Before Megadeth, There Was Jazz. Yes, Really.

Rare recordings from The New Yorkers reveal what Chris Poland and Gar Samuelson were playing before they helped shape thrash metal history.

Before Chris Poland and Gar Samuelson helped Megadeth make thrash metal faster, stranger and considerably more complicated, they were playing jazz fusion in Los Angeles. As it turns out, some of Megadeth’s early technical wizardry had roots well outside the metal scene.

Now, nearly five decades later, previously unheard recordings from The New Yorkers are finally getting an official release.

Psychic Reader Records is preparing Low-Temperature Delay, a collection of archival demos and live recordings featuring the future Megadeth guitarist and drummer. The first track, “I Only Cry for You”, premiered through Decibel on 4 November, ahead of the collection’s scheduled 4 December release.

And for anyone who only knows Poland and Samuelson from Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying?, this is quite the detour into their earlier musical lives.

Before The Thrash, There Was Fusion

The New Yorkers featured Poland on guitar, Samuelson on drums, Samuelson’s brother Stew on guitar, Robertino “Pag” Pagliari on bass and Don Roper on horns.

Yes, horns. Before the snarling riffs and breakneck tempos, there was room for a little brass.

The group’s jazz-fusion background is more than an amusing footnote. Poland and Samuelson later performed on Megadeth’s first two albums, Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good! (1985) and Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying? (1986), bringing formidable technical abilities and an established musical partnership into Dave Mustaine’s band.

But long before either album, The New Yorkers were learning their way around a recording studio.

Speaking to Decibel for the track premiere, Poland recalled that none of the musicians had previously set foot in one. Pagliari remembered an early session on Hollywood Boulevard that ran from approximately 1am to 6am, with the band hauling their equipment up three flights of stairs.

Not exactly rock-star treatment, although they weren’t rock stars yet.

Those recordings capture a very different chapter in the musicians’ careers, before their technical abilities helped define some of thrash metal’s most influential early material.

Psychic Reader Records describes Low-Temperature Delay as an opportunity to finally hear a band whose existence has long been discussed among Megadeth fans, but whose music has remained largely inaccessible.

Samuelson died in 1999, making the collection an especially valuable record of his early playing and his partnership with Poland.

Low-Temperature Delay is scheduled for release on vinyl and digitally on 4 December.

Listen to “I Only Cry for You” below.