Fatal Illusion
song by Megadeth
"Fatal Illusion" is a song by American thrash metal band Megadeth. It was released as the lead single from their fifteenth studio album, Dystopia on October 1, 2015, and as a CD release on October 9 of the same year.
Music and lyrics
According to the band's website, "the lyrics are about a person who is a misfit in society and ends up getting taken before the judicial system…"
Performances
The song debuted live in Perth, Australia, on October 16, 2015. Megadeth guitarists Dave Mustaine and Kiko Loureiro did a playthrough of the song for Guitar World magazine.
Critical reception
Loudwire ranked "Fatal Illusion" as the thirteenth best metal song of 2015.
The song was ranked the fourth greatest from the album by Return Of Rock.
Track listing
Tracks 2 & 3 recorded live at The Cow Palace, San Francisco, CA April 12, 1992.
Charts
Personnel
Credits adapted from Dystopia liner notes.
The public source identifies “Fatal Illusion” as song by Megadeth. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Fatal, Illusion and song.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Fatal Illusion”, the useful work is to connect “song by Megadeth” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21186583. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2015 and 1992.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Fatal Illusion” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.