David Ellefson Compares Metallica and Megadeth Albums

Megadeth bassist David Ellefson has recently appeared on a podcast of Metal Edge Magazine on Youtube. There was also Todd La Torre of Queensrÿche and Rob Caggiano from Volbeat besides him including Paul Gargano, Izzy Pressley. And they all gathered for debating 2 iconic metal albums of the time, which are Metallica …And Justice For All vs Megadeth Rust In Peace.

During their conversation, David Ellefson also touches on the infamous production style of the song, which sounds pretty much zero audible bass frequencies while talking about Metallica‘s fourth full-length studio effort, 1988’s “…And Justice for All.” After all that, Megadeth bassist also mentions great stories about the recording of Rust In Peace, as well including the undeniable effect that …And Justice For All caused on metal along with amazing stories about the albums from Todd, Rob, and Paul.

So let’s take a look at some snips from their entertaining but also informative discussion and find out more about the two beloved songs of all time.

David Ellefson talks about the days on Garage Days, and what role Jason Newsted took back in days.

“There is something on YouTube that bassist Jason Newsted did, an interview that’s very candid. And he talked very openly about how ‘Garage Days’ was his first. And he said, ‘Look, I played everything on ‘Justice’… I matched a lot of the guitar parts, but it was very aggressive. The tone was exactly dialed the same as it was on ‘Garage Days.”” starts David Ellefson expressing his thoughts about the record.

“And then, for whatever reason, it wasn’t prominent on the album. And that could probably be discussed for another 10 podcasts,” adds Ellefson and continues his talk by criticizing a little on Metallica‘s former bassist, Jason Newsted.

“Look, we all know Jason’s a great player. I knew him from Flotsam and Jetsam. He was a great player. He was a bandleader, so when he joined Metallica, he then had to come back to being an Indian and not a chief, which, I’m sure, knowing him, was probably difficult.

I mean, look, you’re in the biggest heavy metal band in the world, but you still have a different role being in that group, as big as it is. So there’s definitely a mental adjustment I’m sure that he had to go through with that.”

So, it may be more right to say that he actually makes a statement of those days rather than criticizing them. It’s obviously something went wrong back then. So, Ellefson tries to clarify those days while he is trying to explain what they had gone through as well.

David Ellefson also discusses the album’s progressive style, as well.

“Lars (Ulrich, Metallica drummer) was openly giving nods to Deep Purple and Rush at that point, and you could tell they were going off on these sort of heavy metal ‘Cygnus X-1’ explorations on a lot of these tracks, which was clever, because with metal, to do that and still keep it interesting and not run out of ideas was…

That, to me, was probably the thing I like about the record the most – it was a very progressive record. And then it’s kind of like they got that out of their system, and then they made the ‘Black Album’.” indicates David Ellefson, how he really impressed the work Metallica had done back in past and might have even inspired from them.

“The same maybe could be said for Megadeth – that we did that with ‘Rust in Peace’, and then we went and made ‘Countdown to Extinction’, which we explored slower tempos, bigger grooves – just kind of writing verse-chorus-verse-chorus rather than five tempos and going down all those other roads.

So, on some level, we probably were kind of walking side by side, Metallica and Megadeth, on that sort of level – maybe that same kind of compositional mindset from these two records.”

Megadeth bassist David Ellefson‘s also released a book recently. It is his first fiction novel, “The Sledge Chronicles: Rock Star Hitman”. You can find out more about the famous bassist book from here.

So, you can watch and listen to more of their conversation from the video down below if you want. They talk and discuss lots of things about past music industries till today including changes and events and more.