MEGADETH Will Take All The Time It Needs To Make Great Follow-Up To 'Dystopia'

MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson was interviewed on the latest episode of the "Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon" podcast. You can now watch the chat in the YouTube clip below.

Asked about the timeline for MEGADETH's follow-up to 2016's "Dystopia" album, Ellefson said: "Well, we've talked about that. And it's funny because, I think, for us… The '90s were not very nice to thrash metal. [Laughs] It started in the early '90s with, obviously, the Seattle movement and then this 'nu metal' movement and radio rock and all these different things happened. And, fortunately, a few of us have survived it. The 2000s were kind of a recorrecting and rebuilding. I know when I came back in 2010 and we did the 'Rust In Peace' 20th-anniversary [tour], it was very clear this is what the fans wanna hear. And it took us a couple of records and a couple of lineups to really get things dialed in to the point where we could really get things recalibrated and really kind of set the baseline again of what MEGADETH really is, and I think we accomplished that on 'Dystopia'. Moving forward, it's nice to know that that was a record that really kind of re-set the benchmark for what MEGADETH is. And I think one of the reasons that that record worked is we intentionally… We kind of rebuilt the lineup, management… we kind of rebuilt the whole structure of MEGADETH to a large degree. But we didn't have any tour dates, [so] we took as much time as we needed. And now, of course, the train is in motion and the phone rings and they're, like, 'Hey, can you do the summer festivals?' 'Hey, can you come to Mexico and do this?' So now I don't think we quite have the… It's a luxury problem — the phone is ringing [and] people want us to come and play. So now I think the trick is making a great record, a follow-up to 'Dystopia', that we do make sure we take the time and make it right. I think gone are the days of, like, 'In order to get a tour, you've gotta go put out a new album.' I think those days are gone. Maybe for young, new bands, it's still like that. But for the most part, I think now people just enjoy live music, they love these festivals, and new album or not, they want to see you play — they wanna see you up on that stage playing their favorite songs for 'em. So I think that, by and large, that's kind of the calling of the music business right now."

MEGADETH is tentatively planning to enter the studio in mid-2018 to begin recording its new album for a 2019 release. Guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine revealed on Twitter that he was in the process of "collecting ideas" for the follow-up to "Dystopia".

MEGADETH's upcoming effort will mark the group's first release to feature drummer Dirk Verbeuren, who officially joined the group a year and a half ago.

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