Megadeth

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Marty Friedman playing guitar onstage

“I’m flat on my back in the ER shivering like a moron in the middle of the Arizona desert”: Marty Friedman remembers intense panic attack he suffered during final Megadeth days

By Matt Mills published

In an excerpt from memoir Dreaming Japanese, Friedman looks back on the “unusually strong” panic attack he suffered on Christmas morning, 1999

Megadeth and Metallica performing live in 2024

“That’s a gutless thing to say!” Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine once walked out of spinal surgery because Metallica’s manager insulted him

By Matt Mills published

There’s “determined”, then there’s whatever the hell “climbing off of a surgery table to prove someone wrong” is

Black Sabbath, Megadeth and Slayer

According to science, metal is the most “intelligent” genre of music you can listen to - and these are its most intelligent bands

By Liz Scarlett published

Metalheads are boffins, actually, and these bands prove it

Megadeth posing for a photograph in 1988

“We had a living, breathing Sex Pistol come in and play on it. He wanted $100 and some ‘suction’”: The insane story of Megadeth’s So Far, So Good… So What!, thrash metal’s most self-destructive album

By Malcolm Dome published

Megadeth’s first two albums were thrash classics. And then they made So Far, So Good… So What! and the debauchery caught up with them

David Ellefson sat down holding a bass guitar

David Ellefson calls Megadeth’s most hated album “one of the great Megadeth records”

By Matt Mills published

To quote John Cena: “Are you sure about that?”

Dave Mustaine and Peter Frampton onstage

"It's disappointing when someone you admire talks out their ass about you": Megadeth vs Peter Frampton is the 2024 beef no one saw coming

By Fraser Lewry published

That escalated quickly, etc

David Ellefson in 2010 and Metallica in 2002

“Lars called me, and you’re on a shortlist”: Former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson was in the running to replace Jason Newsted in Metallica

By Matt Mills published

Megadeth’s David Ellefson was shortlisted to join Metallica in 2003 – and he found out because Dave Mustaine told him

Dirk Verbeuren of Megadeth performs at Lokerse Feesten Festival on August 6, 2023 in Lokeren, Belgium

Megadeth drummer hits out at fashion brand for "stealing" heavy metal imagery

By Stef Lach published

Hoodie includes Soilwork album art which has caught the attention of Megadeth and Lamb of God members

David Ellefson

“It’s never a closed chapter. I helped start the band.” David Ellefson doesn’t rule out Megadeth return

By Matt Mills published

Ellefson was dismissed from Megadeth in 2021 following a sex scandal, but seems open to rejoining the thrash icons

Metallica live 1980s

"You had guys who would jump into the crowd and then walk across people’s heads." Inside the year that turned thrash metal into a global phenomenon

By Dave Everley published

From Anthrax's Fistfull Of Metal to Exodus's Bonded By Blood and Metallica's Ride The Lightning, 1984 was the year thrash broke big

Megadeth posing for a photograph in 2009

“I’m going to get into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame one way or another and Lars Ulrich can’t keep me out!” How Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine used old rivalries as fuel for the Endgame album

By Dom Lawson published

Megadeth‘s 2009 album Endgame capped a killer decade for the thrash veterans

Marty Friedman and Gene Simmons in 2023

“I’m 5’7” but I’ll have an operation, I’ll do something”: Ex-Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman was denied a Kiss audition for being too short

By Matt Mills published

Marty Friedman’s height cruelly cost him the chance to join one of rock’s biggest-ever bands

Megadeth performing live in 2024

Watch Megadeth play rare ’80s cut Liar live for the first time in almost 20 years

By Matt Mills published

The So Far, So Good… So What! classic hasn’t been heard live since 2006

Megadeth in 2024 and Metallica in 2023

“People get their ya-yas when they see people struggling for some crazy reason”: Dave Mustaine explains “animosity” he received after Metallica exit

By Matt Mills published

Megadeth’s leader received hate from “people I didn’t even know” after his Metallica dismissal in 1983

Megadeth posing for a photograph in 2011

“Nu metal? No guitar solos! Everyone played with their pants down round their ankles… It was a bleak period, but we came through it”: how Megadeth kicked off the 2010s with the blazing Th1rt3en album

By Dom Lawson published

In 2011, Dave Mustaine invited Metal Hammer into his inner sanctum

James LoMenzo and Dave Mustaine of Megadeth in 2022

“Dave Mustaine really wants to do another record”: Megadeth are making their next album, says bassist

By Matt Mills published

According to James LoMenzo, the thrash metal icons are already at work on the follow-up to 2022’s The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!

Dave Mustaine

Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine says nothing makes him feel as good as thrash metal: “Not a drug, not a drink, not a person, not a thing”

By Matt Mills published

The Megadeth man’s wife and children will be thrilled

Dirk Verbeuren with Megadeth in 2023 and Paramore in 2007

Watch Megadeth’s drummer play Paramore anthem Misery Business after only hearing it once

By Matt Mills published

Dirk Verbeuren has given Paramore’s signature song the double-bass treatment

Marty Friedman playing guitar onstage

Marty Friedman wants you to stop calling him an ‘ex-Megadeth guitarist’: “It’s not doing me any favours. It’s 25 years ago.”

By Matt Mills published

Though still proud of his time in the celebrated thrashers, Friedman feels his music and theirs have become wildly different

Marty Friedman playing guitar onstage

“People were crying and screaming and smiling from ear to ear”: Marty Friedman revisits Megadeth reunion at Budokan

By Matt Mills published

The former Megadeth guitarist performed with the thrash metal favourites in his new home country of Japan last year