Making heavy metal is not a job to be done remotely.

At least according to Megadeth. At least when it comes to this new album, which has been in the works since last summer.

Co-founding bassist Dave Ellefson says the Grammy-winning band discussed the prospect of completing the album from their respective quarantines, but ultimately determined that was contrary to the genesis behind most of the new music.

"We talked about it, but we don't wanna make a Megadeth record like that," Ellefson told the There Goes My Hero podcast. "This record, very much from the onset of it was... 'Let's go to Nashville and start working on this record. And let's be in a room with four guys and our engineer,' with Chris Rakestraw, who's co-producing the record with Dave [Mustaine].

He continued: "'Let's get in a room and just be dudes in a room jamming.' We had a lot of ideas. A few of them were together. There was a lot of things sitting out there, and we just knew that being in a room, another three, four, five songs came together out of that process."

Megadeth was scheduled to tour this summer with Lamb of God.

Ellefson explained that the band began work on the project after its tour with Ozzy Osbourne was postponed (and later canceled). It was also after Mustaine began throat cancer treatment.

Megadeth had been working at a studio on Mustaine's Tennessee property so the frontman could filter in and out between treatment as he felt able.

Ellefson added that, while Mustaine has always been the band's primary creative force, Megadeth's best albums are all ones that included contributions from all the band members, especially in a jam room setting.

"The thing I've found is that when we're jamming a riff and I'm looking over and Dave's got his snarl and I'm f---ing headbanging and our feet are spread and our f---ing guitars are in between, when you see that in the room, it's like a confirmation that this is f---ing great, this is rad," he said. "When we feel it in the room, that same feeling goes to the stage and goes out to 10-, 15- or 100,000 people that we're performing for. There's just that thing."

Megadeth's last album, 2016's Dystopia, earned the band its first-ever Grammy.

Photo: Getty Images

Jeff Benton

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