During our Big 4 Live Snark on Wednesday, we reported that during Megadeth’s set, Dave Mustaine told the crowd he needed neck surgery, and had been in a hospital as recently as Tuesday; in fact, not only was there a rumor on Monday that Megadeth were gonna miss the show, but word around the campfire was that Exodus had even been approached about possibly taking ‘Deth’s spot should the Davester have to drop out. (Fans offended that Exodus and not Testament were approached should keep in mind in that Gary Holt was already playing with Slayer anyway, so, y’know.)

Now Rolling Drone has scored a non-scoop by getting Mustaine to say in print that which he already said at the concert: he needs neck surgery. So, in case you didn’t believe him the first time he said it, now you should believe him because he told the magazine that gave St. Anger a positive review.

The interesting part of the interview, though, is Mustaine’s claim that G-O-D fixed it so he didn’t have to miss the Yankee Stadium show despite his neck issues:

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We have successfully arrived at Yankee Stadium and are sitting in the press box. We feel so professional!

We’re gonna put the live blog after the jump so it doesn’t eat up the entire page. You’ll hafta refresh to get updates. Sorry.

And now, enjoy the snark…

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If you’re not a musician, last night’s Metal Masters Clinic 2 — held prior to Anthrax’s so-secret-everyone-knew-about-it show at the Best Buy Theater in NYC — was probably a massive bore. But to everyone else (like me!) it was a wet dream come true; Mike Portnoy having a drum-off with Charlie Benante, Ellefson talking about famous Megadeth bass riffs, Frankie Bello talking about watching porn and playing bass at the same time, all of them jamming on some classic tunes together, and, most notably, this:

Ian, Bello, Benante, Ellefson, Portnoy, Kerry King and Phil Anselmo performing two Pantera cuts. It’s the kind of staged event that might otherwise be cringe-worthy in its attempt at spontaneity, but who gives a shit? As a fan it was really cool to see all those guys jamming up there at once. It was also my first time seeing Anselmo perform Pantera songs live.

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Just yesterday we got our first look at the album art for Megadeth’s forthcoming TH1RT3EN, as well as the cover art for the first single from that album, “Public Enemy No. 1.” Now the song itself has made it out into the world! Check it out below.

I’ve only had a chance to listen once, but I’m digging it. It sounds like vintage Megadeth, which is obviously a good thing. Endgame, Megadeth’s last album, was a real return to form for Dave Mustaine and company*, and my fear — and, I’d wager, the fear of many a Megafan — was that the band wouldn’t be able to pull it off a second time. But assuming every song on TH1RT3EN is this good, we may be in for a real treat. Amazing. If you’d told me five years ago that Megadeth would have a creative renaissance, I’d of written you off as an old clinging too tightly to the past. Just goes to show ya…

It also seems worth noting that this is the band’s first recording with bassist Dave Ellefson in a decade. I honestly did not miss him on Endgame, but I imagine his return will make some folks dig this tune all the more.

TH1RT3EN comes out November 1 via Roadrunner.

-AR

*I know some people thought that The System Has Failed and/or United Abominations were returns to form, but I don’t think ‘Deth quite stuck the landing on those releases.

[via No Clean Singing]

No. No he is not.

Mustaine’s latest declaration sure to elicit responses only of “Okay, sssssuuurrre, Dave, whatever you say,” from all rational people was delivered to a Dallas Radio station earlier this week:

“I’ve talked to Lars and James about me and David [Ellefson] doing a supergroup record with Lars and James. Well, James said ‘no,’ but it’s still kind of out there in the air. I’m gonna keep hammering on him. It’s on my bucket list.”

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My dad had kidney stones once when I was a kid and I remember him being in all kinds of agony. So please understand that I am not making fun of him for playing a show despite suffering from this particular malady, because that is very admirable. The set at this gig was apparently abbreviated, for obvious reasons, but for him to do what he did for the fans deserves a big pat on the back.

I am, however, making fun of him for being pompous, and for thinking that he was healed by the power of prayer.

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Congrats to grand prize winner A.J. Gregory and runner-up Erin Wood; they correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to be Beatus. A.J. wins a sweet Helloween 7 Sinners denim jacket, PLUS a 12 x 12 7 Sinners poster signed by all the members of Helloween, PLUS a copy of the album; and Erin gets the same, minus the coat. MetalSucks: Where Kids Can Really Win!

This week we have another super-awesome prize to give away — a signed copy of Mosh Potatoes: Recipes, Anecdotes, and Mayhem from the Heavyweights of Heavy Metal, an incredible new book from Moth Eater bassist Steve Seabury that spotlights 147 (!!!) recipes for mouth-watering “opening acts” (appetizers), “headliners” (entrees), and “encores” (desserts), including dishes from such metal titans as Lemmy, Zakk Wylde, Joey Belladonna, Dave Ellefson, Jason Bittner, and Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal… PLUS lots of great backstage stories and other metal-related shenanigans. Seriously, I’m salivating just typing about the book!!!

All you gots to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. ALL ENTRIES WITHOUT AN ADDRESS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select one winner announce his or her name next week.

Of course, if you’re too pussy to play my little game, you can always just pre-order a copy of Mosh Potatoes before its release next week. Also, our pals at RED Distribution are having their own excellent contest, “The Metal & Meat SweepSTEAKS,” in which they’re not only giving away a copy of the book, but also a customized autographed Skeletonwitch Epiphone guitar and a $150 Gift Certificate to Omaha Steaks. You can enter that contest here. And that’s in conjunction with The World’s Loudest Metal Sale at f.y.e. presented by Revolver, which is offering a shitload of metal albums for just $9.99, including the most recent releases from Between the Buried and Me, Skeletonwitch, Kingdom of Sorrow, Within the Ruins, and more. So get on that shit.

This week’s logo was recommended by reader John Lindmeier… thanks, John!

-AR

So I feel like we’ve been talking about this Slayer/Megadeth tour FOR-EV-ER, and last night I finally got to see it. And despite my usual cynical instincts telling me that it might very well end up being a major disappointment, I gotta say… I had a really, really fun time.

Testament were great. That’s not really a surprise or anything — Testament have been great, Testament will be great, and if all else failed, I never really doubted for a second that they’d put on a killer show. If I don’t have much else to say about them, it’s because there was never really any suspense with regards to whether or not they’d be good. (But be advised: they went on shortly before 7 pm, so get to the venue early to make sure you don’t miss ‘em. There were far too many people not yet at the venue when they played, which was a damn shame.)

Megadeth… well, there’s really only one problem with Megadeth: Mustaine’s voice sucks. Like, at a James Hetfield level of suckitude — actually, he might sound worse than Hetfield, who can at least stay on-key or close-enough for 60% of the time. (Mustaine was almost on-key during an encore of “A Tout Le Monde,” and that was about it.) I seriously had to tune out Mustaine’s voice just to enjoy the music. He can still play guitar like nobody’s business, it’s great to have Ellefson back, and if we’re not gonna have Marty Friedman and Nick Menza in the band, than Shawn Drover and Chris Broderick are about as good as it’s gonna get, replacement-wise. But Mustaine’s vocals… it’s just embarrassing, man.

And then there was Slayer.

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Tonight is the first of the European Big Four shows, and sixteen of the seventeen musicians that now comprise those bands all gathered in one room and put their differences aside long enough to snap this picture (click on it to make it enlarge… heh heh, he said “enlarge”):

Should we over-analyze the reasons why certain people are standing near one another, or far apart, or how they’re standing? Well, this is MetalSucks, ain’t it?

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Two observations about “The Right to Go Insane,” the new Megadeth video that debuted on Noisecreep earlier today:

1. The title card at the beginning, which announces that “THIS VIDEO IS A FICTIONAL DRAMATIZATION BASED ON A TRUE STORY AND REAL EVENTS,” was clearly written by a retard for the benefit of other retards. Was anyone seriously concerned that people might think the video is based on a true story and fake events? Or a fake story and real events? It didn’t occur to anyone involved in the making of this thing that the card’s explanation was the very definition of “redundant?”
2. Although I think the Dave Mustaine footage is kinda hokey, I do love this song, and think the tank footage looks pretty good. I’m assuming that at least some of it – the helicopter footage, to be more specific – is actual news footage from the actual true story and real events this video is based on, but maybe they just Cloverfielded it and I’m easily fooled. In any case, I wonder why Dave Ellefson is the video (unless that’s him playing Dave’s wife and I just didn’t recognize him); I’d guess the clip was actually filmed before he returned to the band, but James LoMenzo isn’t in the video, either, even though Chris Broderick and Shawn Drover both get their cameos. Hm.

Check out the video at Noisecreep.

-AR

Well I had a heckuva afternoon, what with a horde of Veil of Maya fans all e-mailing me at once to express their upset that VOM’s new song wasn’t up at the time we said it would be. But it’s up now, and we think that the track, “Namaste” – not “Dexter,” as our stupid audio player says – is terrific. You can listen here and join in on the fun.

Here are some other fun things that happened this week:

• We did a Jew on Jew interview with Orphaned Land’s Kobi Farhi and released the audio of Vince’s confusing interview with Andrew W.K.
• One of As I Lay Dying guitarist Nick Hipa’s theories about L O S T was correct!!!
• Bob Cock thinks Armour are AWESOME.
• Dave Ellefson has returned to Megadeth!
• The Ultimate Warrior rules, and The Red Chord agrees.
• Anthrax’s Worship Music finally a release date: the fifth of never.
• If you have a child, don’t do this.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

-AR

When it was announced earlier this week that Dave Ellefson is returning to Megadeth, I expressed interest in hearing more of the story of how he and Dave Mustaine patched things up beyond the usual press release “Happy to be back!” bullshit. And look, it only took a couple of days! Jon Wiederhorn interviewed Mustaine about the make-up for Noisecreep. And for once, I feel almost no desire to make fun of Mustaine!

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

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No one can fault Dave Mustaine for putting together a tour in lieu of the stillborn American Carnage trek. But as always the Megadeth frontman aims for maximum annoyance and as such his new tour is a brazen approximation of Carnage minus Slayer. As a member of Slayer, Kerry King must be distressed to find that there’s a nearly identical alternative to his tour on the market — complete with Testament and Exodus, for a total of three thrash metal greats, just like Carnage — that’s sure to distract ticket-buyers and cool walk-up sales. And in light of the recent King-Mustaine cuddlefest at T.G.I.Friday’s, one could argue it’s yet another of Mustaine’s unconscionable and self-destructive backstabbings, at which he is only second to Eddie Van Halen in proficiency. (Unlike lead guitar playing, at which Mustaine is second in proficiency to dozens. Cheap shot alert!)

To make matters worse, ‘Staine and Megadeth will use the new tour to celebrate their last great record, Rust In Peace, y’know, to add a sack-tap to this already historic cockblock. So it was already getting silly by the time the announcement came yesterday that Megadeth’s only other real member, the embittered former Mustaine bum chum David Ellefson, he of history’s greatest metal bass performance and reams of anti-Mustaine bitching, would return to the pasty creases of the Mus-taint for bass duties on the big tour. Yet more juice for the non-Slayer shows. What’s next, the return of RiP guitarist Marty Friedman? (Um please?)

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Here’s a nice little “HOLY SHITBALLS!” moment to cap off your Monday: after a seven year absence, Dave Ellefson has returned to Megadeth. And to think, not that long ago, these two were suing one another. Hilarious.

Old-school Megadeth fans will remember that Ellefson survived through various incarnations of ‘Deth, and for many years appeared to be on the only person on earth who could actually stomach Mustaine. He was the bass player for basically every Megadeth classic ever.

You can read some statements from the band at SMN, but to be honest, it’s all the usual bullshit that you’ve heard a million times before. Hopefully these two will get deeper into their rift and reunion when they start doing press for Megadeth’s upcoming tour.

And you know what? I could not find a picture of these two together without the rest of the band around. Twenty years as partners, and they never snapped a photo just the two of them. Good times.

-AR

I always forget that current Megadeth bassist James Lomenzo used to be in White Lion. I guess I can accept that he was in Black Label Society (and David Lee Roth), since Zakk Wylde usta use an awful lotta hairspray, but Megadeth? Doesn’t that seem kinda like if Metallica hired the dude from Dangerous Toys or something?

Anyways, I mention it because the “Oh Don Piano!” moment of the day is Lomenzo saying he’d be open to a White Lion reunion. I’m sure the five White Lion fans left the world are all very excited. But I don’t think anyone should get their hopes up. And I can’t be the only one who’d rather hear Lomenzo play tracks from Endgame or pretend to be Dave Ellefson, can I?

-AR

So I’m sure you’re all aware of this major lineup change for Dimmu Borgir. I’ve been a fan of that band since ’98, and I’ve liked every single one of their records except For All Tid. My favorite lineup of theirs was the Puritanical and Deathcult lineup. For me as a fan, the music those dudes made together is what really sealed the deal for me with that band. I still enjoyed some later stuff, but for me those two records are where it’s at.

I’m sure they’ll find some amazing people and continue to put out great records, but the band that I became a fan of is now altered. And that got me thinking. How many times has this happened, and when does it really matter?

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