keep in mind this is all a matter of opinion. but to me, megadeth aka megadave won. hands down.
megadeth released a better quality of albums after 91. to me, black album was horrible. some songs are listenable but it in no way shape or form matches the quality musically or the pure fury of kill em all, ride the lighting, master of puppets or and justice for all. even megadeths 97 release cryptic writings had some good songs on it. rust in peace was a masterpiece from opening to close and what did metallica do? drop black album. good response guys. you could argue that metallica tried to get back to their roots with death magnetic but they didnt. at all. the only good thing after black album was garage days but that was mostly old shit and covers. s&m was just a different spin on old songs. wasnt bad if you take it for them trying to do something different.
metallica also used daves music on kill em all. kinda lame. hes not good enough for the band but good enough to steal his guitar? makes no sense to me.
another thing that has really swayed me over to the megadeth side is previous to the big 4 tours, in old interviews james and lars constantly talk shit about dave even though lars did say he listened to peace sells and was blown away by it.
also, if anyone grew up in the 90s you remember MTV "news". well the little funky intro is the song peace sells by megadeth. little fun fact for you.
metallica hasnt been the revolving door of musicians that megadeth has which to me is another point for megadeth. no matter who came in previous to 2000, they still managed to put out amazing albums.
so to me mr mustaine, you won. congratulations. this is something that will always be talked about, argued about and possibly fought over long after all current members of both said bands are dead and gone. try going to either bands videos on youtube and try not to find people bringing up the opposite band or arguing about whos better. i encourage any metalheads to weigh in, agree or disagree, its all a matter of opinion no one is necessarily wrong or right.