MEGADETH's DAVE MUSTAINE Teases New Song In Video From Writing Sessions

MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine has shared a short video of drummer Dirk Verbeuren working on his parts for a new song, to be included on the band's 16th studio album. Dave captioned the clip: "The Cheshire Cat is smiling! Enjoy a lil tease. ⁦@Megadeth⁩ ⁦@VerbeurenDirk⁩ #Album16" The sessions are being co-produced by Chris Rakestraw, who previously worked on 2016's "Dystopia" disc.

This past August, Mustaine confirmed to Guitar World magazine that MEGADETH was working on material for the follow-up to "Dystopia". "We have been for a few weeks now," he said. "All the bandmembers are at home writing stuff and putting it in the same spot, keeping all the riffs centralized in one place. And anybody can access anybody's stuff. And then once we're done, I'll start assembling everything."

Asked if that means we will see new MEGADETH music in 2019, Mustaine responded: "Absolutely. For sure. A whole new record, I would say the chances are probably 95 percent. And at least one new song, I'd say it's 100 percent. No question."

MEGADETH's upcoming effort will mark the group's first release to feature Verbeuren, who officially joined the band more than two years ago.

Dave told "Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon" back in June that some of the new MEGADETH music is turning out to be more extreme than anything the band has done in the past. "The stuff that Dirk's been playing along to it is scary," he said. "We've never had any of those blast-beat kind of things on our music before, and some of the drumming on this is so mind-blowing. It's making me a better guitar player again, which I love. But I never thought we were gonna be playing this fast or this aggressive again."

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

MEGADETH's first-ever Megacruise is scheduled to take place next fall. The boat will depart from Los Angeles on October 13, 2019 and visit San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico before returning to L.A. on October 18, 2019.