DAVID ELLEFSON On Upcoming MEGADETH Album: 'The Songs Are Terrific'

MEGADETH's David Ellefson recently spoke to SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser and bassist Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. as part the weekly "SepulQuarta" Internet series. You can watch the chat below.

Speaking about MEGADETH's approach to making the follow-up to 2016's "Dystopia" LP, Ellefson said: "We were scheduled to be in working on a new MEGADETH album. We've been writing it now for, like, three years — we've been taking our time with it.

"One of the things Dave [Mustaine, MEGADETH mainman] said, he goes, 'We just go in. We write. We record it. And then we just put it out, and we're back on tour.' And he said, he goes, 'One of the things I wanna do is just really take the time to sit back and listen to stuff,' like we used to do in the old days.

"Those early MEGADETH songs — 'Peace Sells' maybe being one of the exceptions, where it really kind of wrote itself right away," the bassist continued. "'Symphony Of Destruction', 'Sweating Bullets' — some of these songs wrote themselves… And it's funny, they're some of our biggest hits — you know, they just fall out of the rehearsal room; they just happen. And then there's other ones that there's an idea, and then you put it away, and a week later, you pull it out and you tweak the bridge or you add another riff. And a lot of the MEGADETH stuff is like that.

"To take that same approach with this record, of just having it be something that's more of always a work in progress has been good. And I think the songs are terrific. Dirk [Verbeuren, drums] and I ended up going down to Nashville back in May and early June to record bass and drums. And I've gotta tell you, man — Dirk is just crushing it."

A few days ago, Mustaine told Q104.3 New York's "Out Of The Box With Jonathan Clarke" that MEGADETH was "in the process" of recording guitar solos for the new album. "Kiko Loureiro [guitar] is at the studio with me, and we're done with all the bass and drums and almost done with all of the rhythms," he said. "We've still got little punch-ins we need to do here and there, and then it's off into singing and solo land. And then probably the last thing, which is always my favorite thing, is the ear candy."

Mustaine recently told SiriusXM's Jose Mangin that the upcoming MEGADETH album will be "up there with 'Countdown [To Extinction]', 'Rust In Peace' and probably 'Peace Sells' and 'Dystopia'."

The effort will be MEGADETH's first to feature Verbeuren (ex-SOILWORK),who joined the band four years ago.

The early sessions for the LP took place last year with co-producer Chris Rakestraw, who previously worked on "Dystopia".

Loureiro made his recording debut with MEGADETH on "Dystopia", whose title track was honored in the "Best Metal Performance" category at the 2017 Grammy Awards.

As previously reported, MEGADETH's North American tour with LAMB OF GOD, TRIVIUM and IN FLAMES has been rescheduled for 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.