Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has revealed that he is battling throat cancer. Mustaine revealed his diagnosis earlier today, via an open letter posted on Megadeth’s official website.
“I’ve been diagnosed with throat cancer,” he shared. “It’s clearly something to be respected and faced head on – but I’ve faced obstacles before. I’m working closely with my doctors, and we’ve mapped out a treatment plan which they feel has a 90% success rate. Treatment has already begun.”
Consequently, Megadeth have had to cancel all scheduled touring plans, save the 2019 Megacruise. Mustaine assured fans that he and his bandmates are “working on the follow up to Dystopia – which I can’t wait for everyone to hear.”
Megadeth are in the thick of recording their 16th album. Dave Mustaine has revealed that he had over 500 riffs to choose from for the new record, and the drumming on this new release is “mind-blowing”.
Whilst the as-yet-untitled album was slated for a 2019 release, back in April, David Ellefson shared that a 2020 release date is likely.
“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 shared in an interview with Metal Hammer.
“So, in this case, sometime probably early 2020 is my thought that that’s probably when the record will be ready to come out.”
Check out: Megadeth – ‘Hangar 18’
