Megadeth
Sumerlands Soundtrack the Moody ‘80s Movie in Your Mind, and More New Metal
There’s a new Ozzy Osbourne album out this month. There’s also a new Striborg album out: two and a half hours of oppressively bleak — and, at its best, downright chilling — “blackwave” courtesy of the Tasmanian loner known as Sin Nanna. I state these facts to demonstrate a simple point: The universe of what we call metal is vast, and more or less impossible to keep tabs on in its entirety. Favor the festival headliners and arena fillers, and you miss the best of the club acts and fledgling bands sweating it out over that soon-to-be-legendary demo; scour the underground obsessively and you might overlook a late-career triumph from a household name. So if this new incarnation of SPIN’s monthly metal roundup — in which I take over from Andy O’Connor, an astute and passionate lifer whose recom...
The 12 Worst Heavy Metal Albums of All Time
What makes a truly awful metal album? It’s not just a lack of riffs, awful production, or quarter-assed vocal takes. Most of these records suffer from overdosing on compromise, whether it’s hopelessly chasing a trendy sound or a failure to age gracefully; others have visions more realized yet too noxious to raise the horns with any pride. It shouldn’t shock you that most of these albums were released in the late 90s to the early 2000s – metal’s crisis years when older bands couldn’t make sense (or were outright hostile towards) nu-metal and what was left of alternative rock, and before the MTV2 Headbangers Ball revival both spread metalcore around the world and reignited a lot of older thrashers’ careers. Those really were the Dark Ages. Metal should make you want to sin for the greater go...
30 Signature Guitars for Modern Artists
For decades, having a signature guitar was reserved for classic rock legends — the Claptons, the Hendrixes, the Pages, the SRVs and EVHs. But that’s no longer the case. From pop-punk to heavy metal, alt-country to neo-soul, modern artists of all genres and backgrounds are getting signature guitars from companies big and small. Among the titans of the industry, that intentional shift came with a new generation being put into decision-making positions. “When I started, it was largely classic rock and very much a pantheonic Hall of Fame,” Fender’s Executive VP for Products Justin Norvell says of the early 2000s. “It was an end-of-an-iconic-career kind of thing. But it was my feeling that it should be something that people can use to reflect back upon themselves. A Telecaster can mean James Bu...
David Ellefson Issues Statement Following Megadeth Departure and Sexual Misconduct Accusations
A few days after Megadeth dismissed him due to sexual misconduct and grooming accusations, bassist David Ellefson has released a statement in response to the accusations. Speaking with Rolling Stone, Ellefson said the following: Recently, a very private video was illegally posted on the internet and false allegations were made against me. The actions in the video were between two consenting adults and were recorded without my knowledge. I am working with Scottsdale Police Department in their investigation into charges regarding revenge pornography to be filed against the person who posted this video. Also, my lawyers are preparing a defamation lawsuit to be filed against this person. This person will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. SPIN has reached out to Ellefson’s re...
Megadeth Fires Bassist David Ellefson After Sexual Misconduct Accusations Surface
A few weeks after sexual misconduct accusations involving bassist David Ellefson and an allegedly underage girl surfaced, Megadeth announced on Monday that they’ve fired the band co-founder. “We are informing our fans that David Ellefson is no longer playing with Megadeth and that we are officially parting ways with him. We do not take this decision lightly. While we do not know every detail of what occurred, with an already strained relationship, what has already been revealed now is enough to make working together impossible moving forward. We look forward to seeing our fans on the road this summer, and we cannot wait to share our brand new music with the world. It is almost complete,” the band wrote in a lengthy statement posted on Twitter. The accusations surrounding Ellefson initially...
Megadeth Issue Statement About Bassist David Ellefson’s Alleged Sexual Misconduct
Megadeth, the metal band formed by Dave Mustaine after his ouster from Metallica, has released a statement about sexual misconduct allegations facing bassist and band co-founder David Ellefson, who recently denied that he was “grooming” an underage girl through online messages and videos. The accusations first surfaced on May 10, after explicit screenshots and videos circulated on social media, with some commenters saying the female he was interacting with was underage. In an Instagram statement posted on his now-private account, Ellefson said the clips were “private, adult interactions that were taken out of context and manipulated to inflict maximum damage to my reputation, my career and family.” Ellefson said the clips were “released with ill intention by a third party who was not ...
