After the commercially disappointing Risk, Dave Mustaine steered Megadeth back towards heavier guitars and longer solos on the ninth studio album. The World Needs a Hero is the only album with Al Pitrelli on lead guitar, the former Savatage player who succeeded Marty Friedman, and also the last with drummer Jimmy DeGrasso and co-founder David Ellefson. "Return to Hangar" is an explicit sequel to "Hangar 18" from Rust in Peace, and "Dread and the Fugitive Mind" was released as a single.

This edition is a CD.