DAVE MUSTAINE Has 'About Eight Songs' Written For MEGADETH's Next Album

MEGADETH's Dave Mustaine spoke to Music Radar about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to 2016's "Dystopia" album.

"Whenever I've been home, I've been working on new music from 10 in the morning to seven at night," he said. "My co-producer Chris Rakestraw from the 'Dystopia' team has been helping with pre-production on songs. I have about eight songs and there's one which is just unanimously everyone's favorite, which is great... I'm not saying there's only one good song so far though, haha! Let's just say whenever I have that first song everyone gets excited about, I know I'm on my way to another great record...

"We're going to do 12 or 13 tracks this time," he continued. "My contract says I'm only supposed to do eight songs a record and I just can't do that — it feels like cheating.

"When I grew up listening to vinyl, it was a lot easier to buy a record and be happy with 45 minutes of music. When the digital world came, the paradigm changed — a musical offering needs a lot more. People aren't satisfied and hit fast-forward a lot. So right now, we know we're off to a good start; this new material is only going to get better and better…"

MEGADETH's upcoming effort will mark the group's first release to feature drummer Dirk Verbeuren, who officially joined the band almost three years ago.

Dave told "Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon" back in June 2018 that some of the new MEGADETH music is turning out to be more extreme than anything the band has done in the past. "The stuff that Dirk's been playing along to it is scary," he said. "We've never had any of those blast-beat kind of things on our music before, and some of the drumming on this is so mind-blowing. It's making me a better guitar player again, which I love. But I never thought we were gonna be playing this fast or this aggressive again."

"Dystopia" was MEGADETH's first album with guitarist Kiko Loureiro, who was previously best known for his work with the Brazilian metal band ANGRA.

As previously reported, MEGADETH will release a greatest-hits album, "Warheads On Foreheads", on March 22. The disc will feature 35 remastered tracks selected by Mustaine.

Prior to the arrival of "Warheads On Foreheads", MEGADETH reissued two of its iconic records, 2001's "The World Needs A Hero" and 2004's "The System Has Failed", through BMG on February 15.

On the touring front, MEGADETH will support OZZY OSBOURNE on the next North American leg of the BLACK SABBATH singer's "No More Tours 2" in May, June and July. This will be followed by MEGADETH first-ever Megacruise aboard the Norwegian Jewel, which will set sail on October 13 from Los Angeles, California and hit ports of San Diego, California and Ensenada, Mexico before returning on October 18.