Songfacts®:

• Revenge is a common theme in Megadeth songs, and "I'll Get Even" is another that takes on the topic. A group composition, the song looks at the emotional state of the one looking for vengeance; he's clearly unhinged:
  
  I'm like a bomb that's ticking
  I got voices in my head
  
  In a Songfacts interview with their bass player Dave Ellefson, he said the song is "speaking about a revengeful heart."
• Brian Howe, former lead singer in Bad Company, contributed to this song and is credited as a writer along with Ellefson, group leader Dave Mustaine, and guitarist Marty Friedman. According to Mustaine, they had been working on the song for a while, and when they worked it up for the Cryptic Writings album, their manager Bud Prager brought in Howe.
  
  Mustaine was not impressed. In a chat with Metal Sludge, he said: "Bud Prager watered it down by having some old fart from Bad Company do something to it. I can't even remember what he did, but I sure didn't help make it any better, AND I had to pay him for it."