The cover of Rust in Peace, the album on which the song appears, depicts the band's mascot, Vic Rattlehead, and a number of world leaders viewing an alien in a cryogenic chamber, a clear reference to the track.[4] Both the album's cover and single art were designed by the same artist, Ed Repka.[5]
Music
"Hangar 18", which was originally titled "N2RHQ" ("into our headquarters"), was one of a handful of Megadeth songs written for Dave Mustaine's first band, Panic.[6] A unique feature about the song is that the bass uses a different tuning from the two lead guitars, the bass being in Drop D[7] while the guitars are in standard tuning.
Sequel
A sequel to "Hangar 18", called "Return to Hangar" was included on Megadeth's ninth album The World Needs a Hero. It tells the fictional story of the life-forms said to be contained in Hangar 18 coming back to life and killing those inside the building before escaping.[8]
The "Hangar 18" video is themed after the song's lyrical concept. It depicts the torture of aliens and, at the end, shows all the band members in freezing chambers. The video was shot at the Scattergood Generating Station.[13] It was filmed in one of the main power generating buildings and it was directed and produced by Primetime Emmy Award Winning Visual Effects Supervisor,[14] Paul Stephen Boyington,[15] Some of the performances and the visual effects for the video were created and produced at Boyington's visual effects studio in Culver City CA. Paul S. Boyington [14] also created the visual effects[16] for Tim Burton's[17] film Ed Wood.[18] Coincidentally, the band would film the video for "Crush 'Em" on this same site nine years later.[19] An edited version of "Hangar 18" is typically shown on MTV2 which has the song length cut down drastically. During the intro to the video the song "Dawn Patrol" from the Rust in Peace album can be heard in the background.
