Megadeth bassist David Ellefson told Rock Music Star that Megadeth are almost done recording their new album.
“I was actually just down there [at the recording studio] last week. I went to Nashville to just put a couple of little, tiny finishing touches on some stuff. We’re literally in the final hours of getting everything done. Obviously, COVID slowed things down. Kiko [Loureiro, guitar] lives over in Finland now, and there were some delays last year, just with travel and with everything shutting down. But me and Dirk [Verbeuren, drums] got down there pretty quickly — by May and June [of last year], we were in there cutting tracks. It’s been good, though.
“One of the things, on the onset of it, Dave [Mustaine, guitarist/vocalist] had said to me, he goes, ‘I really wanna just take the time to listen to this record,'” he continued. “We had been in this grind, this touring thing, where you make a record, you go right out on tour, you come off of an 18-month tour and you go right into the studio and make a record. And there’s an energy about [that approach that] I like sometimes, and I think Megadeth has made some great records when our backs are against the wall and there’s a not a lot of time. I think with this one, especially following up ‘Dystopia’, off of such a big record like that, this is one where we have the luxury of time to sit back and we don’t just have to hurry up [and finish it].
“In the early days of your career, every minute counts, so you’re always working against the clock to jump on to bigger tours and these things. So, ironically, with COVID and everything that’s happened, it’s sort of slowed the whole pulse and the whole tempo of, obviously, the world, but certainly our industry — things have slowed down to a different pace. And so there’s a lot more — maybe a bit more reflecting. Obviously, as we go forward, as things get scheduled from 2020 to 2021, now 2022, there’s gonna be a lot of rescheduled things, there’s gonna be new things, obviously, coming down, with new records and stuff. So it’s [nice] to be able to be a bit reflective on this one and not just have to bang another record out.”
