Megadeth is currently in the studio recording their new album. What we've heard the band tease in the past has been heavy, which is also in line with what bassist David Ellefson said about the record's sound. Now vocalist and guitarist Dave Mustaine is opening up about the record as well.
Mustaine tells The Metal Tour of the Year that Megadeth has 16 original songs being recorded and three cover songs. Whether or not all 19 songs will make it to the final product remains to be seen, but still – that is a lot of material.
"Dirk and David Ellefson both just finished their parts. 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. 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."
Mustaine is a fan of the new material, comparing it to some of Megadeth's classics.
"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… But Who’s Buying?. The other one I would say is Dystopia. So that would round up my top five."
He is quick to note, however, that bands always say that. "Honestly, it’s kind of lame when guys have new records and they go, ‘Oh, this is my favorite one,’ because we all do that. This is a good record, but I don’t have any words to it yet, so…"
The new Megadeth album will be their first with drummer Dirk Verbeuren (ex-Soilwork).
