Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine said he and bassist David Ellefson are working on a song inspired by the Kiss track “Beth" that deals with the difficult period of their long relationship.

As he prepares to go back on tour following his treatment for cancer, Mustaine said he hoped to release new music before the European road trip begins on Jan. 20.

Mustaine told Rolling Stone that the band wrote “nine really crushing songs” for the follow-up to the 2016 album Dystopia. “All we need to do is get in the studio and capture them," he said. "We’ve got scratch drum tracks. We just have to get [drummer] Dirk [Verbeuren] to play through the songs once or twice, and then it’s up to me and David and [guitarist] Kiko [Loureiro] to finish.”

Asked how many tracks he hoped to release, Mustaine said “it might be two, it might be four,” and noted that three of them had working titles – “The Dogs of Chernobyl,” “Faster Than Anything Else” and “Rattlehead, Part Two” – which hint at the style of music that could be expected.

Mustaine said he felt particularly optimistic about a slower song he and Ellefson are writing: “I said to him, ‘What was the biggest song that Kiss ever had?’ He goes, '"Beth."' I said, ‘Yeah, we should write a song like ‘Beth,’ where it’s a ballad and it’s just you singing it. I think you should write a song about what it’s like being in Megadeth with me, because I read all your lyrics, and I know that your lyrics are aimed at me. You’re upset. So why don’t you write about it?’”

While he hoped to include the song on the band’s next album, Mustaine said it might appear on the one after that instead. “It was actually really cool to see Ellefson writing something and hear him singing,” he noted.

 

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