May 252021
 

Megadeth has officially parted ways with bassist David Ellefson.

The band’s leader Dave Mustaine announced Ellefson‘s exit in a statement yesterday (Monday, May 24). He wrote: “We are informing our fans that David Ellefson is no longer playing with Megadeth and that we are officially parting ways with him.

“We do not take this decision lightly. While we do not know every detail of what occurred, with an already strained relationship, what has already been revealed now is enough to make working together impossible moving forward.

“We look forward to seeing our fans on the road this summer, and we cannot wait to share our brand new music with the world. It is almost complete.”

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Feb 282021
 

During a recent appearance on “The Dan Chan Show”Megadeth bassist David Ellefson offered an update on the progress of the recording sessions for the band’s follow-up to 2016’s “Dystopia” album. He said (hear audio below): “The new Megadeth album is almost done — rounding the corners into the ‘final final.’ It’s funny, ’cause we’d kind of been working on it for four years. Look, covid, of course, last year changed the course of everything, and Dave [MustaineMegadeth leader] went through throat cancer treatments the year before that, 2019. So, there have been some diversions. But at the same time, the record’s always been being worked on.”

He continued: “It’s funny — my view is that it’s probably kind of been in the works similar to ‘Dystopia’; we’re almost on the exact same timeline of when it’s gonna be finished, mixed [and] delivered. And, of course, as the world keeps attempting to open and then was shutting back down again, especially with live music, you always wanna try to release things around touring opportunities and promotional opportunities. So the fact that we’ve been able to work diligently on it and not sort of be boxed into a tour that would then get canceled or postponed, it’s actually been good. In hindsight, it’s all working out just fine.”

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Apr 102020
 

On Wednesday, April 8, Megadeth bassist David Ellefson talked to Canada’s The Metal Voice about the progress of the songwriting and recording sessions for the follow-up to 2016’s “Dystopia” album. He said (see video below): “We’ve been working on it, and it’s written, and it’s ready to be recorded. In fact, we were gonna start recording it toward the end of March. But, of course, all of this happened. We ended up having to cancel out of the Hell & Heaven Fest in Mexico City, which I think was March 15th. And right after that, we were gonna go to Nashville and get started cutting tracks, but with everything shutting down like this, we obviously have to put health matters for us… And it isn’t just the four of us — you go in the studio, and now you’ve got a whole staff of people in studios and carting services and all kinds of other services that go along with making records. Everybody’s locked down right now. So once the lockdown lifts and it’s safe to go back to — I hate to say ‘normal life,’ but it’s safe to basically engage in that again, we will absolutely be ready to rock.”

Speaking about the musical direction of the new Megadeth material, Ellefson said: “I think it’s a great record. It’s very heavy. There’s a lot of really fast thrashing stuff. And a lot of it is that the vibe is — it feels very cohesive between the four of us. We worked on a lot of it together, the four of us. Everybody works at home, and we’d throw some ideas into a folder and we’d kind of start working on that. But we spent a lot of time last summer — before we had to shut down for Dave‘s [Mustaine, guitar/vocals] throat cancer treatments — we spent a couple of months together working on it. And that was great, because that adds a whole different angle, a different skew, if you will, to the flavor of the record. That’s how we used to make all the early albums — we’d all live together in Los Angeles and we’d rehearse five, six days a week and then we’d be in the studio together working on it. And over the years, people live in different locations, and, of course, we have a lot of availability of digital technology, so we can kind of send things around to keep collaborating even in downtime like this.

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Nov 012018
 

Altitudes & Attitude featuring Anthrax bassist Frank Bello and Megadeth bassist David Ellefson, have announced 2019 UK/European tour dates including 6 shows with Slash f/Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators in support of their debut album, “Get It Out”, due on January 18, 2019 via Megaforce Records. Continue reading »

Aug 072018
 

Grammy Award-winning Megadeth bassist, author, entrepreneur and metal icon David Ellefson, in association with Hexagon Booking, has announced a string of European dates to his “Basstory” tour, a series of limited and exclusive “Storytellers” dates, starting September 21 in Portland, Oregon.

Dubbed “Basstory: An Intimate Evening Of Riffs And Repartee With David Ellefson”, the show combines solo bass performance with David‘s celebrated brand of storytelling, as he recounts intimate details of his struggles and triumphs in the name of rock ‘n’ roll.

“Basstory” will also include special VIP meet-and-greets, exclusive merchandise, and more. Continue reading »