In a new interview with Kerrang! magazine, SYSTEM OF A DOWN singer Serj Tankian spoke about his current relationship with his bandmates, guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian, drummer John Dolmayan and bassist Shavarsh "Shavo" Odadjian. He said: "Right now … we're having the best time of our lives as a band. We're really enjoying each other on tour. It's so, so welcoming — we're very deeply involved with each other's lives, personally. It's what I've always wanted the band to be. We had to go back to our own corners, assess things and come back together for us to really appreciate what we have in every way."

Referencing last month's announcement that SYSTEM OF A DOWN would embark on a 10-date European stadium tour in the summer of 2026, Serj said: "We don't play that many shows. We pick and choose what we want to do, and we actually talk about what we want to do. We don't do tours. We just go, 'Hey, where do you want to go?' For example, we're starting in Stockholm, and that wasn't something that we were going to do originally, but Daron recommended it because he wanted to go there. And I'm, like, 'Bro, you want to go there? Let's start there!' He was, like, 'Really?' and I'm, like, 'Yeah! Because my friend wants to go there!' That's been our attitude, and it's been amazing. It's more caring about what we each think as friends, rather than what a professional band is supposed to do, which was very much a turn off when we took our hiatus. Definitely for me, but I also want to say for the rest of the guys, because they've also admitted to that."

Serj continued: "We're not selling widgets. We're artists, and we want to remain that way. We want to remain careful and not over-expose ourselves so we're picky. We play 10 to 15 shows a year now and we're doing stadiums instead of arenas, which is mind-blowing to us. We never even thought that that would happen in our careers… For us, it's insane. And it speaks volumes about people and their kids coming to shows and the generational power of music, and particularly SYSTEM's music. It really hits a nerve with people — we don't exactly know why it does, but we're very grateful. We disappeared for so many years for our own personal reasons, and then we reappeared, and there's this huge demand, and we're just shocked by it. We just want to be careful and make people happy with our performances but not overdo it."

SYSTEM OF A DOWN's upcoming European stadium tour with support from QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE and ACID BATH will mark the band's first appearances on the continent since 2017, when the Armenian-American band completed a 20-show tour that included a headlining slot at U.K.'s Download festival.

SYSTEM OF A DOWN kicked off a limited North American stadium run — three cities, two stops each, one top-line rock act preceding each show — on August 27 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The band also played at Chicago's Soldier Field on August 31 and September 1, with AVENGED SEVENFOLD as the support act. The mini-tour made a final stop at Rogers Stadium in Toronto on September 3 and September 5 with DEFTONES.

This past spring, SYSTEM OF A DOWN completed a nine-show "Wake Up!" South American stadium tour. The trek kicked off on April 24 in Bogota, Colombia at the Estadio Nemésio Camacho El Campin, followed by a show in Cercado De Lima, Peru at the Estadio Nacional. The tour moved on to Chile, Argentina and Brazil, wrapping up with a run of five shows in Curitiba, Rio De Janeiro and São Paulo. The concerts were SOAD's first trip to South America since 2015.

Over 500,000 tickets were sold for SYSTEM OF A DOWN's South American tour, including 70,000 sold for the band's May 14 show at Autódromo de Interlagos in São Paulo, Brazil, which grossed $6,536,040, according to the box office report submitted to Pollstar. SYSTEM OF A DOWN also sold 100,000 tickets across two nights at São Paulo's Allianz Parque, May 10-11, grossing $11,561,914.

In a recent interview with the "Talk Is Jericho" podcast, hosted by FOZZY frontman and wrestling superstar Chris Jericho, SYSTEM OF A DOWN guitarist Daron Malakian talked about his band's enduring popularity, saying: "What's crazy to me is people still give a shit. We just came from South America, and we sold out every football stadium that was there. I don't know if you've seen any of the footage from that, but it was fucking nuts. It was nuts. I'd been doing this a while and I never experienced anything like that before. And we're about to do East Coast shows, and the band's playing stadiums and we haven't released a record in 20-plus years.

"When I did [legendary producer] Rick's [Rubin] podcast, we talked about how we're playing in front of the 60,000 people, and he was, like, 'I've never seen anything like it, where a band that doesn't regularly put out records is still [able to play in front of so many people].'"

Elaborating on why SYSTEM OF A DOWN is able to play such big shows more than 30 years into the band's career, Daron said: "I think part of it is we left off on a peak. We've had, 'Are they gonna ever play? Are they not gonna play?' And it's all this kind of thing that happens. And then when we do play, people feel like, 'Oh, this might be the last time they're gonna play.' And none of that has been done on purpose. That's just the natural way things have gone. I also think it's the songs. The songs have lived with people, and it's become some of the fabric of their lives in some cases. So many years have gone by. 'Cause when we're playing in front of these audiences, I don't see 50-year-olds in there. I see 18-year-olds. I see 25-year-olds — kids that probably were born maybe even after we released 'Mezmerize' and 'Hypnotize'. But they're there, and they're passionate, and they're into it, and it's new to them. And once again, man, I'm very, very blessed."

SYSTEM OF A DOWN has only managed to record two songs in the last 20 years, "Protect The Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz". Released in November 2020, the tracks were motivated by the conflict between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, with all proceeds supporting humanitarian efforts in SYSTEM OF A DOWN's ancestral homeland of Armenia. Along with other donations from fans on their social pages, they raised over $600,000.

In June, DARON MALAKIAN AND SCARS ON BROADWAY released a new song and music video, "Killing Spree". The track is taken from the third full-length SCARS ON BROADWAY album, "Addicted To The Violence", which arrived on July 18.

Tankian released a new collection, "Covers, Collaborations & Collages", on October 24 via Serjical Strike Records/Create Music Group. The genre-spanning set celebrates artistic unity, reinvention and storytelling.

Photo credit: Travis Shinn

For the first time ever, music icon Alice Cooper and illusionist Criss Angel unite to create the shock rock magic experience of a lifetime, "Welcome To Our Nightmare", with all the smash hits in a theatrical visual feast that will destroy your mind! Immerse your senses; run for your lives. History will be made again in the Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada with this exclusive limited engagement partnership.

Alice and Criss bring the smash hits to life — "Poison", "I'm 18", "School's Out", "You And Me" and more — in an unprecedented 90-minute revolutionary concert spectacle of magic, music, and mayhem. Additionally, fans can take advantage of exclusive ticket add-ons, including a limited number of Ultimate VIP Nightmare Experiences with an up-close-and-personal backstage meet-and-greet with Alice and Criss, and a Nightmare Collectible Package.

"Welcome To Our Nightmare" premieres in the Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on Friday, March 6, 2026 and Saturday, March 7, 2026 at 7 p.m. Tickets will be on sale Thursday, November 6 at 10 a.m. (PT),with an exclusive presale starting Tuesday, November 4 at 10 a.m. (PT).

Tickets can be purchased via this location, or by calling (855) 234-7469.

For more information on Nightmare VIP experiences and packages, visit here.

Cooper pioneered a grandly theatrical brand of hard rock that was designed to shock. Drawing equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock, the group created a stage show that featured electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood and boa constrictors. Known as the architect of shock-rock, Cooper (in both the original ALICE COOPER band and as a solo artist) has rattled the cages and undermined the authority of generations of guardians of the status quo, continuing to surprise fans and exude danger at every turn, like a great horror movie, even in an era where CNN can present real life shocking images. Few performers in the history of rock and roll have blended music, theater, and pure shock the way Alice Cooper has. For more than five decades, the godfather of shock rock has terrified, thrilled, and captivated audiences around the globe with a stage show unlike anything else in music. From the guillotines and snakes to unforgettable anthems like "School's Out" and "Poison", Alice Cooper turned concerts into experiences that blurred the line between rock and horror.

For more than a decade, Criss Angel has dominated the world of magic as the biggest name on the planet. From his role as star, creator, executive producer, and director of the most successful magic television series of all time, "Criss Angel Mindfreak" on A&E network, to his No. 1 best-selling Las Vegas stage show "Criss Angel Mindfreak", to countless critically acclaimed television specials and series, best-selling books, top-grossing retail products, music CDs and more, Angel is the most influential and imitated magician of the modern era. Hailing spectacular reviews from outlets such as Bloomberg Businessweek — who called him "the biggest name in Las Vegas magic" — Angel brings "an estimated $150 million a year into the local economy" (Newsweek) and generates a whopping "$70 million a year" personally (Businessweek),proving time and again that he is the most successful magician ever.

Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino is the centerpiece of the famed Las Vegas Strip, with 2,500 beautifully redesigned guest rooms and suites showcasing some of the best views in town, along with endless options of unparalleled shopping, distinguished dining, popular entertainment and a bustling nightlife. The resort encompasses more than 100,000 square feet of gaming, Caesars Sportsbook at Planet Hollywood, The Scene Pool Deck, several lounges, an intimate wedding chapel and Reflections the Spa at Planet Hollywood. Home to the first pop music residency in Las Vegas, PH Live is one of the largest theaters on the Vegas Strip and showcases a variety of resident headliners, including superstars like BLACK EYED PEAS, Shania Twain and Jeff Dunham, as well as tour stops and limited engagements from music's top artists.

Photo credit: Jerry Metellus (courtesy of Atom Splitter PR / Caesars)

After more than three decades, the legendary rock band SWEDISH EROTICA is back with a brand-new single, "Little Dancer", set for release on October 31 across all major digital platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.

"Little Dancer" marks a historic moment for the band — it is the first song written and recorded together by the original members in 35 years.

One of Sweden's most celebrated rock bands from the late 1980s, SWEDISH EROTICA returns with their original lineup, reigniting the true spirit of classic melodic rock. With soaring vocals, twin guitars, and that unmistakable Sunset Strip energy, "Little Dancer" captures everything fans loved about the golden era of rock — and introduces it to a new generation.

SWEDISH EROTICA comments: "This is the real '80s rock — just like it sounded on the Sunset Strip back in the day."

After the acclaimed comeback at the Sweden Rock Festival 2024, where SWEDISH EROTICA made their first appearance in 35 years, it is now time for the next chapter. The audience then got to experience immortal classics such as "We're Wild, Young And Free", "Rock N' Roll City" and "Hollywood Dreams" live — with Mats Levén behind the microphone and original guitarists Magnus Axx and Morgan Le Fay back in the lineup. A dream come true for many dedicated rock fans.

The success at Sweden Rock sparked the desire to create new material, and the band is currently in the studio to record a series of brand new songs. The first single, "Little Dancer", will be released on October 31, 2025.

Fans can expect a classic 1980s sound with clear influences from RATT, VAN HALEN and DOKKEN — a combination of nostalgic rock energy and fresh ideas that cement the band's return to the rock scene.

"Stepping on stage together after all these years felt both surreal and natural at the same time," the band reflects. "'Little Dancer' marks a new chapter for us— we're already working on more new tracks."

Levén has since taken to his Facebook page to clarify: "Regarding today's SWEDISH EROTICA press release: There is absolutely no comeback, I quit the band 35 years ago. We just recorded a new track for fun without any commitments."

With a sound that bridges past and present, SWEDISH EROTICA's "Little Dancer" is both a nostalgic revival and a statement of timeless rock power. Fans old and new can now experience the band's return on all major digital streaming services.

The track features the full original lineup:

* Magnus Axx - Guitar
* Morgan Le Fay - Guitar
* Mats Levén (VANDENBERG, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN) - Vocals
* Jamie Borger (TREAT, TALISMAN, W.E.T.) - Drums
* Ken Sandin (ALIEN, Kee Marcello, Joe Lynn Turner) – Bass

Press image courtesy of Magnus Axx / SWEDISH EROTICA

Former HOLE and SMASHING PUMPKINS bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur will release "Even The Good Girls Will Cry: A 90s Rock Memoir" on March 17, 2026 via Da Capo, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing.

"Even The Good Girls Will Cry" begins with Auf Der Maur's bohemian upbringing in Montreal, where her early, deep connection to art and music gave her entry to the colorful and thriving local creative scene. Working as a cassette DJ and ticket girl, she would see (and sometimes meet) the luminaries who'd pass through town — NIRVANA, JANE'S ADDICTION, PAVEMENT, SONIC YOUTH. Thanks to a thrown beer bottle and a long-shot fan letter to a PO Box, her band TINKER scored a life-changing opening slot for THE SMASHING PUMPKINS and, sensing her natural talent on bass, Billy Corgan recommended her to Courtney Love, just one of the many uncanny threads that weaves destiny throughout this riveting memoir.

Whisked from her local scene and thrust into the eye of a hurricane of grief on a global stage, Melissa joined HOLE for the band's 1994 "Live Through This" world tour just after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and HOLE's prior bassist, Kristen Pfaff, with Courtney Love at the center of it all. It was a tour of passionate intensity, as a chaotic yet stunningly powerful band constantly threatened to spin out of control. Melissa brings the reader with raging intimacy into the action, offering a heroic portrait of the unforgettable Courtney Love as she howled into the darkness as if to keep grief at bay.

That was only the beginning of Melissa's journey through alternative rock. We're also treated to unforgettable encounters and portraits of other icons and luminaries of the era, like Michael Stipe, Marilyn Manson, Dave Grohl, Rufus Wainwright, Drew Barrymore and more. An accomplished photographer, Melissa catalogued this era, and more than 50 of her stunning, never-before-seen photos complement the narrative. And she recounts the abrupt, post-9/11 end of the grunge era when, seemingly overnight, a new, far less communal and far more aggro-bro mood overtook the country, a darkening that has yet to abate.

Along the way, Melissa accumulates experience and wisdom, becoming a seasoned touring musician and developing a clarity that allowed her to walk away from it all and choose a different life for herself, even as her talents (and spirit) were still very much in demand. Part rock memoir, part travel diary, part psychedelic scrapbook, "Even The Good Girls Will Cry" is a behind-the-scenes rock 'n' roll memoir with a soulful intimacy and mystic undertone that sets it apart from memoirs by her peers. It is a vivid dispatch from the last analog decade, artistically capturing that bygone era in all its messy, angsty glory.

In 2010 Melissa co-founded Basilica Hudson, a multidisciplinary art center in Hudson, New York, where she lives with her family and magic cats.

In a new interview with the Argentina's El Cuartel Del Metal, former HELLOWEEN guitarist Roland Grapow spoke about the upcoming MASTERPLAN album, "Metalmorphosis", which is tentatively due in early 2026 via Frontiers Music Srl. He said in part: "It's quite exciting. Like many people know, we have our album finished, and some people posted already the artwork, which shouldn't be out. The artwork, it's done, but it should be not officially out — maybe in one or two, three weeks, something like that. I have to talk today with Frontiers Records at six o'clock, in two hours, and I just finished the mastering today, and tomorrow we are going on tour already, flying to Brazil [for the start of our Latin American tour]. And, yeah, it was quite exciting. We did three videos in September. We had a metal cruise. We had many shows between. So it's always, like, studio live, live, live. I'm happy to finish finally the studio work of MASTERPLAN. It took many years."

Regarding whether MASTERPLAN will perform any of the new songs on the Latin American tour, Roland said: "We'll play 'Rise Again' [which was released in early 2024 via AFM Records], but I don't want to play new songs which are not even out. They're coming out — the plan was end of January, but maybe because I was very late with the mastering and mix and stuff, and with the touring, so maybe they change the plan because they need more… They normally need six months. But something like March. We will see. We can't play new songs. I never liked when the band plays something and people don't know the songs."

Grapow also talked about the inspiration for the "Metalmorphosis" album title, explaining: "The reason for this name was a bit like my kind of thinking that we have a bit more metalish influences again, back to the roots, you can say. Still proggy elements, still MASTERPLAN elements. I would say not so many pop songs. So that's my taste. I don't know — maybe I'm wrong. But we still have a good combination of nice melodies on every song."

Roland went on to say that the video for the first single from the upcoming album will arrive in the coming weeks. "Maybe [while we are] on [the Latin American] tour, because the first video is done," he said. "I sent everything yesterday to Frontiers, and today we talk about the kind of releasing plans. It doesn't matter how many months we need for releasing the album, but I think two or three videos will come out before."

Grapow also addressed MASTERPLAN's switch from longtime label AFM Records to Frontiers Music Srl, saying: "Basically, we were lucky with AFM very much in the beginning, because the owner — Andy Allendörfer was his name, [and he] died after the second album of MASTERPLAN — and he was a very, very big MASTERPLAN fan, so we felt the support a lot. And after he died, everything changed drastically. The company went totally in different hands. The location changed — they went to Hamburg from kind of South Germany — and we always heard, like, we were priority, but later I had the feeling we were just one of hundreds [of bands on the label]. And so I lost a bit interest. That's why we didn't release any new material. I was basically more working in the studio for other bands, for 14 years maybe. And that's why I'm now concentrated with Frontiers. [It's] some fresh wind. The guy who takes care about us from Frontiers is a big Roland Grapow fan, MASTERPLAN fan and also HELLOWEEN fan. So that means he knows what he is liking and doing. And so when he heard the new album, he said, 'Wow, that's a very powerful, strong album.' So he was really happy. So this is the kind of relationship I need — I need some attention and feelings from the record label, not being [just] like a business partner."

Earlier in the month, Grapow was asked by the Honduras rock radio station Conexión if the goal with the new MASTERPLAN album was to stick with the band's classic sound or experiment a little bit. Roland said: "I think both. I'm always thinking about how we have the typical MASTERPLAN style. I mean, it's my style of playing guitar, arranging the songs. It doesn't matter who writes the songs; I'm always responsible for arranging it and say 'yes, it's good' or not. And in that case, I'm not so easy going, because I have a concept. We started it and I don't want to leave the concept too much left and right, but I like to make experiments and I think it's also the strength of MASTERPLAN. We always did little bit left and right. Also, also when you see 'Time To Be King' [2010], this album was more heavier, more open, more different — not too power metalish, but still great. I love this album. But this time we go back a little bit to a new experiment with meets power metal style of MASTERPLAN. We have some elements ala 'Kind Hearted Light'. We have prog elements; we always had prog elements. Like 'Soulburn', definitely, is kind of a bit proggy song, and we always had it in many, many songs. It's, like, on one song on each album, it was a prog element. Or a lower key, like 'Bleeding Eyes' — very low tuning, which I need a different guitar for it; I can't play it with normal tuning. And I'm always open for this. We have also a couple of songs left, which we don't use this time because I think we went too far, if we would use these two, three songs which are left. One, really, is a very happy song, which is not typical MASTERPLAN; it's more like a HELLOWEEN song, to be honest. Could [have been] written by Weiki [HELLOWEEN guitarist Michael Weikath]. And I said, 'Nah, not now. Next time.' But it's a beautiful song. I like it. And then we have one song, it's a ballad and it's very Irish-sounding. And I also thought, 'This is too much now.' So we have 10 songs now, and, yeah, I'm pretty happy. Every song is a bit different. I don't like to have 10 songs the same, like AC/DC or something — not to make them degrading and something. It's just a style, which I think it's a bit boring."

He added: "Everything I learned in HELLOWEEN, I still keep arranging in my part as a guitar player. MASTERPLAN is just more modern HELLOWEEN style, kind of, with a mix of my old heroes like RAINBOW, DEEP PURPLE, maybe even the bands which are not metal at all, like FOREIGNER, STYX, KANSAS, TOTO. I'm the biggest TOTO fan in the '80s. Steve Lukather was my idol. I have many, many solo elements I'm playing from him. I learned from him. You see, I'm just showing all my idols melted in one — it's like a melting pot. But I think the new album is pretty good."

Asked in a separate interview with Zona Franca who composed the music and lyrics for the upcoming MASTERPLAN album, Roland said: "The music is composed by Axel Mackenrott, the keyboard player, and myself. We have two guest writers, friends of mine. One is from Slovakia, one is from Sweden. So the lyrics, basically — of the 10 songs, I did the lyrics for nine songs, and Rick [Altzi, MASTERPLAN singer] had one [set of] lyrics written. And that's it. Yeah, it's more or less teamwork."

Earlier this year, Grapow told Jarkko Lunnas about the musical direction of the new MASTERPLAN material: "I think it's still sounding like MASTERPLAN. I mean, it's my guitars, my arrangements, my mixing, kind of. You have to develop somehow. You can't repeat yourself. And I think every band, once in a while, or every musician has a peak in his career, and I think it would be not possible, and I don't even know any musician who was mega famous and he went better and better with a higher age. I think it's not possible."

He continued: "I call it a bit more — for my taste — a bit more back to the roots. It's more metal. We have a couple of progressive elements always, but maybe one song I wrote is very progressive but very fast and double bass. But we have also some more rock songs or metal songs in a typical way. So I didn't want it to make it too bluesy or too progressive this time, but we still have every element inside. It's my style. I can't do just like AC/DC, one style. It's not possible for me. Or I could, but I would get so much bored. Then I think, 'Oh, no, I don't like to do that.' You need to make yourself happy in a way, and then hope that the people like it."

In 2017, MASTERPLAN released an album titled "PumpKings", containing reworked versions of HELLOWEEN songs from albums that Grapow played on during his time in the legendary German power metal band. Included are three songs from HELLOWEEN's "Pink Bupples Go Ape" (1991) LP, two from "Chameleon" (1993),three from "Master Of The Rings" (1994),one from "The Time Of The Oath" and two from "The Dark Ride" (2000).

MASTERPLAN's first-ever concert release came out in October 2015. "Keep Your Dream aLive" was made available as DVD/CD and Blu-ray/CD sets, both including the entire show from Masters Of Rock festival, recordings from Wacken Open Air, footage from the band's Asian tour and ProgPower USA, as well as all five official MASTERPLAN video clips. The Masters Of Rock show is featured on the CD.

MASTERPLAN's latest studio album of all original material, "Novum Initium", was released in June 2013 via AFM.

Dave Mustaine has confirmed to Rolling Stone magazine that the final MEGADETH album, simply titled "Megadeth", will include his version of "Ride The Lightning", the title track of METALLICA's 1984 album for which he got a co-writing credit following his 1983 departure from the band.

"It wasn't really that I wanted to do my version," he told Rolling Stone. "I think that we all wanted it to turn out a certain way, and for me, this was about something so much more than how a song turns out. It was about respect."

Speaking specifically about METALLICA singer-guitarist James Hetfield, Mustaine added: "No one ever talks to me about that. One day he's a singer, the next day he's this fucking powerhouse and I've always respected him as a guitar player. So I wanted to do something to close the circle on my career right now, since it started off with [Mustaine's band before METALLICA] PANIC and several of the songs that ended up in the METALLICA repertoire, I wanted to do something that I felt would be a good song."

Elaborating on his reasons for recording "Ride The Lightning" for MEGADETH's final album, Mustaine said: "Our intentions were pure. I didn't have any reason I was going to say, 'Oh, hey man, this thing that we've had for 40 years where you guys will never tour with me, me doing the song is going to change things.' That wasn't it at all. It was more about: This is my life going forward. I want to do things that are respectable. And I think doing something where we can pay honor to the guy that … I mean, I hate to say this, because it's just so fucking arrogant, but the guitar playing in METALLICA changed the world."

In a separate video message (see below),Mustaine said: "So on the new album we recorded 'Ride The Lightning', and the reason we did that was, obviously, it's a song that I had a lot to do with writing it. And James and I, when we were working on the song, it became clear to me, when James first started playing guitar, how good of a guitar player he was. And I thought it would be really cool to close the circle to show respect, to play the songs that I've written with METALLICA and to honor our friendship, even though it's been strained and ruined from emotions over the years when we were not necessarily friendly. But one thing I've always had is I've always had a tremendous respect for James's guitar playing and [METALLICA drummer] Lars's [Ulrich] songwriting. So, it was cool to do this and add it to the record. We sped it up just a little teeny bit, and we kind of played around a little bit with the solo and Teemu [Mäntysaari, MEGADETH guitarist] and I both tossed it back and forth to each other. So, you might hear a little bit of some differences with the tempos and, of course, I sing different from James too. But once again, it was about completing the circle and just showing what James and I, as guitar players, did to change the world."

"Megadeth" will be released on January 23, 2026 via Mustaine's Tradecraft imprint in partnership with Frontiers Label Group's new BLKIIBLK label.

Mustaine co-wrote the song "Ride The Lightning" with Hetfield, Ulrich and then-METALLICA bassist Cliff Burton.

"Megadeth" track listing:

01. Tipping Point
02. I Don't Care
03. Hey, God?!
04. Let There Be Shred
05. Puppet Parade
06. Another Bad Day
07. Made To Kill
08. Obey The Call
09. I Am War
10. The Last Note
11. Ride The Lightning (bonus track)

This past May, Mustaine gave a three-hour interview to Shawn Ryan, a former Navy SEAL and CIA contractor, and host of the Shawn Ryan Show, in which he spoke about his brief stint as a member of METALLICA in the early 1980s. Asked how he ended up joining METALLICA, Dave responded: "I was done with [my previous band] PANIC and I said, 'I'm gonna find something else to do.' So I got a newspaper called The Recycler, and it's just a rag from Los Angeles, Orange County. It's like a county classified ad magazine. And I'm looking in the classified ad magazine. Go figure. The biggest band in the world would advertise in this newspaper. So I look at it and it says, 'Wanted lead guitar player' and mentioned a couple bands. So I called up and I got Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] on the phone, and I said, 'Yeah, well, I like MOTÖRHEAD and I like BUDGIE. And he goes, 'You like fucking BUDGIE, man?' And I went, 'Yeah, I do.' And that was the icebreaker because BUDGIE is a Welsh band. It's a three-piece. It's very obscure. And by me listening to them showed that I had credibility in the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal world because of the bands I was listening to. They were not a band like a white metal band or a progressive metal band. They were a three-piece from Wales that kicked ass. They didn't have to have all those silly names in front of it."

Mustaine continued: " So, [Lars and I] were on the phone, and he made that comment that I know them, and I said, 'Yeah.' So we talked about meeting face to face. And I drove down from Huntington Beach to Newport Beach where he lived in a place called — I think it was called Park Newport. And the funny thing was my mom was a maid and she had actually worked a event for catering in his complex he was in. And I'm thinking, 'Go figure. My mom was a maid here and your mom has a place here. What a story that is, two different sides of the same coin.' And so I went into his place and started talking to him. And he played this song called 'Hit The Lights' that was written by a guy named Lloyd Grant. METALLICA didn't write that song. Lloyd Grant wrote it, and then he was friends with Lars, and then Lars introduced him to James [Hetfield, METALLICA guitarist/vocalist] and then they started playing 'Hit The Lights'. That's a song that I heard from them first and I said, 'Wow, this song needs way more lead solos in it.' It was just me being cocky, being me: 'It needs more lead solos in it.' And he was trying to figure out if I was for real. And so we went to rehearsal. He said, 'We're gonna try you out.' I said, okay. I mean, I knew how good I played. I have been gifted, and I know it's not by my own doing, so I don't try to take any credit for it. So I don't care how good I am or not, or what people say or anything like that. So I just knew what I knew, what I knew. And I went to [then-METALLICA bassist] Ron McGovney's parents' fourplex. They had this place that James was living with Ron. And I went up there with Lars and I set up my amps and I plugged my guitar in and I just started warming up. [And] they wouldn't come in. They wouldn't come into the rehearsal room. So I put my guitar down and I thought, 'This is really strange.' And I walked out and I said, 'Guys, are we gonna do the audition?' They said, 'You got the gig.'"

Mustaine went on to say that he "knew" he would get the METALLICA gig when he first went to audition for the band. "'Cause I could play that stuff," he explained. "I mean, there weren't very many guitar players like me around at the time. Who were they? Randy Rhoads. There were people like that. The guy from RATT — Warren DeMartini was really great. But real shredders? There wasn't a lot of us around at the time."

Asked what it felt like being in METALLICA in those early days, Mustaine said: "Well, again, it's kind of like it seemed like this was what my destiny was. And when it came time for us to do our first concert, we played at a high school, or maybe it was a junior high school Lars might've gone to. I know he went to it, but I can't remember if it was elementary or junior or high school, whatever. And from that point on, it was just clear that whenever there was any kind of altercation that was going down, I would be the one that would take care of it. James was very peaceful, and Lars, he was a little bit of a devil; he liked to have fun. But, yeah, if there was ever any stuff going down, I had to take care of it. When we went up to San Francisco and did our first couple shows up there at a place called The Stone, I was the one who had to go and collect the money. And there's a million ways to embezzle or to be corrupt when it comes down to running a club or a bar when it involves a band getting paid. They can say all kinds of stuff. And if you don't know, you don't know. And most kids my age at that time don't know. And they try and get money and they'll say, 'Well, you sold 200 tickets and you have a bar tab here, and so we're gonna give you 150 bucks.' And you know that they made a killing on their booze. You know that they made money on the food and snacks that they have there and the ticket prices. Plus they take a giant whack of your merchandise. And that was my gig. I would go do that."

Reflecting on METALLICA's ill-fated cross-country trip in the spring of 1983 that resulted in his firing from the band, Mustaine said: "When we decided we were gonna move out to New York, that was because Lars had found somebody he wanted to manage us, this guy Jonny Zazula, who had Megaforce Records. And [Jonny] heard our demo tape, the 'No Life 'Til Leather' demo tape. And he lost his mind, just like everybody else in the world. And they wanted to get the band to come out and record a record. And while we were on the way out there, we got in a car crash. We were driving through the snow. None of us knew how to drive through snow except for Lars, because he was from Denmark. And I'm driving this Ryder truck. It's a 24-foot truck, and it had a tow bar and it had James's pickup on the back. So when we were driving, we hit black ice and the whole thing spun around while I was driving. And I managed to keep it upright in the middle of the freeway, but the truck stopped and oncoming traffic was coming towards us. And the events that happened at that location… The guy that had produced — I think he produced the first [METALLICA] record; his name's Mark Whitaker. He was the guy that was doing our sound and stuff. He almost died. I had to push him out of the way, and a truck was to the right or right where he was standing. So if I wouldn't have seen that truck coming and saved his life, he'd be dead right now. And when we went to the U-Haul place to get our truck, we placed and moved all of our gear into the new truck. James and Lars had made a decision to replace me because they tried to pin that driving thing on me as the last straw."

Addressing the allegations that his excessive drinking was the main reason he was fired from METALLICA, Mustaine said: "We all drank. That's why they called it ALCOHOLICA. I mean, they didn't call it DAVE-ALCOHOLICA. We all drank. And they continued to drink like that even after I was gone. But that was, I think, the beginning of the end. And when we got out to New York, I had a reel of tape, this quarter-inch tape, that had probably two days' worth of guitar riffs on it, just me playing and playing and playing. And we took that tape player and the reel of tape with us out to New York. We did two shows out there, and after those two shows, they woke me up one morning and said, 'Look, you're out of the band.' And I said, 'What are you talking about?' 'You're out of the band.' I said, 'No warning? No second chance? You're not gonna give me a warning? You're just gonna kick me out?' And I thought that was unfair. And it showed a grotesque lack of character. And so that pissed me off and was a huge part of the fuel. But at the time, I was really mad and I didn't wanna forgive them for what they did. And I told them when I left, 'Do not use my music. And of course they used it. [The] 'Ride The Lightning' [title track] I wrote. 'The Call Of Ktulu' I wrote. Let's see, what else? There's 'Phantom Lord', 'Metal Militia', 'Jump In The Fire', 'The Four Horsemen'. And I wrote a bunch of 'Leper Messiah' [on METALLICA's third album, 'Master Of Puppets'] too. They didn't give me credit on that. You listen to the riffs, you know they're my riffs. It's, like, you think I'm gonna all of a sudden hear my riff and say, 'That's not me.' So, yeah, I wrote a lot of their music that made them, and all the solos on that first record were mine — the best Kirk [Hammett, Mustaine's replacement in METALLICA] could try and copy them."

Asked why he was singled out and fired from METALLICA when everybody in the band drank heavily at that point, Dave said: "Because when I got drunk, I got violent. James and I had gone out to a club one time. It was the old Mabuhay [Gardens in San Francisco]. It was across the street from The Stone. And we were out front, and some guy came out of the alleyway and he said, 'There's a guy beating some girl up in the alleyway.' And, of course, I being the champion for justice, did not want to hear that and not do anything. So I went down the alleyway with James, and, of course, James not being a fighter, started yelling out, 'Kill him, kill him, kill him.' And the guy comes out from behind a van and he was much bigger than James, and he said, 'Who's gonna kill me?' And James goes — points to me. So I immediately grabbed a guy and put him down in a submission and started rabbit punching him until he stopped moving. And then we ran out of the alleyway and we stood out front until the paramedics came. And that was it. So I imagine he saw that and he figured, 'I don't wanna be part of this. Dave's already beat me up back down in Los Angeles, and he's just too violent.' 'Cause James did get a punch in the mouth from me. He kicked my puppy."

Elaborating on the punch-up that occurred between him and Hetfield, Mustaine said: "I was selling pot for a living, so one time I did a concert and people knew I was on stage, so they just shimmied the window. There was nobody there. They took all my pot, and I was pissed. So I got two dogs. My nephew took one and I took the other one, and I had taken her up with me to rehearsal. And she was playing and she's looking up at me. I'm standing over here. Ron McGovney's got this really nice GTO and she leans up against the car and puts her paws on the front quarter panel and [James] goes bang and kicked the dog. And I went, 'What did you just do? What did you just do?' And it went from the front yard into the house, and there was still stuff being said. And I said, 'You better shut up or I'm gonna punch you in the mouth. And then Ron McGovney says, 'If you hit him, you're gonna have to hit me first.' And I said, 'You stay out of it.' And then James said the same thing: 'If you hit him, you're gonna have to hit me first.' And I said, 'Okay, you win.' And bang, I hit James in the mouth, and then I hip-tossed Ron into his television set-up. And that was it. Two strikes and it was over. And Lars was pulling his hair going, 'I don't want it to end this way.' And I thought, 'You know what? I've already told you, it's either me or James.' And we did that a bunch of times, 'cause James was doing stupid stuff. And I told James the same thing. I said, 'Man, it's either me or Lars, 'cause Lars sucks.' And I got the ax in the end. So it's good. Fine."

Asked what he did after he got "axed" from METALLICA, Mustaine said: "I went home and I contacted a friend of mine and I said, 'I quit.' She said, 'No, you didn't. You got fired.' And I said, 'Yeah, I got fired. I quit. I got fired, whatever. I'm back home. Wrong word. [it's] not changing the outcome.' And I made sure not to ever say that I quit, 'cause I wanted people to know that I was unfairly dismissed and that I didn't give a shit. 'Cause we [MEGADETH] may not be as big as they [METALLICA] are. Hell, their biggest song, 'Enter Sandman', go look up the band EXCEL right now. Look up their song — I think it's something 'Into The Unknown'. [Editor's note: The track is actually called 'Tapping Into The Emotional Void'.] Pretty similar."

A decade ago, Grant told the "Rockzone Legends" show that he first heard "Hit The Lights" when Ulrich played it for him before their first rehearsal with Hetfield. "James was playing bass and I was playing guitar and Lars was playing drums," Lloyd recalled. "And we rehearsed that 'Hit The Lights' song. But way before that, Lars let me hear that song. We were hanging out watching soccer, and he says, 'Hey, I met this guy,' blah blah blah, 'and he's exactly what we wanna jam with.' And he played this one song, and it was great, and that's how I first was introduced to 'Hit The Lights'. And after that, I went over and jammed a few times. Then he called me and said they were gonna be on this compilation album ['Metal Massacre'] and he brought over a tape of 'Hit The Lights' recorded on a four-track and asked me to make some solos for that, and they were gonna bring the four-track down and they were just gonna put it out an dump it on the compilation album."

In a November 2022 interview with Greg Prato of Songfacts, Mustaine was asked to elaborate on his comment that he would like to collaborate again with Hetfield. Asked if he actually discussed that with James, Dave said: "The last time we talked it didn't end very well because we have some memory of a couple of things that took place when I was in the band. I remember it one way and he is saying that it happened another. But it's about somebody else — it's not even him. He's talking to me on behalf of 'you know who'," apparently referring to Ulrich. "They wanted to release 'No Life 'Til Leather' [the early METALLICA demo Mustaine was on] — 27 songs, posters, flyers, pictures, everything. I said I would love to do this thing, and James said, 'Look, we fucked up. The last three things we've done failed abysmally.' He said it was 'Lulu' [METALLICA's collaboration with Lou Reed, released in 2011], something called Orion [a festival called Orion Music + More that took place in 2012 and 2013], and there was one other thing... I think it was a film about a fan or something [the 2013 film 'Metallica: Through The Never']. I don't know. I don't see them as a failure. But I had said, 'Yeah, I'd be interested.' And he said, 'We'd like to get everything right with all the history, the publishing and stuff.' And I said, 'Good.' Because part of the reason why we haven't been able to really reconcile is because I had songs that when I left I didn't want them to record, and they went ahead and recorded them but they didn't pay me what my share of the songs were.

"James and I wrote 'Metal Militia' and 'Phantom Lord' — every note," Dave continued. "And somehow, on the record ['Kill 'Em All'] it says Lars gets 10%. And on 'Metal Militia' that Kirk gets some of it, and he wasn't even in the band.

"So I've come to terms with it, and when he said, 'We'd like to get this right,' I said, 'Great. Let's do it. I have no problem.' And when I said, 'This is what it is,' he said, 'No. It's kind of what it was, and that's how it is.' And I thought to myself, you know what? When you guys did that to me before, it was not cool. I said, 'Don't use my stuff' and you did it, and then didn't give me my fair share. So why would I want to willingly enter into something like that? I wouldn't. So that's where we stand right now.

"I would love to work with James. I'd like to work with Lars again, too, but I think the real talent in METALLICA has always been around the guitar — everybody makes fun of the drums.

"Lars is a really great song arranger. And believe it or not, I watched him on a piece-of-shit acoustic guitar write the opening riff to 'Master Of Puppets'. You know what that was? It was a guy with a guitar that doesn't know how to play, and he's going [mimics playing a chromatic run] on the neck. It wasn't anything really mind-blowing by any means. The way James played it made it mind-blowing."

Seven years ago, Mustaine said that he didn't want to "perpetuate false information" by giving Ulrich songwriting credit on the previously announced expanded version of "No Life 'Til Leather".

"No Life 'Til Leather" was released as a limited-edition cassette for Record Store Day in April 2015, available exclusively in independent record stores. It featured artwork copies from drummer Ulrich's own personal copy of the original demo, as well as his handwriting. At the time, the band also promised that expanded editions of the demo, which had never before been commercially available, would arrive on CD, vinyl and in a collector's set.

The seven-song tape was recorded with the first lineup of the band that appeared live as METALLICA, including Ulrich, Hetfield, lead guitarist Mustaine and bassist Ron McGovney. The original recordings were paid for by High Velocity record label owner Kenny Kane, with a view of making them available as an EP in 1982.

Mustaine discussed the proposed expanded edition of "No Life 'Til Leather" during a June 2018 interview with U.K.'s Kerrang! magazine. Saying that the last time he spoke to Hetfield was when the METALLICA guitarist/vocalist called him to talk about the "No Life 'Til Leather" re-release, Mustaine recalled: "He was trying to get me to give publishing over to Lars, despite James and I being the sole songwriters. Lars wanted a percentage and I just said no. I love James, he's a terrific guitar player, but yeah, I can't do that. The songs are already out there. I'm not going to release something just to have a product to sell — especially if they are perpetuating false information. Lars did not write the songs. It was just me and James. Period."

Ulrich told Metal Forces in 2016 that "some unexpected difficulties on the legal side… prevented the 'No Life 'Til Leather' box set and our vision for how we were going to kick this whole reissue series off. We spent some time doing that dance, but then James and I decided that it wasn't worth it getting bogged down in all the unpleasantries, because this was supposed to be a celebration and not end up being a tug of war, so we thought, 'You know what? Fuck it. We'll just move on to 'Kill 'Em All'," he said.

Ulrich did not want to get into the details of the exact issues that were preventing the demo tape from being released. "It's a little more complicated than that," he said. "There's no reason to go deeper into it. It was just something that we hadn't expected."

Back in November 2017, Mustaine tweeted that he was contacted by Hetfield two years earlier about "officially" releasing "No Life Till Leather" with "27 tracks, pics, the whole enchilada," but, he said, "the talks broke down because Lars wanted credit on two songs I wrote every note and word to. I have the texts. I passed."

When Ulrich spoke to Metal Forces in 2016, he made it clear that METALLICA was still hopeful that the expanded version "No Life 'Til Leather" would arrive at a later date. "As you know, I am the eternal optimist, and I am the eternal 'glass is well fucking half full,' so who knows?" he said. "I think some of those parties have circled back around now that they've seen that this is real and so we'll have to see. It would be great to share 'No Life 'Til Leather' in a year or two with our fans and with the people that care. We haven't shut the door on it."

"No Life 'Til Leather" was recorded on July 6, 1982 at Chateau East Studio in Tustin, California. All the songs on the tape later appeared on the band's 1983 debut album, "Kill 'Em All", including "Hit The Lights", "Motorbreath", "Jump In The Fire", "Seek And Destroy", "Metal Militia", "Phantom Lord" and "The Mechanix", which was renamed "The Four Horsemen" on the album.

Mustaine was a member of METALLICA for less than two years, from 1981 to 1983, before being dismissed and replaced by Hammett.

Mustaine was not inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame with METALLICA during the April 2009 ceremony at Cleveland, Ohio's Public Auditorium. Ulrich later explained to The Plain Dealer that Mustaine "never played on any METALLICA records. No disrespect to him. But there [were] half a dozen other people that were in the lineup in the early days. We thought... the fair thing to do would be to include anybody that played on a METALLICA record." He added: "Dave Mustaine was in the band for eleven months, predominantly in 1982... I'm not trying to play it down. I have nothing but respect and admiration for his accomplishments since."