BLABBERMOUTH.NET
Dave Mustaine has confirmed that
TESTAMENT bassist
Steve DiGiorgio laid down the bass tracks on the new
MEGADETH album,
"The Sick, The Dying, And The Dead". Due on July 8, the follow-up to 2016's
"Dystopia" features a cover of
DEAD KENNEDYS'
"Police Truck" and
Sammy Hagar's
"This Planet's On Fire", the latter of which includes vocals from
Hagar himself.
The
MEGADETH leader shared the news of
DiGiorgio's involvement in the LP in an interview with
Jose Mangin of
SiriusXM Liquid Metal. He said: "We obviously had that weird little…well, it wasn’t little, but we had something happen that we needed to make a decision on, and it set us back a little bit timing-wise, because we needed to recalibrate and find someone to perform the bass parts, and we found who I thought was the perfect fit for us while I decided what to do… Do you know who it was? …It was
Steve DiGiorgio. You're the first person I told."
He continued: "It was a good choice. I didn't think about anybody else at the time. I was thinking about 'who's the hottest guy out there that can play these new songs?' [
Mustaine's son]
Justis told me one of the fastest songs we've ever written is on this record. I don't care what anybody says — bass may be less strings than guitar, but it's difficult to play, if you're like me. I have a real hard time playing the bass. I wrote the riff for
'Peace Sells… But Who's Buying?' for
Pete's sake, but you know… having to jam some of those parts that fast, it just kills your fingers."
There has been speculation about
DiGiorgio's involvement in the new
MEGADETH LP since last July, based on a
Cameo video
Mustaine recorded in which he offered the first glimpse of the bassist that re-recorded
David Ellefson's bass tracks on the much-anticipated
MEGADETH effort. In the clip, the
MEGADETH guitarist/vocalist could be seen walking around a studio where he showed engineer
Chris Rakestraw sitting behind the studio console as well as the mystery bassist "hiding behind the chair on the floor." Although it was impossible to tell who the bassist was based on the video, the musician appeared to be using the same brand of
Ibanez bass played by
DiGiorgio.
DiGiorgio is widely renowned as a pioneer on the fretless bass in heavy metal music, having played with
TESTAMENT,
DEATH and
SADUS, among others. Within his genre,
Steve is respected for his playing skills, versatility and incredible technique. He has more than 40 studio album recordings and over 20 years of touring the world.
Two months ago,
Mustaine confirmed that
James LoMenzo will play bass for
MEGADETH when the band returns to the road in April for the second U.S. leg of
"The Metal Tour Of The Year". Joining them will be co-headliners
LAMB OF GOD along with special guests
TRIVIUM and
IN FLAMES.
LoMenzo joined
MEGADETH in 2006 and appeared on two of the group's studio albums, 2007's
"United Abominations" and 2009's
"Endgame". He was fired from the band in 2010 and replaced with returning original
MEGADETH bassist
David Ellefson.
In addition to
MEGADETH,
LoMenzo has played with
Ozzy Osbourne,
Zakk Wylde and
WHITE LION. For the past nine years,
LoMenzo has been performing with iconic rocker
John Fogerty.
LoMenzo played his first show with
MEGADETH in nearly 12 years last August in Austin, Texas. The concert took place three months following
Ellefson's dismissal from
MEGADETH after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving him were posted on
Twitter.
Ellefson laid down his bass tracks on
MEGADETH's sixteenth LP in May 2020 at a studio in Nashville, Tennessee. A short time later, he raved about his performance on the record, telling the
96.7 KCAL-FM radio program
"Wired In The Empire" that his musical chemistry with
MEGADETH drummer
Dirk Verbeuren was comparable to the interplay between
Geddy Lee and
Neil Peart on classic
RUSH albums. "I feel like on the new
MEGADETH record, me and
Dirk have those same moments," he said. "It's
MEGADETH — it's not
RUSH, obviously — but in the field of what we do, there were these moments that I was just going, 'Oh, my God.' This is me as a kid going, 'This is my
Geddy/
Neil moment right here.'"
In June 2021,
Mustaine announced during an episode of his
Gimme Radio program
"The Dave Mustaine Show" that
Ellefson's bass tracks would not be used on the new
MEGADETH LP.
Ellefson was in
MEGADETH from the band's inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest departure.