Dave Ellefson is candid about what his latest musical venture Dieth – a supergroup-esque trio featuring the seasoned ex-Megadeth bassist alongside Swedish Grammy nominated guitarist/vocalist Guilherme Miranda (ex-Entombed A.D.) and drummer Michał Łysejko (ex-Decapitated) – means to not only his present schedule, but to his career as a whole.
"I think this is a 100% full reset for me," Ellefson shared in a sit-down with Metal Injection. "You know, this isn't just sort of like limping from one gig to another. This isn't well, I'll fill in the gaps until something better comes along. It's none of that, you know?
"Obviously, I've put out several records since my time in Megadeth, which, of course, is kind of my big home team I played for for so many years. And look, you become identified by the gig and the gigs you have, right? And then that one being as long as it was over the years. But I'm happy to creatively be doing new things right now.
"You know, I think this is the first time the world's really getting to know David Ellefson. I think they knew Junior in the past. I think they knew Dave Ellefson, best supporting actor. Now I'm in a lead role, and it's very cool, man. I'm not a guy that ever wanted to go solo, so to speak. I like making music with my friends. I like finding new friends to make music with because I think there's always a new story with that that can be supported."
Dieth's tech/death-thrash tinged debut To Hell and Back finds the formidable threesome at the heights of their extreme powers. Blistering, technical metal with catchy hooks and even a rare, first time lead vocal performance by Ellefson itself book-end a gargantuan album that is more than the sum of its impressive parts.
"I don't think as musicians we are going into it going 'I don't know, let's do a death metal band today, let's go make a prog metal record today!' We don't really think about the genres, right? We just make music," Ellefson shared.
"So to me it's just do your thing and be who you are. Make your music, be a fan of your own music as best you can. And whether people like it or not, well, that's beyond our scope of what we're paid to do. Our job is to make music."
Ellefson's surprise lead-vocal debut on the melodic "Walk With Me Forever" came at the behest of his bandmates, who balked at Ellefson's idea to recruit a guest vocalist for the ballad-like single, insisting that the very same bassist (who's served in a backing-vocal role across numerous projects over the years), take the lead.
"I mean look, as a kid with all my first bands, I was always one of the singers. And it's funny because my very first band, we were a three piece and I was one of the singers with the guitar player and now here I am all these years later and I'm doing a three piece and me and the guitar player are the singers," Ellefson recounts with a laugh.
"When we were in the studio with 'Walk With Me Forever', Guilherme brought the song in and we'd carved out about four or five heavy tunes. We had 'In the Hall of the Hanging Serpents', we had 'To Hell and Back', 'The Mark of Cain' was sitting there, so all the heavier shit was there, right? [Guilherme] goes, 'hey, what do you guys think about doing a ballad?' I was like 'I don't know, what do you got?' Because we're carving a whole new destiny here, right? And any of the rules of the past don't have to apply. You can just shed all this old skin.
"I thought it was exceptional, but what I also liked about it was the story meant a lot to him. As I heard the melody, I jumped on the mic real quick to just kind of demo up, expanding the melody idea. And both he and Michał were like 'Oh man, you're singing the song!" And in my mind I'm going fuck, who do I call as a guest? Do we call like Alissa from Arch Enemy? Who do I fucking call to be a guest on this? And they're like, 'No brother, you're singing this!' And it was a blessing that it happened like that."
Dieth's To Hell and Back is available now through Napalm Records.
