Former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson has offered his thoughts — both positive and negative — on the band’s self-titled final album, which came out last month.
Ellefson reviewed the chart-topping Megadeth on a new episode of The David Ellefson Show, which you can hear below.
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David Ellefson Identifies the ‘Shining Star’ of Megadeth
Ellefson — who served two lengthy stints in Megadeth and played on their best-known albums — had plenty of nice things to say about the lineup Dave Mustaine assembled for the band’s final record. He singled out pre-release single “Let There Be Shred” and praised new guitarist Teemu Mantysaari’s performance across the entire album.
“Look, Teemu is obviously a great guitar player,” Ellefson said. “He’s fantastic. He’s a great player. To me, he’s kind of the story of Megadeth right now. He’s the shining star of the group.”
Ellefson also praised drummer Dirk Verbeuren’s performance, although he wished Verbeuren’s playing had been captured differently.
“I wish they would not Pro Tool Dirk Verbeuren so much because the guy can play,” Ellefson added. “We always said he’s the closest to Gar Samuelson [who played on the first two Megadeth albums, 1985’s Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good! and 1986’s Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying?] since Gar Samuelson. It’s like, take the guy off the fucking Pro Tools grid. Stop quantizing him and let him breathe a little bit.”
See David Ellefson Review Megadeth’s Final Album
The Megadeth Lyric That Reminded David Ellefson of a Classic Rock Legend
Ellefson also praised Mustaine’s lyric-writing abilities and cited a standout moment on Megadeth that reminded him of a classic rock legend.
“Dave does write a lyric that you listen to it,” Ellefson said. “I always say when you’re mixing … when the singer comes in, everything else has to kind of step back because people want to hear the singer. I mean, that’s what women listen to when they hear a song. It’s like, listen to the singer, right?”
The bassist then turned his focus to “The Last Note,” the contemplative closing track on Megadeth. “I really like the lyric, and I heard Dave’s interview with Jose [Mangin] and he talked about the Bob Seger thing, because that’s exactly what I thought,” he said. “I thought, this kind of reminds me of a ‘Turn the Page’ kind of thing.’ I did like it. I didn’t like the song that good. I was hoping for a better song, but I did like the lyric. And that is very much a Dave lyric.”
READ MORE: The Best Song Off Every Megadeth Album
Why David Ellefson Considers ‘Megadeth’ a ‘Dave [Mustaine] Solo Record’
Despite the album’s definitive title, Ellefson said he views Megadeth less as a band effort and more as a Mustaine solo album.
“I still look at it as Dave’s retirement because I still think of Megadeth as our band,” he explained. “I think it’s a sin to just go off and claim it as his own.”
Ellefson elaborated: “I hear it and I go, ‘Okay, this is a Dave solo record. This is Dave and his new band, Dave and his new guys. It says Megadeth so obviously it gets all the attention, but realistically, I hear it and to me it just doesn’t sound like Megadeth. And that’s just me, period. It sounds like Dave doing what Dave does but with a different set of guys in a new day. And this is Dave’s retirement.”
See David Ellefson in our following list of (almost) every musician who’s been in Megadeth:
Here’s (Almost) Every Musician Who’s Been in Megadeth
Here’s nearly every musician that’s been an official member of Megadeth.
Gallery Credit: Lauryn Schaffner
