Megadeth has been hailed as one of the “Big Four” influential thrash metal bands for years – it’s a fact that is rarely debated. Formed in 1983 after Dave Mustaine was relieved from his duties in Metallica, another band apart of the “Big Four,” Megadeth is a fast-paced whirlwind of aggression and has inspired countless bands in the 40 years since their inception.
David Ellefson is aware of Megadeth‘s influence – it’s hard not to, especially after playing bass on-and-off in one of the “Big Four” thrash bands for nearly 40 years. When chatting to Fox Rochester‘s “ARC Rochester” earlier this week with guitarist Jeff Young to promote their new project, Kings Of Thrash, Ellefson said that “there was a benchmark we had when we started Megadeth, is to write very epic-oriented music stuff that could really be a soundtrack.” Ellefson continued to explain, “If you closed your eyes, you could almost have a visual to it. And also stuff that was timeless. And I think the music has really stood the test of time. It doesn’t sound dated. You don’t go, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s something from the ’80s,’ or ‘Oh, yeah, that’s something from the ’90s'” (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Megadeth have had a slew of releases since the 90s, further evolving that sound that Ellefson talks about. His last release with the band was back in 2016, the band’s 2022 album featuring James LoMenzo on bass. However, Ellefson talks fondly of the music he made with Megadeth: “I think the Megadeth music, out of everybody in the thrash genre, I will go on record as saying, I think is probably the most timeless and will probably stand the test of time the most and be the most listened to by people that aren’t even just metalheads.”
Ellefson offers that metal is consistently evolving, getting heavier, finding new limits. It’s what the bands that came before Megadeth, it’s what Megadeth does, and what new bands continue to do: “I remember when we were on tour with Ronnie James Dio… talking with him one day on tour about how the next generation comes up. And our thrash metal was really heavy compared to what he was doing. Then the masked bands come out — Slipknot, Mudvayne and all this stuff — so it gets heavier and heavier.”
Breaking it down simply, Ellefson offers: “Look, rock and roll has always been about pushing the limits, starting with Elvis [Presley]. That’s just the nature of what it’s supposed to be.”
He offers an example, saying that he remembers “seeing the KISS reunion in 1996. Me and [ex-Megadeth guitarist] Marty Friedman went down, and I was looking at us going, as heavy and dark and daunting as this was, and our parents didn’t want us to listen to it, it was like family entertainment by then because of what had progressed past it. And probably thrash metal might be the same thing. Our music’s actually pretty melodic. It’s heavy, but it’s melodic. It’s listenable. So I think that’s just the nature of rock and roll. The young generations are always the creators and they’re always pushing the envelope a little farther.”
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