{"id":771494,"date":"2026-09-15T14:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T14:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/771494\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T14:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T14:12:18","slug":"megadeths-dave-mustaine-shares-who-he-thinks-would-make-the-modern-big-four-of-thrash-metal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/771494\/","title":{"rendered":"Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine shares who he thinks would make the modern ‘Big Four’ of thrash metal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Megadeth<\/a>\u2018s Dave Mustaine<\/a> has revealed the bands who he thinks would make the modern \u2018Big Four\u2019 of thrash metal.<\/p>\n

The original \u2018Big Four\u201d refers to the four main bands who pushed thrash metal into the mainstream back in the \u201880s \u2013 Metallica<\/a>, Megadeth, Slayer<\/a> and Anthrax<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All four of them fianlly played together for the first time back in 2010, playing a total of six shows at that year\u2019s Sonisphere festival series, before coming together the following year for a \u2018Big Four\u2019 concert at the Yankee Stadium in New York.<\/p>\n

Since then, they have only played together a handful of times, including a slot at Australia\u2019s Soundwave festival in 2013, and at Canada\u2019s Heavy MTL festival in 2014.<\/p>\n

Now, in a recent interview with Czech Republic outlet \u00d3\u010dko, Mustaine has spoken about the four bands he would select if he had to \u201cput together a new generation\u201d of the \u2018Big Four\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it wouldn\u2019t be a young generation, but I do believe that there are ways to do a new \u2018Big Four\u2019,\u201d he said (via Blabbermouth<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"DaveDave Mustaine of Megadeth, 2026. CREDIT: Travis Shinn<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Testament<\/a>, I think Overkill, I think Exodus<\/a>, and maybe Trivium<\/a>,\u201d he continued, before debating whether Trivium would work with them leaning more towards metalcore. \u201cI don\u2019t know. Trivium\u2019s not really a thrash metal band, so I\u2019d have to think about that. But I think those other three guys would be really great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOverkill is really important on the East Coast metal scene,\u201d Mustaine added. \u201cExodus, of course, I love Exodus. And I\u2019ve been friends with Gary [Holt, guitarist] longest of all people that I\u2019ve been friends with in the music industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Testament. Eric [Peterson, guitarist], Alex [Skolnick, guitarist]\u2026 those guys are really great guitar players. And I love when we get a chance to play with the band.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mustaine has shared his appreciation for Exodus in the past too, and shared back in 2013 that he thinks that the California thrash giants would be the band he\u2019d want to see included if the \u2018Big Four\u2019 got expanded to the \u2018Big Five\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nobody else at the time that had that kind of pull or that kind of importance in the metal community,\u201d he told Radio.com at the time (as per Blabbermouth<\/a>). \u201cGranted, it was with [late frontman Paul] Baloff, and he had a voice that you had to have an acquired taste for\u2026 but I liked him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Metallica\"Metallica, 2023. Credit: Press.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the thrash icon also spoke about the idea of one more show between the original \u2018Big Four\u2019<\/a>, where they could \u201cpass the torch\u201d to a \u201cnew \u2018Big Four\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would be really cool symbolically if we did something at the LA Coliseum, even if it\u2019s one show and that\u2019s it,\u201d he said, before adding that the plan would require Slayer to \u201ccome out of retirement\u201d following their 2019 farewell tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally have been hoping for this for a while, and I keep asking and asking and asking,\u201d Mustaine added, revealing he had been in contact with the three bands. \u201cThey\u2019re just not into it. But that\u2019s up to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the \u2018Big Four\u2019 helped bring thrash into the mainstream, Judas Priest\u2019s Rob Halford has revealed that he has toyed with the idea of making a UK equivalent of the \u2018Big Four\u2019<\/a>, but comprised of acts who pioneered heavy metal: Judas Priest<\/a>, Black Sabbath<\/a>, Mot\u00f6rhead<\/a> and Iron Maiden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dream had always been to have like \u2018The Big Four of the UK\u2019, without turning this into a kind of depressing way,\u201d he said, before acknowledging that the death of Mot\u00f6rhead\u2019s Lemmy Kilmister<\/a> and the retirement of Black Sabbath<\/a> would make it difficult to accomplish: \u201cSadly, two-fourths of that has gone, but the music lives forever. That\u2019s the main thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to NME earlier this year<\/a>, Mustaine looked back at the explosion of thrash metal in the \u201980s, and shared whether or not he thinks a similar movement could be possible now.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure I do,\u201d he said. \u201cIn fact, I said to the band that I think there\u2019s going to be a renaissance when this [Megadeth self-titled<\/a>] record comes out because it\u2019s going to smack a lot of people upside of their earholes. I 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].\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Megadeth\u2018s Dave Mustaine has revealed the bands who he thinks would make the modern \u2018Big Four\u2019 of thrash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,5204,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-771494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}