Despite constant talk about their new record, it seems that fans will have to wait a bit longer for new Megadeth, with David Ellefson now saying a 2020 release date is likely.
For months now, there has been plenty of talk about Megadeth’s follow-up to 2016’s Grammy-winning Dystopia. However, while attitudes have been rather positive about this new record, we’ve not yet been given an idea about when we might hear it.
Back in August, frontman Dave Mustaine revealed that even if we don’t receive the full album in 2019, we’ll “absolutely” hear a new song at least, undoubtedly raising hopes in the process.
Then, just a matter of weeks ago, Mustaine noted that he was planning to go above and beyond with the new album, aiming to record at least a dozen songs this time around.
“I have about eight songs and there’s one which is just unanimously everyone’s favourite, which is great,” Mustaine stated. “I’m not saying there’s only one good song so far though, haha!”
However, bassist David Ellefson has now broken the bad news to fans, revealing that Megadeth’s busy schedule is making a 2019 release date very unlikely.
Check out Dave Ellefson’s conversation on Talking Rock With Meltdown:
Speaking to Talking Rock With Meltdown (via Metal Hammer), David Ellefson explained that the band’s as-yet-untitled 16th album will likely be unleashed in 2020.
“We were obviously planning to do the Ozzy tour and now that’s been pushed back until next year, it probably opens up a perfect window for us to really get in now,” Ellefson began.
“All things happen for a reason, so I think on the Megadeth schedule, it’s probably good timing to just go right in. We’re going to definitely be hunkering down now to get that going.”
“That’s because we have some of our own shows in August, and there’s actually a few more coming in now – there’s Rock In Rio, and that’s early October and then there’s the MegaCruise.”
“As much as we were hoping to have a record out this year, looking at how the Dystopia timeline was where we were working on it early in 2015, we started doing some shows later that year, we put out a heavy track ‘Fatal Illusion’ and then the record dropped in early 2016,” he continued.
“So, in this case, sometime probably early 2020 is my thought that that’s probably when the record will be ready to come out.”
While this is undoubtedly sad news for Megadeth fans, let’s just be glad that the record is indeed still on its way, and hope that it won’t keep getting pushed back further.
Check out Megadeth’s ‘Hangar 18’:
