Check Out Megadeth’s New Virtual Reality Concert Experience

In my many years as a metal writer, I’ve never gotten to watch a band play from the side of the stage. It always seems like a lot of fun, and a way to experience a concert while a) immersing yourself in the band’s experience, and b) getting to see the crowd’s reaction.

So when I first heard that 3D cameras and VR visors like the Oculus Rift would be used to film concerts from onstage, I was incredibly stoked. Sadly, I’m not as excited that the first band to publicly use this technology is Megadeth.

Rolling Stone recently featured Dave Mustaine & Company’s use of VR to film footage of the band playing five songs from their upcoming new album, Dystopia — the title track, “The Threat Is Real,” “Fatal Illusion,” “Poisonous Shadows,” and “Post American World.” The footage will come as part of the special edition of the new record.

All shade aside, I’ve seen Megadeth three times live, and two of them were pretty killer (the third was when they foolishly played after Motörhead), so as far as bands creating VR concert experiences, you could certainly do worse. And given that the video for “The Threat Is Real” was cool and had decent animation, there’s a great chance that Megadeth is using the technology well. Who knows? This could be fun. That said, knowing Mustaine, we’re not going to hear the end of how groundbreaking and revolutionary this is.

Anyway, watch the featurette below. And in the meantime, the guys at Rolling Stone better watch out — they described Dave Ellefson as a “co-founder” of Megadeth! Don’t they know that’s not how Dave remembers it?!