Megadeth bassist David Ellefson says the band are preparing to record their next album with a refreshed attitude and he believes the success of last year’s Dystopia hints at the direction they could take on its follow-up.
The thrash icons’ 16th studio title will mark the first time the current lineup – including mainman Dave Mustaine, guitarist Kiko Loureiro and drummer Dirk Verbeuren – will have recorded together.
Ellefson tells RAMzine (via Blabbermouth): “We’ve got a run with the Scorpions and we were going to finish up in South American in October, November. Then after that we’re talking about getting started on the new record.
“We can talk about it all we want, but we won’t know until we get into the studio. The feeling is that Dystopia re-calibrated Megadeth.
“We’ve been touring a lot with this lineup, so we’re going into it feeling like a band. It will have a lot of character and personality passed on from the four of us.
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“At the end of the day, it just needs to be Megadeth.”
Discussing the latest lineup, Ellefson adds: “For me it feels like a new band. There’s still a benchmark everyone has to rise to, me and Dave included.
“I feel like we’ve exceeded that – which is cooler, because we don’t just get to be the Megadeth of the past, but of the future.”
Mustaine said in February that he and Loureiro had begun sharing ideas for the new album, adding: “I want to have fun, I want to write music that I love listening to, and I think that’s what we did with Dystopia. I’m really looking forward to the next time in the studio.”
The band are featured in the 300th edition of Metal Hammer, on sale now.
Megadeth’s Mustaine: Rock Hall induction just a matter of time
