Megadeth are back in the studio working on a new album.
The thrash metal legends’ 17th album will be the follow-up to 2022’s ‘The Sick, The Dying and the Dead!’ but while frontman Dave Mustaine is in the studio already, his bandmates haven’t joined him yet.
Mustaine gave an update on X/Twitter, writing: “Right now I’m in the studio working with Chris Rakestraw. And everybody else is gone. Teemu [Mäntysaari, guitars] is in Switzerland and James [LoMenzo, bass] and Dirk [Verbeuren, drums] are in Los Angeles. So it’s just me here by myself with Chris.”
He continued: “And Chris leaves tomorrow to go on a vacation, and I’m working up to the last second today to get as much done as I can before he takes off because we won’t be starting again until he returns somewhere around New Year’s Day.
“And at that point, it’s only a matter of a couple weeks before everybody converges on to the studio. And for that I’m pumped. And you guys are gonna be excited.”
The news follows another update from Mäntysaari, in which he said that he and Mustaine were remotely working on new music over the holiday period.
“So Dave is in the studio in Nashville, and I’ve been working from home, and now from the vacation location where we are with the family,” he explained (per Metal Injection).
“But I’m working a little bit every day. And just today I was working on some solo ideas, and [I am] talking with Dave on the phone every day and doing Zoom meetings and exchanging ideas. So, there’s progress every day, which is nice.”
Mäntysaari continued, “I feel really good about the album. We have already so many good ideas. I think it’s gonna be a great one.”
The forthcoming album will be Mäntysaari’s studio debut with Megadeth after he replaced Kiko Loureiro.
In other news, Mustaine revealed last month that he once walked out of emergency neck surgery because Metallica’s manager had insulted him.
“I remember we were scheduled to play Yankee Stadium [in New York] with the Big Four concert the day that they found out I needed my neck to be fused together,” Mustaine explained.
“And so I’m laying on the emergency table and my manager says, ‘Oh, Metallica’s manager called you a pussy because you’re going to get your neck fused together and you’re not going to come out here and play instead.’”
Describing the comment as “a gutless thing to say”, Mustaine sat up from the surgeon’s table at the last possible moment, asked to be injected with “steroids and shit”, and went to play the show. “But it turned out great as far as healing is concerned,” he added.
