Megadeth chose Adler to excite fans
Dave Mustaine considered other sticksmen but chose Lamb Of God’s Chris as it wasn’t a predictable move
Select the newsletters you’d like to receive. Then, add your email to sign up.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
Louder
Louder’s weekly newsletter is jam-packed with the team’s personal highlights from the last seven days, including features, breaking news, reviews and tons of juicy exclusives from the world of alternative music.
Every Friday
Classic Rock
The Classic Rock newsletter is an essential read for the discerning rock fan. Every week we bring you the news, reviews and the very best features and interviews from our extensive archive. Written by rock fans for rock fans.
Every Friday
Metal Hammer
For the last four decades Metal Hammer has been the world’s greatest metal magazine. Created by metalheads for metalheads, ‘Hammer takes you behind the scenes, closer to the action, and nearer to the bands that you love the most.
Every Friday
Prog
The Prog newsletter brings you the very best of Prog Magazine and our website, every Friday. We'll deliver you the very latest news from the Prog universe, informative features and archive material from Prog’s impressive vault.
Megadeth chose Lamb Of God drummer Chris Adler to play on their upcoming album as they wanted to excite fans, according to mainman Dave Mustaine.
And he reports that although he talked with some big-name sticksmen following the departure of Shawn Drover last year, he didn’t want to go for a predictable choice.
Mustaine tells Rolling Stone: “Our hopes were to have a permanent drummer but the option to do a record with Chris was really exciting to me.
“We’ve looked at a lot of people. I talked with my friend Mike Portnoy, who I think is an amazing talent, and I talked to Dave Lombardo. Mike Mangini’s name has come up.
“But there was just something telling me to pause, saying, ‘Really think about who you’re gonna play with, Mustaine. Make sure you’re going to do something that’s really going to excite people and that it’s not predictable.’”
Adler won’t take to the road with the thrash giants in the future but Mustaine says that’s been taken care of, adding: “We have a drummer committed to our dates so far this year.”
Mustaine, Adler, bassist David Ellefson and guitarist Kiko Loureiro have been working on the follow-up to 2013’s Super Collider just outside of Nashville. And Mustaine reveals some of the names of the tracks they’re recording.
The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.
He continues: “There’s a song called The Emperor Has No Clothes and another called Tyranocide. Several have working titles but I don’t want to say what they are.”
He also confirms two of the 15 tracks are covers of Budgie’s Melt The Ice Away and Foreign Policy by Fear.
Megadeth launched a PledgeMusic pre-order campaign for the as-yet-untitled album. It’s expected to launch later this year.

Scott has spent 37 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in 2014 before moving into e-commerce in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, highlights deals, and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 12 years, Scott has written more than 11,500 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from news and features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.
