MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine recently addressed the upcoming release of the band’s sixteenth studio album, “The Sick, The Dying And The Dead”.
Addressing the record finally being released this summer in a chat with Loudwire, Dave said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I sure hope so. I think it’s July 8th. I think that was the latest we heard for a release date. I think it could possibly be scooted forward a little bit, but I think that would actually be worse than if it stayed where it was at. You need every little bit of time to let people get everything all set up with all this COVID shit. It’s been really difficult to ship anything, let alone records.”
Dave also touched on the musical direction of the new MEGADETH material and the return of bassist James LoMenzo to the fold, saying: “I like to push things as far as I can right because of the — not only the ability but the excitement level that Dirk [Verbeuren, drums] and Kiko [Loureiro, guitar] have with their playing ability right now. Our guest bassist that we had [on the new album]” — which has been highly rumored to be Steve DiGiorgio (TESTAMENT, DEATH, SADUS) — “he was a fantastic player. And having James be part of the band again… I remember there were so many, many wonderful nights playing with him. So when the situation kind of revealed itself that we needed to make a change, James was pretty much the obvious choice.”
Mustaine confirmed the return of James LoMenzo to MEGADETH two months ago for the band’s upcoming second leg of their U.S. run for “The Metal Tour Of The Year”. Also on the bill are LAMB OF GOD, TRIVIUM and IN FLAMES.
LoMenzo originally joined MEGADETH in 2006, playing on two albums – 2007’s “United Abominations” and 2009’s “Endgame” – before being let go to make way for the return of original MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson in 2010.