MEGADETH Is Auditioning One Of DAVE MUSTAINE's Final Picks For New Guitarist Today

Only a week before MEGADETH is scheduled to enter the studio to begin recording its new album, it appears that the band has not finalized the replacements for drummer Shawn Drover and guitarist Chris Broderick, who quit the band last year.

Earlier today, MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine posted the following message via Twitter: "I'm excited to be auditioning one of my final picks for my new guitarist today."

Mustaine also revealed that MEGADETH will enter a Nashville, Tennessee-area studio on March 17 to begin recording its new album, tentatively due before the end of the year.

The guitarist/vocalist and his family moved to Tennessee in October after living in Fallbrook, California for many years.

Asked if there is any news regarding who will become MEGADETH's new drummer and lead guitarist, the band's bassist, David Ellefson, said in a recent interview with Full Throttle Rock: "There are some developments with it, and I think I've come to realize… We've certainly spent the last several months, [since] late November, sorting things out. I think, what I've come to is that we need to make a great record, 'cause that should always be… The songs have always determined who's going to be in the band, from day one. And nothing should change with that. To go back and chase some glory day is like chasing fool's gold. I think that the songs, and the album, are going to determine what the lineup is and I think that's the proper order of putting the horse in front of the cart."

Former MEGADETH drummer Nick Menza recently said that his return to the band is completely down to Mustaine. "Like I have said in the past, I don't rule out rejoining MEGADETH and the opportunity would be totally cool," Menza wrote in a December 2014 online posting. "I'm open to whatever could possibly happen. That's up to Dave."

Menza joined MEGADETH for the 1989 recording "Rust In Peace" and for the next nine years became associated with the band's "classic" and most profitable era.

Following the reissue of the entire MEGADETH catalog, Menza was invited to reunite with the band in 2004. Days after a reunion was announced, Menza was fired after rehearsals and replaced with Shawn Drover. Dave Mustaine said that this was because Nick "just wasn't prepared."

Former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman, who was also part of the band's "Rust In Peace" lineup, said in January that he "would not be against considering" a possible return to the band as the replacement for Broderick, but cautioned that fans shouldn't "get [their] hopes up either." He explained: "I've never really said 'never' to anything like that. But just because there's a vacancy in the band, that's certainly no reason for me to be interested in it."

He continued: "I have great relationships with everybody in the band — [and I] always have — [and] I would not be against considering anything that they would be willing to bring up for me to consider. So if there were something that would be exciting for me to consider, or exciting for me to do, I would be more than willing to check into it."

Friedman added: "I assume that there's a lot of talk about it because there's a vacancy in the band, but there have been plenty of vacancies in the band since I left.

"I wouldn't rule it out, but I wouldn't get your hopes up either. So I don't really have anything to say about it."

Only hours after Drover announced his exit from MEGADETH on November 25, 2014 to "to pursue [his] own musical interests," Broderick revealed he also quit the legendary metal band, saying that he was leaving the group "due to artistic and musical differences."

Broderick joined MEGADETH in late 2007 as the replacement for Glen Drover, who left the group in order to focus on family life.

Shawn joined MEGADETH in 2004 as the replacement for Menza, who had only just rejoined the group. Drover performed on four MEGADETH studio records: 2007's "United Abominations", 2009's "Endgame", 2011's "TH1RT3EN" and 2013's "Super Collider".