MEGADETH are always and forever the point of no return for metal. 

It would be nearly impossible to conceive where heavy music and culture would’ve gone without the band founded, fronted, and fueled by vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, and producer Dave Mustaine. The blast radius of their impact has only magnified since 1983. Thus far, they have sold 50 million records worldwide, received a GRAMMY® Award (with 12 additional nominations), generated billions of streams, notched seven Top 10 entries on the Billboard 200, and enthralled millions of diehard fans in arenas and stadiums across the globe. Their influence can be felt practically everywhere—whether it be Post Malone proudly sporting a tattoo of “So Far, So Good… So What!,” Homer Simpson’s iPod displaying their moniker during an episode, or Showtime’s smash hit series Billions and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey utilizing MEGADETH in plot points, among a myriad of other moments. The band have delivered simultaneously relevant and timeless records in five decades now, setting the pace for the thrash renaissance of the eighties, tearing through the MTV years of the nineties with swagger and style, maintaining their stride in the post-Y2K 2000s, elevating to canonical heights in the social media and streaming era of the 2010s, and unassumingly harnessing the uncertainty and unease of the Post-Pandemic world into their boldest, biggest, and best work yet.

After all of this, MEGADETH sound as alive as ever on their 17th full-length offering, MEGADETH [Frontiers Label Group/BLKIIBLK/Tradecraft], in 2025. Flaunting fleet-fingered fretwork at breakneck speeds, they expertly weave a web of elite metal riffery, unpredictable stadium-shaking rhythms, eloquently executed guitar solos, and simultaneously spiteful and philosophical lyrical musings soaked in rancor and reflection.

The band—Dave, Teemu Mäntysaari [guitar], James LoMenzo [bass], and Dirk Verbeuren [drums]–are still challenging convention and captivating listeners by delivering tightly controlled, complex, and corrosively catchy thrash without equal.

“The basic tempo for this album is very fast,” grins Dave. “It’s good old-fashioned MEGADETH. We shied away from any ballads here. I personally think this is the record that fans have been waiting for, and I can’t wait for everybody to hear it. I just want to come in and completely destroy. That’s my mission right now.”

The world first met MEGADETH by way of Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good! back in 1985. A year later, they unleashed an indisputable classic in the form of 1986’s Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying? It marked their first platinum LP and yielded staples such as “Wake Up Dead” and “Peace Sells” whose instantly recognizable bassline even soundtracked MTV News for a decade-plus. Rolling Stone cited it at #8 on the “100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time,” while Pitchfork retrospectively hailed it as a “Best New Reissue.” Following the platinum So Far, So Good… So What!, MEGADETH returned with the equally definitive Rust In Peace during 1990. It went platinum and would be christened “the greatest thrash of the album of the ‘90s” by Metal Hammer with its creation chronicled in the popular book Rust In Peace: The Inside Story of the Megadeth Masterpiece. 1992’s Countdown To Extinction rocketed to #2 on the Billboard 200, earned a double-platinum certification, and spawned the signature generational anthem “Symphony of Destruction”—streamed nearly half-a-billion times to date. They rounded out this prolific streak with a pair of Top 10 albums, the platinum Youthanasia [1994] and gold Cryptic Writings [1997].

Storming into the next century with The System Has Failed [2004] and United Abominations [2007], the group served up another juggernaut with Endgame [2009]. It marked their second Top 10 debut in two years and received unanimous praise from the likes of The Quietus who christened it a “return to form.” In the wake of Thirteen [2011] and Super Collider [2013], the band reached another high watermark with Dystopia in 2016. Following a Top 3 debut on the Billboard 200, the title track earned a GRAMMY® Award in the category of “Best Metal Performance,” and the LP graced lists such as Guitar World’s “20 Best Guitar Albums of the Decade,” Loudwire’s “The 66 Best Metal Albums of the Decade,” and Consequence of Sound’s “Top 25 Metal Albums of the 2010s.” As Dave battled throat cancer, they only upped the ferocity with The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! in 2022. It saw them return to #3 on the Billboard 200, receive a “Best Metal Performance” GRAMMY® Award nomination for “We’ll Be Back,” and incite rave reviews. The lineup with Teemu, James, and Dirk fired on all cylinders at sold out shows in support of the record.

Along the way, MEGADETH extended their influence even further. During 2016, the band entered the spirits world with their very first signature beer À Tout Le Monde followed by Saison 13 in 2019. The brand asserted itself as a player in the beverage space and impressively moved over 15 million pints. Joining forces with Keystone in 2025, they ignite the next phase of Megadeth Beer on the biggest global platform yet.

When it came time to record MEGADETH, Mustaine did something he had never done before. He sat down with his bandmates and listened to every single MEGADETH song in the catalog together.

“It was a group effort,” he notes. “We talked about all 205 or so songs. We listened to each one and made notes on what we liked. I thought, ‘If I’m going to do this right and give the guys the weapons they need, I’m going to immerse them in Megadeth like no other’. Making The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead! was difficult, because I had just walked away from a lot of important things and I made it through some scary ordeals like cancer. I love that album, but this is even better.”

After arming the guys with those “weapons,” everybody really got to work in earnest with co-producer Chris Rakestraw. Teemu, Dirk, and James made key contributions to the album. They notably tracked drums at One On One Recording in North Hollywood where Rust In Peace was actually mixed. The musicians also worked out of a studio they built in the live room at CTK in Tennessee.

“The process was really cool,” Dave continues. “I’ve known James for a while, and I’d taken a real shine to Teemu and Dirk. The guys wrote some incredible material. I went through this really laborious method. We’d take the song, record the parts, play it back, and either say, ‘Nope,’ ‘Too fast,’ or ‘Too slow.’  That’s how we went over every drum hit, bass hit, and rhythm note and made sure it was perfect. There’s only one other record in my career we did this on, and it was Countdown To Extinction. We made sure that it was thought-out and balls to the wall.”

They most definitely accomplished that mission with the first single “Tipping Point.” It’s as alternately fast and melodic as MEGADETH’s best fare, emanating unbridled and undeniable aggression. “The lyrics are simple,” notes Dave. “It’s about someone pushing you to the point where you need to do something about it, whether it’s just move away or let your imagination go.”

No matter what comes next, MEGADETH have left a mark on metal as identifiable as their iconic mascot Vic Rattlehead.

“We made an album I’m really proud of,” Mustaine leaves off. “If this is going to be my last album, it’ll be the best one of my career…that is if it is the last one,” he laughs one last time.

Either way, MEGADETH are here to stay.