New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ RoadRunner Records) Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine revealed to members of the band's official fan club just last month that he has some new songs "almost finished" for the next studio album, and in a recent interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com, bassist Dave Ellefsonchecked in to give us even more insight.
While the guys are getting ready to park it in their studio Vic's Garage to work on the follow-up to 2009's Grammy-nominated Endgame, it's been reported that Mustaine has already been hard at work with engineer Ken Eisennagel in pre-production.
Here's what Ellefson had to say about the early songs:
"I think they're very cool and obviously they're very heavy. I think more than the actual material though... because again, at this point everybody has some individual ideas or some collective ideas that are at least established. More than anything though, I think we're excited about it because we've had such a great year of reconnecting. There've been some huge successes with the 'Rust In Peace' tour and the 'Big Four' DVD, and just coming off of that, it's an exciting time for us to start and carve out the next chapter of Megadeth."
As for where the band is at as a unit, Ellefson explains:
"Now it's kinda cool though, because there's now me and Dave who both can go back to the seed of Megadeth, to the origins of it. I think that there's a really cool chemistry right now with Dave and I being back together. I think our playing has a certain style, and adds a certain tonal quality to Megadeth. There's a really cool mixture of all the ingredients right now in the kitchen to really whip up something pretty tasty."
And as for the final verdict, Ellefson says:
"Again though, we're at a stage where we're just compiling ideas - riffs, lyrics, things like that. Those early ideas often turn many corners and take many new twists before they're finalized on the final album. The seeds of the ideas I think are great, and I think they're really heavy and they're powerful. I don't think Megadeth fans will be disappointed at all. If the final outcome of what I'm hearing at this point with these seeds of ideas, if these come to fruition like they should, I think we're gonna have ourselves a smoking record."
Read the whole assessment right here, and stay tuned for more from Megadeth as they enter the studio to work on their new album this year.
