Former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson has looked back on his first impression of Master Of Puppets, the landmark third album by his ex-bandmates’ rival thrashers Metallica.
Talking to Metal Hammer, the 61-year-old, who served in Megadeth from 1983 to 2002 and again from 2010 to 2021, remembers thinking that the album sounded “so expensive”, due to the glossy production from Flemming Rasmussen.
“It sounded big time,” Ellefson recalls. “I remember thinking, ‘These guys are really fucking doing it, man.’ You had the intensity of Battery, which really upped the thrash game, then you had Welcome Home (Sanitarium), which was this dark ballad, and then you had Orion, which could almost be on a King Crimson album.”
He adds: “In a way, it was the first metal prog album. The whole thing was almost an hour long, but there’s only eight songs on it, and the songs are five, six, seven minutes long. No other thrash band was doing that at that time.”
Despite how ground-breaking Ellefson thought the album was, he admits that he kept his admiration for it somewhat quiet around singer/guitarist Dave Mustaine, who was a member of Metallica from 1982 to ’83 before he started Megadeth.
“Obviously, Dave Mustaine had a history with Metallica,” the bassist continues. “I made it known that I liked the album, but I’d definitely change the channel when he got in the car. But when we were on tour, I’d listen to it in my bunk on my Walkman in private. I studied that record and what they were doing: ‘Fuck man, we need to do that. How do we do it?’ We were never going to sound like them, but it really upped the game for me when it came to songwriting.”
When Mustaine formed Megadeth, he set out to make the band heavier, faster and more dangerous than Metallica. In 2024, Ellefson looked back on the rivalry between the two bands, saying, “The fight against Metallica was not my fight … I am glad to be friends with them.”
He added: “Now that I’m not in Megadeth, I think, at this age, to drag out resentment and be fuelled by anger would be age-inappropriate. It would be very disruptive and, publicly, not seem very cool, either. But if there was one person who could pull that off, it was Dave. He could write a song! I’m convinced that none of us come up with this shit; it comes to us.”
Ellefson was dismissed from Megadeth in the summer of 2021, after video footage of him on an intimate call with a fan leaked online. Rumours circulated online that the fan in question was underage, but they were quickly denied by both Ellefson and the fan. The bassist’s parts on Megadeth’s 2022 album The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! were removed, then re-tracked by Testament’s Steve Di Giorgio.
Megadeth, now with James Lo Menzo on bass, are currently on their farewell tour following the release of their self-titled final album in January. Although some fans have urged the band to reunite with former members as they bow out, Mustaine said in an interview last year that it wouldn’t be possible due to one person’s past behaviour. Ellefson took exception to the comment, telling Mustaine to “just fuck off”.
Meanwhile, Metallica are gearing up for a run of European stadium shows that kick off in May. The band will return to their ‘No-Repeat Weekends’ format, which sees them play two shows at the same venue with totally different setlists. See all dates and get tickets via their website.
Read the full interview with Ellefson in the upcoming issue of Metal Hammer, which comes out on Thursday (April 2). Order our current issue now and get it delivered directly to your door.
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