Megadeth recently finished recording its fifteenth album in a Nashville studio for a tentative late 2015 or early 2016 release. The production duties on the follow-up to 2013’s “Super Collider” were handled by Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine and Toby Wright (Alice In Chains, Korn). The CD is currently being mixed by Josh Wilbur, who has previously worked with Lamb Of God, All That Remains & Gojira.
As previously reported, Megadeth and Lamb Of God will join forces for a full UK & Eire co-headline tour in November 2015. The tour will coincide with this year’s release of Megadeth’s 15th Studio album through Tradecraft / Universal. Dates & locations are listed below.
In a July 27 online chat with members of Megadeth‘s official fan club, the Cyber Army, Mustaine revealed the track listing for the band’s forthcoming album. It is as follows:
01. Death From Within
02. Fatal Illusion
03. Conquer… Or Die!
04. Lying In State
05. Me Hate You
06. The Emperor’s New Clothes
07. Dystopia
08. Bullet To The Brain
09. Last Dying Wish
10. Post American World
11. Look Who’s Talking
12. The Threat Is Real
13. Poisonous Shadows
14. Melt The Ice Away (Budgie cover)
15. Foreign Policy (Fear cover)
The new Megadeth album will be the band’s first to feature Lamb Of God drummer Chris Adler and Brazilian guitarist Kiko Loureiro, best known for his work with Angra. They were recruited earlier this year following the departures of drummer Shawn Drover and Chris Broderick, who have since launched a new project called Act Of Defiance.
The song ‘Poisonous Shadows’ features piano playing from Kiko as well as orchestration from famed Nashville arranger Ronn Huff, the father of former Megadeth producer Dann Huff. Mustaine described the track to Rolling Stone as “a really haunting piece” and added that “the part that [Kiko] played is very Chopin-meets-MEGADETH, if that makes sense.”
Mustaine recently told Revolver magazine about Megadeth‘s forthcoming CD: “There’s a lot of riffing going on in there, that’s for damn sure,” he said. “There’s a lot of solos, a lot of pounding drums and bass. I knew from the start that I wanted to go back to my roots, and I wanted to make a thrash record.”
He also talked about Megadeths new lineup, which made its live debut earlier this month at the Festival D’été De Québec (also known as by its acronym FEQ, or Quebec City Summer Festival in English), in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. (watch fan-filmed footage here).
“When Chris and Shawn left, it saddened me a little because they didn’t say goodbye,” Mustaine said. “They were pissed, because they’d gotten word that people wanted the ‘Rust In Peace’ [lineup] reunion [with guitaristMarty Friedman and drummer Nick Menza]. And frankly, I didn’t; I was happy with those two guys. So when they left, it was like, ‘It isn’t going to be easy to replace them!’”
He continued: “We haven’t found a permanent drummer yet, but finding Kiko was really a mind-blower. It was the first time since Marty Friedman joined the band that I was really intimidated as a player. He’s such an amazing talent, and he’s been coming in with all of these fresh ideas.”
Adler, who has previously said that Megadeth was the band that made him want to start drumming to begin with, was involved during the songwriting process for the group’s new album. “Megadeth is Megadeth,”Mustaine told Revolver, “and the songs will kind of tell you where they go. But there were several times while we were tracking where Chris would say, ‘I think these parts should go like this, because that’s how myMegadeth is.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I like that ‘my Megadeth‘ stuff!’”
Tour Dates:
Oct 11 Loud Park 15 Tokyo, Japan
Nov..09 3Arena, Dublin, IE
Nov.11 – Braehead Arena, Glasgow, UK
Nov.12 – O2 Apollo. Manchester, UK
Nov.14 – SSE Arena, Wembley, UK
Nov.15 – O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK