In a new interview with Q104.3 New York‘s “Out Of The Box With Jonathan Clarke,” Dave Mustaine provided an update on MEGADETH‘s follow-up to 2016’s Dystopia.
“We’re in the process of doing guitar solos right now,” Mustaine said. “Kiko Loureiro [guitar] is at the studio with me, and we’re done with all the bass and drums and almost done with all of the rhythms. We’ve still got little punch-ins we need to do here and there, and then it’s off into singing and solo land. And then probably the last thing, which is always my favorite thing, is the ear candy.”
During a recent appearance on Sirius XM Volume’s Trunk Nation, Mustaine mentioned early bandmates Chris Poland and the late Gar Samuelson when illustrating inspiration for the album.
“The music sounds a lot like probably the first couple records we did,” Mustaine said. “I’m not going to say it sounds like Rust [In Peace] or anything like that. But it certainly sounds like something that would’ve come out while Gar and Chris Poland were in the band.”
Mustaine spoke about the progress of the recording sessions for the band’s follow-up to 2016’s Dystopia album during “The Metal Tour Of The Year” streaming event in June.
“Dirk [Verbeuren, drums] and David Ellefson [bass] both just finished their parts,” he said. “And this was probably one of the strongest records we’ve ever had as far as duration. The other records we’ve done have all done been different lengths, and our [record] contract that we have [to deliver] for one company, it’s eight songs, for another company, it’s 11 songs, so, realistically, all we need to do is do an 11-song album and we’re done, right? That’s not the way old Uncle Dave is, though.
“So we got in the studio and we started working and it got to where we were writing all the original parts, and we had 15 of ’em,” he continued. “And then we got to the end, and I said, ‘Shoot, we didn’t think about the cover songs, man.’ We had a couple of songs we wanted to do for this record. ‘Damn, we forgot. What are we gonna do? Do you wanna still talk about it?’ ‘Yeah, we wanna talk about it.’ So we ended up doing 18 songs altogether, and then we had another song that we forgot was part of one of the other songs, so we had 19. [We] ditched one of the cover songs, so now we’ve got an 18-song album that we’re gonna be bringing.”
When asked about the musical direction of new album, Mustaine responded: “I think this is probably in the top four records as far as towards the tip of the spear with our career and everything that we’re doing. It’s up there with Countdown [To Extinction], Rust In Peace and probably Peace Sells. The other one I would say is Dystopia. So that would round up my top five.
MEGADETH recently rescheduled its “Metal Tour of the Year” with LAMB OF GOD, plus special guests TRIVIUM and IN FLAMES, to 2021. Tickets and dates for the tour can be find here.
Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.