MEGADETH's DAVE MUSTAINE Blasts 'Nu Metal' Bands: 'Thank God That Genre Went Away'

LifeMinute was recently invited into the home of MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine, his wife Pamela and their daughter Electra to hear all about their visionary wine brand House Of Mustaine which uniquely blends music, culture, and fine winemaking, get a fabulous tour of their beautiful house, and, of course, get the scoop on the latest MEGADETH news. Check out the full chat below.

Asked what music does for people, Mustaine said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It depends. If you believe all of the colloquies about music, there's all kinds of sayings and stuff. The one that comes to mind first with your question is music soothes the savage beast. And I don't know who coined that phrase, but it's pretty accurate, depending on the type of music. Now, if you play modern metal with the guys that can't sing and they do the screaming bit, that's really understandable to me, 'cause they can't sing and they're making the best of what they can do."

Mustaine continued: "There was a period in 2000 where we had these bands called — I think it was 'nu metal', and they didn't do any solos. Well, why didn't they do any solos? They couldn't do solos. And thank God that genre went away. People started to learn how to do solos. I would say, if you're in a 'nu metal' band, you probably would be challenged even playing 'Johnny B. Goode' [1958 rock and roll classic by Chuck Berry]. So I'm glad that went away."

Asked if there are any newer bands that he particularly likes, Mustaine said: "Well, I like some of the older music because new stuff — I mean, all the good chords are taken. And if you think back when I started 40 years ago, the music playing field didn't have millions of kids sitting at home doing guitar riffs into their computer and then posting it online. There's good and bad with everything, and when people do things for their own art, that's great. But when you start seeing these manufactured records that bandmembers didn't play on, that's fraud. So, I like bands that really play what they do.

"One of my favorite guitar players is one of the simplest guys in the world — it's the guy from PINK FLOYD, David Gilmour," Mustaine explained. "He could do more with one note than some of the guys playing nowadays can do with 12. And it's just a matter of feeling — feeling. The guitar, you're touching it, so it's an extension of your spirit, your soul, and how you make it sound. If it's like [makes farting noise], that kind of stuff, well, you probably haven't bonded with the instrument yet. Playing a violin — violin has gotta be one of the most dreadful sounds ever when you're learning it, because the sound of it and rosin the bow and all that stuff is almost as bad as having someone practice on a wind instrument, like a sax or a clarinet."

Back in September 2022, Mustaine told the WSOU 89.5 FM radio station that he and his MEGADETH bandmates used to make fun of many of the nu metal bands that they were "forced" to tour with during the 1990s. "I can't tell you how much we would laugh about the bands that we were forced to take out on tour with us, especially during the nu metal period that we went through years ago," he said at the time. "You know, all these bands that wouldn't play solos and stuff."

One of the bands MEGADETH toured with three decades ago was KORN, whose singer, Jonathan Davis, told ExploreMusic in a 2011 interview that opening for the Mustaine-fronted act was a challenge. "It was hard touring with MEGADETH because at that time Dave Mustaine was really mean and just had attitude," Jonathan recalled. "It was scary being on there. I was drinking at the time and I got him drinking again, which I shouldn't have done, but that was Dave Mustaine and I was this young, little kid, and I'm like, 'That's Dave Mustaine and he wants to drink. I'll give him a drink.' I respected him and everything, but I kind of got my feelings hurt, because he was mean at times. I don't have any ill will towards the guy now, 'cause you know how it is — now you're older and you're wiser — but at the time it was really scary."

Mustaine previously gave his take on nu metal and how MEGADETH managed to survive the late 1990s in a 2011 interview with Metal Hammer magazine. When asked how he and his bandmates felt during those years, Mustaine replied: "Well, these days no one remembers about nu metal — all that shit that was out. No guitar solos. Everyone played with their pants down round their ankles, y'know? Most people in the music business, when something like that happens, they're dead. They don't have the capacity to reinvent themselves and if they do reinvent themselves and it doesn't work they don't have the catalog to rely on to pull them through. It was a bleak period, but we came through it."

In 2016, Mustaine took a jab at nu metal while speaking to Cry Of The Wolf about some of the bands MEGADETH shared the stage with before those groups made it big.

"The list is as long as my arm of people that have toured with us and have gone on to bigger success," he said. "STONE TEMPLE PILOTS, PANTERA, KORN, WHITE ZOMBIE — our audience is a real friendly and open minded when it comes to new bands. ALICE IN CHAINS was another band.

"It's a very difficult business, not everyone gets the opportunities that they should," he continued. "And when someone like me says, 'I'm not hiring you because you sell tickets; I'm hiring you because you sound good,' that is cool stuff.

"I look at talent that we want to take out on the road as something that I would want to hear. Because we will be out on the road and I have to listen to them night after night. I want to be able to enjoy myself just as much as you do."

Focusing on nu metal, Mustaine added: "During that whole period a couple of [decades] ago when no one was doing guitar solos, we had a couple of bands go out with us and I despised them. And the reason they went out with us was because the label said, 'You need to do this.' That was the worst part of my career during that whole nu metal thing. You know there were no solos because the guitar players weren't good enough to do solos."

In 2014, Mustaine told Faster Louder that he didn't have fond recollections of some of the younger bands that were coming up nearly three decades ago. "They had this wave of metal that came through in the '90s and it was called 'nu metal'," he said. "I don't know if you remember it but it was so bad. I would have rather had my eyelids pulled out."

Asked if LIMP BIZKIT and LINKIN PARK were two of the bands he was talking about, Mustaine clarified: "No, no. I can't even remember their names. LINKIN PARK, those guys are good at what they do. I have no problems with those guys. But I wouldn't call them nu metal. I'm talking about the bands that wouldn't do guitar solos. Guys who get out there and they'd do rhythms and stuff but they'd never do a guitar solo. It's like ... come on, play a solo. But apparently solos aren't cool.

"It's just funny because I come from the school of AC/DC and LED ZEPPELIN, and man, the riff had to be kick-ass, the lyrics had to make sense, and when it was time for the solo, the solo had to rip your face off," Dave explained. "And hey I may not be part of the family anymore, right at the forefront ... but I'm the crazy uncle."

Earlier this month, it was announced that the next MEGADETH album will be released via Mustaine's Tradecraft imprint with the Frontiers Label Group's new imprint BLKIIBLK.

MEGADETH is once again working with Chris Rakestraw, a producer, mixer and engineer who previously worked on MEGADETH's last two albums, 2022's "The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!" and 2016's "Dystopia".

The upcoming MEGADETH album will be the band's first with new guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari, who joined the band a year and a half ago as the replacement for Kiko Loureiro.

Mäntysaari stepped in September 2023 for Loureiro, who announced earlier that month that he would sit out the next leg of MEGADETH's "Crush The World" tour in order to stay home with his children back in Finland. It was later revealed that the now-38-year-old Finnish musician would continue to play guitar for MEGADETH for the foreseeable future, with Loureiro seemingly having no plans to return.

Mäntysaari was born in Tampere, Finland and began playing guitar at the age of 12. In 2004, he joined the band WINTERSUN. He has also been a member of SMACKBOUND since 2015.

Photo credit: Ryan Chang