The Craving is the debut and only album by American rock band MD.45, released on July 23, 1996, on Slab Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Records. A remastered version was released in 2004 on Capitol Records which features the original vocals by Lee Ving removed and re-recorded by the band's guitarist, Dave Mustaine, due to Capitol losing the original vocal tracks. Mustaine stated that he replaced Ving's original vocal tracks "to entice interest from Megadeth fans who might have overlooked the original."[1]
Many of the songs from the album were originally written for Megadeth, but due to the band almost breaking up, Mustaine decided to start a side project instead.[2]
On June 24th, 2023, Megadeth and Lee Ving performed the song "Nothing is Something" live at a concert in Tampa, Florida. This marks the only time an MD.45 song has been performed live.[3]
^"Watch: MEGADETH Joined By FEAR's LEE VING For Performance Of 'Nothing Is Something' From MD.45". Blabbermouth. June 25, 2023. Retrieved August 3, 2023. Two decades ago, Mustaine told Classic Rock magazine that "a lot of" the music on "The Craving" "was intended for MEGADETH, but every time I turned around, Marty [Friedman, then-MEGADETH guitarist] had a solo record coming out; Nick [Menza, then-MEGADETH drummer] had his own solo project. Y'know, was this MEGADETH or not? I said, 'You don't see me going off to play with anybody else. If I'm not doing it, then none of you guys are. And if I do it, then we all can — but I might not come back.' By the time I got into the studio with Lee, I figured it was a case of goodbye. But we got back together after a little period of time."
