MEGADETH's U.S. Tour To Kick Off In February, Says DAVE MUSTAINE

MEGADETH will embark on a U.S. tour in February 2016. The four-band package will mark MEGADETH's first U.S. run of dates in support of its new album, "Dystopia", which is scheduled for release in January.

While chatting with fans on Saturday (October 31) via Periscope, a live video streaming platform owned by Twitter, Mustaine stated about MEGADETH's touring plans: "We're not gonna be heading back into the States until, I think… In February of '16, I think, is when we start the U.S. tour. And we've got a pretty interesting lineup. I'm sure you guys are gonna be stoked. I can't say anything yet until it's confirmed. But it looks like everybody's gonna be accepting the tour. And it'll be four of us."

Mustaine also spoke about MEGADETH's musical direction on "Dystopia", the band's first release to feature LAMB OF GOD drummer Chris Adler and Brazilian guitarist Kiko Loureiro, best known for his work with ANGRA. He said: "I think we were going back to our thrash roots, and in the process, Chris came into things. If you remember, after we did 'Risk', I told Marty [Friedman, then-MEGADETH guitarist], 'We need to get back to our roots,' and he quit. So I've wanted to play like this record for a long time. It's just kind of like driving a… well, not driving… piloting an aircraft carrier. You turn the wheel all the way to the left, [and] you know you're turning, but it doesn't look like it, and it takes a long time to get turned around. But we're turned around, I believe."

MEGADETH and LAMB OF GOD will tour the U.K. together later this month, and Adler revealed in a recent interview that "there is talk of having us do a North American run together early next year." He spoke about how he is preparing on pulling double duty every night: "I'm carb-loading before the show. I have been working really, really hard over the past probably 10 years to keep myself in shape. What I try to do is about a 10-mile run every day, and then I play the LAMB OF GOD show. So I figure those two things together are probably gonna equal what I do with these guys."

Due to his LAMB OF GOD schedule, Adler was unable to play with MEGADETH in China and Japan last month and was temporarily replaced by Tony Laureano (ex-DIMMU BORGIR, NILE, ANGELCORPSE),a veteran extreme-metal skinsman who has worked as MEGADETH's drum tech since 2011.

Adler made his live debut with MEGADETH in July at the Festival D'été De Québec (also known as by its acronym FEQ, or Quebec City Summer Festival in English),in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

The follow-up to 2013's "Super Collider", "Dystopia" was recorded earlier in the year in Nashville, Tennessee and was mixed by Josh Wilbur, who has previously worked with LAMB OF GOD, ALL THAT REMAINS and GOJIRA.