In My Darkest Hour

The music of the song was written by band frontman Dave Mustaine in a single sitting after a friend had contacted Mustaine to inform him of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton's passing. Mustaine was frustrated with the members of Metallica for not contacting him personally, stating in an interview:^[5]

I took it really personal because, I figured, "You fuckers, you know we're all brothers in a band and he dies and you have someone else call me?" So I took it very, very, very bad.

The "darkest hour" mentioned in the song refer to general loneliness and isolation, however the lyrics and song subject refer to an ex-girlfriend of Mustaine's.^[5] The song was released as a promotional single for the film The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, in which the song features as part of the film's official soundtrack. Penelope Spheeris stated she had the song close the film "... because everything had been a little light and fluffy before that."^[6] And that she needed something "...more substantial."^[6] The song was first performed live at a Megadeth show at The Stone in San Francisco, California on December 9, 1986 with Burton's parents Ray and Jan in attendance.^[7]

Adrien Begrand of MSN Music, said the song is one of Dave Mustaine's "...greatest achievements as a songwriter" and that it is "an all-time metal classic."^[8] Mike Stagno of Sputnikmusic said that the song: "...could be considered a classic" and that it "...represents Dave's finest writing, lyrically and musically".^[9] Holger Stratmann of Rock Hard, called it an "excellent song".^[10]

The music video accompanying the song was directed by Penelope Spheeris and featured a trimmed version of the song (from 6:16 to 5:12), intercut with interview footage of the band as well as a live performance of the song. The music video was banned from airing on MTV following accusations the lyrics promoted suicide.^[11][12]

In 2012, the Swedish band NonExist, covered the song, with MetalSucks reacting to it unfavorably.^[13]

In 2021 the Chilean band Parasyche performed a Spanish version of the song. ^{[citation needed]}

In 2018, Billboard ranked the song 5th on their list of "The 15 Best Megadeth Songs".^[14] Loudwire called the song "one of Mustaine's greatest songs"^[15] and ranked it as the 7th best Megadeth song.^[16] Metal Hammer called it one of the most overlooked Megadeth songs.^[17] MusicRadar called it one of the 5 songs guitarists need to hear by Megadeth.^[18] Penelope Spheeris stated "It's a very, very heavy song and a really kind of classic piece of Megadeth that really displays their philosophy in a beautiful way".^[19]