Despite being a key player in the rise of thrash metal in the U.S., Megadeth has stepped outside the genre from time to time over the years. Songs like 1992’s ‘Symphony of Destruction’ and the ‘Risk’ album, for example, leaned more toward hard rock and heavy metal than traditional thrash.
Dave Mustaine recently discussed how he saw Megadeth’s music on the ‘Steve-O Wild Ride! Podcast.’ “Some people would call it thrash, other people call it speed metal,” the vocalist shared. “I like to just call it ‘Megadeth’ because it’s a little bit of classical, a little bit of jazz, a little bit of punk rock, a lot of heavy metal, a lot of speed metal.”
“And the thrash part, I don’t know where anybody tries to differentiate between thrash or speed because it’s kind of the same thing,” he continued. “If you go back in the day… Now, there’s a billion different fragments of metal. You’ve got speed metal, black metal, white metal, death metal, power metal, prog metal, heavy metal, hair metal. There’s so many different types of metal.”
Megadeth embraced their thrash roots more with their latest album, ‘The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!,’ released in 2022. The album performed well globally, hitting the charts in several countries, including the U.S., U.K., and Australia.
Currently, the band is working on a new album with guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari. Mäntysaari joined the band in 2023 after Kiko Loureiro left during the North American leg of their tour to focus on his family.
According to Mäntysaari, the upcoming album, the first of three Mustaine plans to record in the near future, brings back the vibe of ‘Rust in Peace.’