Former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson recalled the first time he heard Metallica and named his favorite release by them.
As two pillars of thrash metal with a complicated history, Megadeth and Metallica had a longstanding feud through much of the ’80s and ’90s.
And though Ellefson has praised Metallica in the past, he’s seemingly been more vocal about his Metallica fandom since he was fired from Megadeth in 2021.
In a new interview with Ultimate Guitar, the bassist discussed the first time he ever heard Metallica’s music, and named which of their many releases is his favorite to this day.
“Metallica just had a great sound out of the gate,” Ellefson said, adding that the first bit of music he heard by them was their 1982 demo No Life ‘Til Leather.
“I remember going to Dave’s [Mustaine] apartment and he was playing it one day while he was doing the dishes or making lunch or something. There was something just so haunting and dark, yet rowdy and fun about it, that I just loved.”
The rocker noted that although most of the songs from No Life ‘Til Leather ended up on Metallica’s full-length debut Kill ‘Em All, which came out the following year, he thought they sounded very different from each other.
“It’s a very different migration toward where they were going. That still is my favorite Metallica release, the No Life ‘Til Leather demo.”
Ellefson explained that the reason his post-Megadeth group Kings of Thrash plays the song “Jump in the Fire” is because it’s a song Mustaine had written, and also one that Megadeth often had in their rehearsal setlist in their early years.
READ MORE: David Ellefson Distances Himself From Early Megadeth vs. Metallica – ‘It Was Not My Feud’
“Anthrax, of course, had a sound that, even though they went from Neil Turbin and Dan Lilker over to Joey [Belladonna] and Frank [Bello] and other members, they’ve maintained it,” he continued.
“I guess Scott [Ian] and Charlie [Benante] sort of maintained that sound, probably the same way James [Hetfield] and Lars [Ulrich] did. And I’d like to think probably in the same way Dave and I did through all the transitions of Megadeth through the years.”
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“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take,” NHL Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzy once famously said. Unfortunately for Megadeth, they took a huge shot and still missed by a wide margin with 2013’s Super Collider.
It would signal the end for drummer Shawn Drover and guitarist Chris Broderick, not that they had much of a say when it came to the writing anyway.
For Mustaine and Ellefson, however, the attempt at a more rock-leaning record is applaudable in theory — they brilliantly pulled this off on Youthanasia and perhaps it was a chance to make good on some other intentions laid out in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s.
Whatever the case, this platter of music is just not good by any measure. It did put Mustaine and co. in position to roar back with a more return-to-roots effort that materialized in 2016’s Dystopia, which is great for the career narrative arc in the long run. There’s a positive! —JD
Anthrax, ‘Volume 8: The Threat Is Real’ (1998)
Anthrax, ‘Volume 8: The Threat Is Real’ (1998)
Megaforce Records
48. Anthrax, ‘Volume 8: The Threat Is Real’ (1998)
Not five years removed from 1993’s impressive stylistic reboot for the alt-rock ‘90s that was Sound of White Noise, Anthrax’s career reached a dispiriting nadir with the forgettable – and now virtually forgotten – Volume 8: The Threat is Real.
Maybe the band were subconsciously referring to their own dreary career prospects, because they failed to deliver anything else – confidence, decent songs, creative direction – with this miserable set. —ER
Megadeth,
47. Megadeth, ‘Risk’ (1999)
In retrospect, Dave Mustaine should have probably used some of those joint therapy sessions with Lars Ulrich captured for Metallica’s harrowing, inadvertent mockumentary Some Kind of Monster, to explain Megadeth’s own career fiasco, Risk.
An ill-advised gambit to push further into the mainstream and even alternative rock, Risk was such a “box office bomb,” that Capitol Records washed their hands of Megadeth after more than a decade. Really, the only thing about this album that makes sense was its title. —ER
46. Anthrax, ‘Stomp 442’ (1995)
Metal was always part of the Anthrax equation, but the band’s brand of thrash was always cut with something more. In the Joey Belladonna era, that was most noticeably crossover punk and as the band’s style shifted in the ‘90s with John Bush up front, so did the band’s stylistic formula.
Taking cues from the abrasive hardcore of Helmet in particular (at least to these ears), Anthrax moved from the more radio-optimized hard/groove rock of 1993’s Sound of White Noise to what you hear on Stomp 442, which arrived two years later.
The first album without guitarist Dan Spitz, Anthrax turned to Pantera legend Dimebag Darrell to play lead on two songs while Paul Crook handled the rest of the studio guitar work opposite Scott Ian.
The intentions were fine, but the execution on the group’s seventh album missed the mark and the lyrics are especially forgettable. The cover art, meanwhile? Memorable for the wrong reasons. —JD
45. Megadeth, ‘The World Needs A Hero’ (2001)
Still reeling from the nuclear fallout of 1999’s widely panned Risk, Megadeth entered the new millennium in rebuild mode – in terms of their line-up (Al Pitrelli stepped in for the long-serving Marty Friedman), their music (which thankfully shifted back to metallic norm, if not form), and their reputation (well, good luck with that one).
Now signed to Sanctuary, Dave Mustaine and co. tried to overcome persistent issues with songwriting quality with quantity, in what still stands as the longest of all Megadeth albums. —ER
An extreme sonic direction for the band and the subject of an entire documentary, 2003’s St. Anger has became widely regarded by fans as Metallica’s worst album and has reached a level of memedom in the metal community that few other albums have.
While there are some obvious things to dislike about the record such as drummer Lars Ulrich’s snare sound and the complete absence of Kirk Hammet guitar solos, listeners should not be too quick to dismiss St. Anger. The album is frankly one of Metallica’s most interesting, with introspective lyrical content and variety of both fast and grinding riffs.
Songs such as “Frantic”, “Some Kind of Monster”, and “Invisible Kid” offer a lot to enjoy, but the record’s consistently muddy mix combined with the other shortcomings previously mentioned ultimately leave even more to be desired with this album. —AR
43. Metallica, ‘Load’ (1996)
Released in 1996, Load emerged in a time that wasn’t particularly good to the thrash sub-genre. Alt-rock, grunge, and nu-metal were dominating the charts and Metallica were forced to adapt.
Five years after the release of 1991’s ‘Black Album,’ Load has an even more commercial and hard-rock leaning sound than its predecessor.
It was clear that the band was trying new sounds on tracks such as “Until It Sleeps”, “King Nothing”, and “The Outlaw Torn”, which, fast forward today, are widely loved by fans.
While it’s sonic direction has unfortunately landed it at the bottom of many fans’ favorite Metallica album lists, Load is a perfectly enjoyable hard rock album by a band who at the time was just looking to try something different. —AR
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