DAVID ELLEFSON Says MEGADETH 'Barely' Finished Recording New Album Before Going Back On Tour

Linna Olsson of SVT conducted an interview with MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson after the band's July 3, 2011 "Big Four" concert at Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden. You can now watch the chat below. Also available is professionally filmed footage of the Gothenburg show.

When asked if playing a lot of classics live inspired MEGADETH during the songwriting process for the band's new album, Ellefson said, "I guess it did in some way. When you dig back into your archives and pull out some classics gems, it definitely rubs off on you. I think, if anything, it kind of refocuses your mindset back to what it was like in those days when you were writing those songs. As much as anything, probably the influence on the album was that we did in between two European tours, essentially. Because we were just over here with SLAYER doing 'European Carnage' we did, like, five weeks or something and then we went home to do the first-ever 'Big Four' show in North America. And then went right into the studio. So we had some ideas, but we didn't have a lot of stuff really solidified. We had a ton of ideas and lyrics and things, so the process was really putting it together and then recording that. And we finished that all just this last week right before we came over here barely [laughs], but we got it done and so now it's in our producer's hands to get it mixed. So he's working on that, and hopefully presto there will be a new album."

MEGADETH has once again tapped artist John Lorenzi to create the artwork for the group's forthcoming CD, tentatively due this fall via Roadrunner Records. The effort was recently recorded at Vic's Garage with producer Johnny K (full name: John Karkazis),who has previously worked with DISTURBED, SEVENDUST, MACHINE HEAD and STAIND, among others.

Lorenzi was responsible for the artwork on the last two MEGADETH studio albums, 2007's "United Abominations" and 2009's "Endgame", as well as the band's 2007 box set, "Warchest".

MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine was asked in a recent interview with Pure Grain Audio how the new MEGADETH album is sonically different to its predecessor, 2009's "Endgame". "[It's] different, a hundred percent different, unlike anything we've ever done before because the guitar sounds are different; it sounds really super-modern," he said, before adding, "If I was going to say it sounds like a particular band, I would say it sounds like really old classic [BLACK] SABBATH and with a little bit of a modern edge of QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE kind of thing. But then again, with the twists and turns of music that MEGADETH has been famous for over the years, you never know how it'll turn out."

When asked about what fans can expect from MEGADETH's next album, Ellefson told Martin Carlsson of Expressen TV, "Let's put it this way: It's funny that 20 years ago, we came off 'Rust In Peace' and we went in and made 'Countdown To Extinction'. So, to me, that's kind of what this album feels like. We did 'Sudden Death' [for a title in the 'Guitar Hero' franchise, 'Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock'] and then this new song, 'Never Dead', which is a very violent riff. That was the first song we did, and we finished it top to bottom because we had to get it into this video game called 'NeverDead'. So that's a pretty good indication of what the new record is gonna be. But it's a little wider than That's why I liken it to probably a little more to 'Countdown To Extinction', 'cause there's a couple of songs that aren't just full-on, in-your-face thrashing. However, most of it is. So you guys are gonna be excited. You'll like it. You'll dig it. You'll have fun [listening to it]."

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