Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson has really been the bearer of delay-related news for the new album, huh? Ellefson was the one who came out and said the record was probably not coming in 2018, and now he's the one who's doing the same about 2019.
In an interview with WRIF, Ellefson says the band will be grinding out the new record over the next few months before they hit the road in August. He adds that the delayed Ozzy tour opened up a great window for the band to wrap things up, though he doesn't expect the album to drop until early 2020. Not to say that at least one single won't drop in 2019 – it's a possibility.
"We were obviously planning to do the Ozzy – Megadeth tour, and now that that's been pushed back to next year, in a way, probably opens up a perfect window for us to really get in now [and work on the new record]. All things happen for a reason, so I think on the Megadeth schedule, it's probably maybe good timing, actually, to just go right in, and we're gonna definitely be really hunkering down now to get that going. Because we have some of our own shows in August that have been on the books — there's actually a few more coming in now — there's Rock In Rio, and that's early October, and then there's the [MegaCruise].
"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. So, in this case, sometime probably early 2020 is my thought that that's probably when the record will be ready to come out."
Megadeth's coming record will be their first with ex-Soilwork drummer Dirk Verbeuren and second with ex-Angra guitarist Kiko Loureiro. Among other things, Megadeth will headline Psycho Las Vegas 2019 alongside Opeth and Electric Wizard.
