Megadeth, Testament, and Black Label Society

Formerly the lead guitarist of highly revered metal band Metallica, Dave Mustaine formed Megadeth alongside bassist David Ellefson in 1983. Alongside Anthrax, Metallica and Slayer, Megadeth is credited as being one of the driving forces of thrash metal music over the ‘80s and ‘90s, dropping the progressive rock influences common and instead emphasizing the skills of its instrumentalists.

In the early years, Megadeth’s line-up changed regularly. In 1984, it replaced Lee Rausch with jazz fusion drummer Gar Samuelson and guitarist Chris Poland. The band’s debut album, Killing Is My Business… and Business is Good!, released through Combat Records in 1985, attracted major label interest and became popular in both underground and mainstream metal circles.

After signing with Capitol Records, Megadeth released its major-label debut Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying? in 1986, which eventually went platinum, followed by So Far, So Good… So What! in 1988.

Around that time, Mustaine’s behavior became erratic, leading him to enter rehab and the band to partially break up. After hiring guitarist Marty Friedman and drummer Nick Menza. Megadeth’s fourth studio album Rust in Peace, signaled the group’s return.

In the hope of appealing to the same mainstream audience Metallica did, Megadeth stripped back their sound on Countdown to Extinction in 1992, but lost none of the technical proficiency fans had come to expect. The album was certified double platinum and resulted in Megadeth becoming one of the biggest bands in the world.

Megadeth’s sixth full-length album Youthanasia in 1994 followed the same mainstream trend as its predecessor, and was succeeded by a rare collection of unheard recordings titled Hidden Treasures. The band subsequently released Cryptic Writings in 1997, Risk in 1998 with former Suicidal Tendencies drummer Jimmy DeGrasso, and The World Needs a Hero in 2001.

In 2002 Mustaine relapsed on his drug addiction after receiving pain medication following the removal of a kidney stone. He subsequently suffered nerve damage to his left arm, which left the guitarist unable to use his left arm. After temporarily disbanding Megadeth, Mustaine underwent a great deal of physical and mental therapy before releasing the compilation album Still Alive… and Well?.

The band reformed in 2004, and has since released The System Has Failed (2004), United Abominations (2007), Endgame (2009), Thirteen (2011) and Super Collider (2013). Megadeth has sold over 50 million records worldwide, earned platinum certification for six of their fourteen studio albums. The band has been nominated for 12 Grammy awards, and won its first Grammy for the song “Dystopia” in 2017 for Best Metal Performance.

Due to COVID-19, Megadeth’s tour, The Metal Tour of the Year with Lamb of God, Trivium, and In Flames, was postponed from the summer of 2020 to 2021, with Hatebreed replacing In Flames due to visa complications.

In early 2021, Megadeth announced the upcoming release of its next studio album during a Masterclass Zoom video. Leading up to the album’s release, the song “The Dogs of Chernobyl” dropped and drummed up a lot of fan anticipation. However, before The Sick, the Dying...and the Dead! was officially released, sexually explicit videos of Ellefson surfaced online. He was subsequently dismissed from the band and formally replaced by James LoMenzo.

To create buzz around the replacement, the band released a photo showing the neck of the bass guitar and the new band member without revealing his identity.

Over the course of its 39-year career, Megadeth has had numerous guitarists, drummers, and bassists. Mustaine has the distinction of being the only original band member still in the group. Following the dismissal of Ellefson, the band’s current lineup includes Mustaine, drummer Dirk Verbeuren, guitarist Kiko Loureiro, and bassist James LoMenzo.

To promote the album, the band is currently on tour again. The current tour, The Killing Road, stretches across the globe, hitting several major cities. It will continue through late 2023, so keep an eye on the band’s official website for timely updates on Megadeth tour dates, tickets, and cool fan perks.

The band boasts a dedicated fanbase. In return, Megadeth offers some fantastic fan merchandise and benefits. For the current tour, there are VIP packages available for the die-hard fans out there.

The Exclusive Viewing Area Experience includes a premium reserved ticket or a general admission pit ticket — plus, VIP early access to the venue, a photo with the band, a commemorative VIP laminate, and more. The Q&A Experience includes a premium reserved ticket or a general admission pit ticket — plus, a special Q&A session with the band, exclusive VIP merchandise, and a collectible Megadeth poster. These VIP packages have limited availability, so be sure to purchase early.

Membership is open for true Megadeth fans to join the Cyber Army Fan Club. There are multiple levels of membership, including a free tier. The top membership tier, the premium level, comes with loads of perks and exclusive access to members-only contests, giveaways, and prizes.

Megadeth creates tons of fan merchandise. For beer lovers, the band even has its own beer line, which includes two tasty selections: Unibroue Megadeth A Tout Le Monde and Unibroue Megadeth Saison 13. Purchase the gift set, which also comes with a Megadeth-branded pint glass, to try them both.

The band has its own mascot named Vic Rattlehead. The mascot regularly appears on stage with the group during performances and on tours. He is also featured on album cover artwork and promotional materials.

Megadeth hosted its own music festival, dubbed Gigantour, in July 2005 and numerous times since then. The group also had a MegaCruise in October 2019.

Influenced by the emerging Californian thrash metal scene, Testament was originally formed of vocalist Steve Souza, guitarists Eric Peterson and Derrick Ramirez, bassist Greg Christian, and drummer Louie Clemente in 1983. However, only with the arrival of lead guitarist Alex Skolnick did the group rise above their peers, creating a polished melodic thrash metal sound. The band’s debut album “The Legacy” released in 1987 brought them instant success within thrash circles and led to immediate comparisons being drawn with Metallica. U.S. and European tours alongside Anthrax did wonders for the group’s exposure and led to the band second studio album “The New Order” in 1988.

The band’s third full-length album “Practice What You Preach” left the antiquated themes of the occult and gothic behind and focused on modern day politics and corruption. It became the band’s most popular album and resulted in noticeable airplay from MTV. 1990’s “Souls of Black” was released to fairly average reviews but sold well, despite having to compete with the growing grunge movement famed by the likes of Nirvana.

Testament’s fourth full-length became their best selling, a marked a return to a more traditional metal sound, it peaked at No. 55 on the Billboard 100 and featured the single “Return to Serenity”. After the release the band began to fade from mainstream view, and were unable to change with the times necessary for continued large-scale appeal. As a result this period was marked by constant line-up changes, with Eric Peterson remaining the only original member, and a disappointing string of albums including “Low” in 1994, “Demonic” in 1997, “The Gathering” in 1999, and “The Formation of Damnation” in 2008.

Despite this, the band has managed to retain an active and loyal following within the metal underground, who continue to see Testament perform live regularly. The band’s tenth studio album arrived in 2012 entitled “Dark Roots of Earth” and subsequently the live album “Dark Roots of Thrash” in 2013.

When Zakk Wylde formed the band after his long run being Ozzy Osbourne’s right hand man, he formed a southern rock band called Pride & Glory… and then Osbourne decided that he wanted to record another album, so he did, in the form of an album called “Ozzmosis”. It was around this time that Wylde was also offered not only the “Ozzmosis” tour with Osbourne but also a slot in the line up of Guns N’ Roses tour in 1995. As neither of those projects materialised, Wylde decided to finally record his solo acoustic album entitled “Book of Shadows” which unfortunately didn’t achieve the commercial success he had hoped.

Out of this phase only came good things when Wylde teamed up with drummer Phil Ondich and formed Black Label Society. It was this then side project that became Zakk Wyldes commercially successful freight train of a band releasing nine studio albums to date, with their two most recent releases, “Order of the Black” released on August 10th 2010 made it to number 4 in the US charts and “Catacombs of the Black Vatican” released on April 8th 2014 went to number 5 in the US charts, securing Black Label Society’s place in the mainstream.