spots The Ink Spots were an American pop vocal group who gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s. Their unique musical style presaged the rhythm and blues and rock and roll musical genres, and the subgenre doo-wop. The Ink Spots were widely a ...

Live

"Set the World Afire" was played at the first ever Megadeth concert, with

Kerry King Kerry Ray King (born June 3, 1964) is an American musician, best known for being the co-lead guitarist and songwriter of thrash metal band Slayer. He co-founded the band with Jeff Hanneman in 1981 and remained a member for nearly four decades. ...

on guitar. After the band changed their name, the song was known as "Burnt Offerings", and possibly "No Time". A bootleg

CD-R CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can be written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most CD readers manufactured prior to the in ...

of their first show was also named Burnt Offerings, after the early title. A live performance on September 7, 2005 in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, was included as track 3 on That One Night: Live in Buenos Aires. When played, some fans yell about it being "the cupcake song!".

Personnel

Production

* Produced by Paul Lani and Dave Mustaine * Engineered by Paul Lani with Matt Freeman * Mixed by

Michael Wagener Michael Wagener (born 25 April 1949) is a German former music producer, mixer, and engineer from Hamburg, best known for his work with many top glam metal and heavy metal bands in the late 1980s. He is particularly renowned for his multi-amping an ...

* Executive produced by Tim Carr * Mastered by

Stephen Marcussen Stephen Marcussen is the founder and chief mastering engineer at Marcussen Mastering in Hollywood, California, United States. He has been mastering music since 1979. Biography Marcussen's introduction to music recording happened in 1976 when, at ...

References

{{Megadeth 1988 songs Megadeth songs Songs written by Dave Mustaine Songs about nuclear war and weapons