Megadeth‘s video for the song Public Enemy No. 1 will make its online debut this coming Friday, November 4. The clip was shot on September 17 in Santa Clarita, California on a movie set where old Westerns are filmed. Bassist David Ellefson stated in a video message [see below] about the Public Enemy No. 1 clip, “We have never shot a video like this before; there’s actually animals in the movie and that’s all we can say.” 

On the topic of how the song Public Enemy No. 1 came together,Ellefson told Music Radar in a recent interview, “We started writing this song during a soundcheck in Croatia last year, and we finished it in Vienna, Austria a short while later. Funnily enough, earlier this year we wrote another song on the record called Never Dead in the same venue in Austria. So that place has magic in it. It’s another New Wave Of British Heavy Metal-type song, at least as far as what I do. I loved the early Def Leppard records, and I’m copping a bit of a Rick Savage bass approach on it. I really tried to write around the vocals. I love to hear as much of the band, especially the vocals, when I record a bass part. As a player, I want to be the mortar between the blocks that glue the building together. Once the vocal melody developed, Johnny [K., producer] and I worked with Dave [Mustaine, vocals/guitar], and that allowed me to put down a strong bass part. It was a fun way to record. I had a lot of note choices available to me, and there’s a cool moving bassline in the B section of the verse as well as the chorus. As a listener, none of that matters, but hopefully, you’ll feel the song jump.”

Public Enemy No. 1 comes off Megadeth‘s new album, TH1RT3EN, which is likely to sell between 40,000 and 45,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to industry web site Hits Daily Double. The estimate was based on one-day sales reports compiled after the record arrived in stores on November 1 via Roadrunner Records.

Megadeth‘s previous CD, 2009’s Endgame, opened with 45,000 units to debut at position No. 9 on The Billboard 200 chart. This was slightly less than the 54,000 first-week tally registered by 2007’s United Abominations, which landed at No. 8. 2004’s The System Has Failed premiered with 46,000 copies (No. 18) while 2001’s The World Needs A Hero moved 61,000 units in its first week (No. 16).

TH1RT3EN was recorded at Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine‘sVic’s Garage studio in San Marcos, California with producer Johnny K (full name: John Karkazis), who has previously worked with Disturbed, Sevendust, Machine Head and Staind, among others. The artwork was once again created by artist John Lorenzi, who worked on the last two Megadeth studio albums, 2007’s United Abominations and 2009’s Endgame, as well as the band’s 2007 box set, Warchest.

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