Interview by Kris Peters
Megadeth are one of the few bands in the world - of any genre - that need no introduction.
For four decades they have been at the forefront of the metal landscape, with their most recent album The Sick, The Dying and The Dead their highest selling to date. Whereas most bands plateau somewhat or more often decline in the back end of their career Megadeth are doing the exact opposite.
Which makes frontman Dave Mustaine one happy camper.
Now, after nearly eight years, Megadeth are poised to return to Australia as part of Knotfest from March 24 to 26, with two side shows also scheduled for Adelaide and Melbourne.
Which makes Mustaine even happier.
HEAVY sat down for an awesome chat with the great man earlier this morning for a frank and open discussion about anything and everything.
One of the topics of conversation was what has changed with Megadeth since their last venture Down Under in 2015.
"Well, ALOT," he laughed. "We've had some lineup changes and every time we do that the person that came in was better. When we parted ways with the drummer before Dirk (Verbeuren) - it was the person before Chris Adler, which was Shawn Drover - we tried to get the Rust In Peace line-up back together but it didn't work because Nick (Menza) went off one way and we went off the other. We contacted Adler and asked if he would play on the record and maybe contact Nick again and have him tour with us because he couldn't really do the record. That didn't work out either, so we had Chris do the record and stay, and while we were doing that Chris and his band parted ways and we didn't know if Chris was going to stay with us or stay with them. Of course, we wanted him to stay with Lamb Of God and I'm sad that he left and there's any kind of distance between the family. I do think that Art (Cruz) is an amazing drummer and then after that Chris Adler recommended Dirk, and Dirk is - in my mind - the best drummer we've had since Gar Samuelson. He's a big fan of Gar, and that is the power that drives Megadeth. Jazz metal, not rock metal. Nick was a super talented and powerful drummer and he fortunately was able to do a lot of those jazz hooks too, so we almost had that magic that we did when Gar was there. But we definitely had something which Gar did not, which was the power that Nick Menza possessed. Same thing can go down the line with the bass playing. (Dave) Ellefson was in the band, then was out. James (LoMenzo) came in, he was out. Ellefson came back because the Drover brothers kept pressuring me to do this, get Ellefson back. He came in and we had that weird shit that happened. I had Steve Di Giorgio come in and record the record and James is back and I love that he's back. The singing is fabulous on stage. He actually can sing really well, so he helps encourage me to sing. And then Kiko (Loureiro, guitars) as you know... I parted ways with Chris Broderick - I mean where do you go from having Marty Friedman and Chris Poland and it's time to make a guitar player change again? So Kiko, I saw a video on line of Kiko actually being put head to head against Chris Broderick, someone made a video of that, and I watched it and I went fuck I gotta get in touch with this guy. The funny thing is that when I contacted him he said that he had been talking to Ellefson, so when I talked to Ellefson the next time I said what the fucks wrong with you, man? Why didn't you tell me you know this guy(laughs)? So that was a great addition to the band. Kiko and James play really well together and Kiko and Dirk have an amazing ability to play those crazy riffs together. Of course, we can always be better, so we all go into the jam room every day and try and work on little bits and pieces of a song and our record producer is out with us on the road as our music director keeping our chops up."
In the full interview, Dave talks about being part of Knotfest, the two sideshows and how they will differ from the festival shows, forty years in the music industry, listening to your body when it comes to performing, the increasing difficulty in coming up with a set list to keep fans happy, the early days of Megadeth and the musical climate that gave birth to the band, becoming more understanding of your environment with experience, musical trends and how they have affected Megadeth, what he hopes to leave as the band's musical legacy, the top three Commandments of Metal and more.