Cryptic Writings is the seventh studio album by heavy metal band Megadeth. The album was released on June 17, 1997 and debuted at #10 on Billboard Top 200. This is the last Megadeth studio album to feature drummer Nick Menza. His departure would mark the end of the band's longest lasting lineup to date, having recorded 4 studio albums (beginning with 1990's "Rust in Peace"). It is also the first and so far only album where Vic Rattlehead does not appear at all in any tangible form, save for a limited edition collectible card advertising the Megadeth comic distributed by Chaos! Comics, which shows Vic in Hell reading a scroll.