Megadeth’s final album has arrived.
Marking the end of a career spanning over four decades, the thrash metal pioneers have come to a definitive conclusion. Serving as the follow up to 2022’s The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!, the self-titled album – their 17th in total – allows Megadeth, and frontman Dave Mustaine, to end on their own terms, rather than through circumstance.
“There’s so many musicians that have come to the end of their career, whether accidental or intentional,” Mustaine explained upon the album’s announcement in August. “Most of them don’t get to go out on their own terms on top, and that’s where I’m at in my life right now. I have travelled the world and have made millions upon millions of fans and the hardest part of all of this is saying goodbye to them.”
Mustaine and Chris Rakestraw teamed as co-producers for the album. It’s the Megadeth debut for guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari and the first studio release with bassist James LoMenzo since 2009’s Endgame. Dirk Verbeuren is back on drums for his second album.
Critics have described the album as having a “definitive sense of finality”, with The Guardian saying: “Rather than a full-blooded return to the genre their early albums helped birth, it effectively offers listeners a career-summarising redux.”
To celebrate the end, Megadeth are releasing a film, titled Megadeth: Behind the Mask, featuring Mustaine sharing untold stories about their 40 years of being one of metal’s defining bands. It will premiere in cinemas internationally today.
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They have also started rolling out dates for their 2026 worldwide farewell tour, with headline shows and festival appearances already confirmed in Latin America, North America and Europe. No Australian dates have been confirmed as yet.
Mustaine will also release a memoir in 2026, adding to the existing Megadeth literary collection that includes the 2020 oral history Rust in Peace: The Inside Story of the Megadeth Masterpiece and former lead guitarist Marty Friedman’s 2024 memoir Dreaming Japanese.
Megadeth’s self-titled final album is out now.
