Megadeth is set to release the long-awaited new album, The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!, during the spring of ’22. Speaking in an interview with American Songwriter magazine, Dave Mustaine spoke on the release, and uncovering the album title earlier this year.
Sharing the interview online, Mustaine details his recovery from cancer, his switch to Gibson Guitars, and probes the upcoming album’s title track. The 60-year-old rocker further explains the record as like the 14th century bubonic plague, the Black Death.
Mustaine calls the record “a historical journey of how the plague started and where it went, starting with rats on ships carrying the disease, coming ashore in Sicily. ‘Ring Around the Rosie’ was the ring on your cheek, the [rash] that would show on your cheeks from the plague.”
The rocker also speaks enthusiastically on how the new album builds on guitar riffs from Megadeth’s history. The rocker said “a lot of the riffs have been saved over time. A brand-new song can be made up of something I wrote when I was 15 or 55. If it’s a good riff, I’ll save it.”
Earlier this month, the rocker shared his thoughts on his favourite Megadeth guitar solo he’s written in a video on Cameo. Mustaine was speaking on the video-sharing app, where users can pay to have a celebrity send a personalized message to themselves or others.
“It’s kind of hard to say because there’s certain solos that have a great payoff, but we haven’t played ’em live for so long,” Mustaine replied. “I’ve forgotten so many of them — 200 songs and all of the solos and stuff. Out of the songs that we play live that I’m really familiar with, the solos that we play that we like, I like ‘The Threat Is Real.’ I love ‘Holy Wars.’ ‘Wake Up Dead’ is a great solo for me to play too. … That was one of my first really big solos that got everybody interested in Megadeth.”
Mustaine and Megadeth parted ways with long time guitarist and co-founder, David Effelson, who had been embroiled in a sec scandal with a minor. Although the musician was originally on the new album, his bass lines are said to be replaced by an unnamed player, with James LoMenzo taking his spot on the tour.
Dave Mustaine is featured in the Nov/Dec 2021 edition of American Songwriter magazine. Available on newsstands now and digitally at https://t.co/bCbVQ2Fzma pic.twitter.com/XoHXSLHxUR
— Megadeth (@Megadeth) November 15, 2021
