In a brand new interview with "The Robbcast Podcast" , MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson was asked about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's follow-up to 2016's "Dystopia" album. He responded (hear audio below): "We've been individually writing, submitting stuff. We've been working remotely on putting — [I've been home] here in Arizona putting bass parts down, working on things and kind of piecing things together. And there's probably eight good arrangements put together.
"Many of these records, you kind of come in and you sort of plug into the board, Pro Tools , a computer, whatever, and you put your parts down and you piece the record together," he continued. "And one of the things that we talked about is that it's nice to be able to play some things, sit back and listen to it. [But] what does it sound like as a band?
"I remember we made the 'Super Collider' record, and we'd never played those songs together. And we got out on stage and we went, 'Oh my God! These songs are not working live.' 'Kingmaker' has worked well — that was good — and also 'Dance In The Rain' , especially on Gigantour , when David Draiman was out there with his band, DEVICE , 'cause then we'd have him come up and sing the song. 'Cause he sang on the record, and it was awesome to have him come up every night and sing live with us. But some of the other tunes, they didn't translate [live]. And they're great on the record — they sound fine — but there's just a thing…
" MEGADETH started of us being in a room, and you could just feel the freakin'… it was like this freakin' demonic possession of the music," Ellefson added. "It just drew you in — lip-curling… 'Fuck, this is heavy. This is fucking scary, this is so heavy. Oh my God. This feels so wrong, it's right. This is just shit from another dimension.' And that experience — we all have that in our bands. Whatever that is. Where we're connected; it moves the room.
"I'm glad that now with MEGADETH , we're getting in a room. We're the best acid test we could have. If it freakin' rocks our world and we're getting fucking boners over it, then it's probably gonna work pretty good out in the live audience with the stage. Because we're fans too, and I think that you yourself as a band are always the first acid test before it ever gets recorded or goes out on a stage."
A little over a month ago, MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine publicly revealed that he is battling throat cancer.
The 57-year-old announced his cancer diagnosis on June 17 on social media. He said that he has already begun treatment as part of a plan that his doctors feel has a "90% success rate."
Although most of MEGADETH 's previously announced 2019 tour dates have been canceled as Mustaine undergoes treatment, the MEGADETH -curated Megacruise — which is set to take place October 13-19 — will still depart as scheduled, and the band will be a part of it in some form.
