{"id":467399,"date":"2026-02-08T23:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T23:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/467399\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T23:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T23:58:10","slug":"david-ellefson-says-final-megadeth-album-just-doesnt-sound-like-them-and-is-more-like-a-dave-mustaine-solo-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/467399\/","title":{"rendered":"David Ellefson says final Megadeth album “just doesn’t sound like them” and is more like a Dave Mustaine “solo record”"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the latest episode of his podcast, the bassist said: \u201cI hear it, and I go, \u2018Okay, this is a Dave solo record.\u2019 This is Dave and his new band, Dave and his new guys,\u201d Ellefson said (via Consequence<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt says Megadeth, so obviously it gets all the attention, but realistically, I hear it, and to me it just doesn\u2019t sound like Megadeth. And that\u2019s just me, period. You know? It\u2019s like Dave, doing what Dave does, but with a different set of guys in a new day. And this is Dave\u2018s retirement, you know? So that\u2019s my view on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their self-titled album was previewed by three singles: \u2018Tipping Point<\/a>\u2019, \u2018I Don\u2019t Care\u2019 and \u2018Let There Be Shred<\/a>\u2019, and was given three stars by NME<\/a>, who said the record \u201cfeels like a gratifying, full-circle moment for Megadeth \u2013 one last look back before bringing an integral chapter of metal history to a close\u201d.<\/p>\n

Late last month, we sat down with metal veteran Mustaine ahead of its release<\/a>, and touched on calling it quits with the band after being \u201con defence almost all my career\u201d, as well as his hopes for the future of metal.<\/p>\n

The thrash metal icons announced last year that they were going to be calling it a day, releasing their final album in 2026 and heading out on their last ever tour<\/a> \u2013 which Mustaine recently said would not include any previous members<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elaborating on that, he told NME: \u201cIf we were to look at doing that, then you\u2019ve got some members that are deceased. You\u2019ve got some members that I\u2019m friends with, but they can\u2019t play anymore like Chuck [Behler, drummer from 1987-1989]. And then you\u2019ve got a couple guys that are saying very bad things about me in the press. So why would I want to play with those guys?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did this before with Marty [Friedman], and I\u2019m sure that if the opportunity presented itself and the timing was right, I would reconsider having one of the guys from the band\u2019s alumni play with us.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if it was something that didn\u2019t end very well, why would I? There\u2019s not a valid reason to do something like that, especially when we have limited time on stage anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Megadeth,Megadeth, 2026. CREDIT: Cameron Nunez<\/p>\n

Looking back to the explosion of thrash metal in the \u201980s, Mustaine also looked to the future of the genre. \u201cI said to the band that I think there\u2019s going to be a renaissance when this record comes out because it\u2019s going to smack a lot of people upside of their earholes,\u201d he said. \u201cI think people are going to say \u2018I forgot what I loved about this kind of music\u2019, and then we\u2019re gonna see a lot of people coming back with [a fresh take].<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been hearing a lot [with this album]. Not everybody, but a lot of people have been saying to me that they hadn\u2019t listened to us for a little while but they really like the new album. Man, I\u2019m so happy to hear this stuff from journos and radio personalities because I\u2019ve been on defence almost all my career.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the latest episode of his podcast, the bassist said: \u201cI hear it, and I go, \u2018Okay, this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,3088,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-467399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-metal","12":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}