Brand Megadeth pioneers.
Not that they knew that back in 1983. Back then, they simply whipped their band into a frenzy and called it heavy metal.
“A handful of us played what became known as thrash metal,” said Megadeth co-founder Dave Ellefson.
Three of those thrash metal pioneers will wallop the walls of Knoxville Coliseum in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sept. 30. They include Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax. Call ’em metal bands, will thrash.
“In the early days, we called it punk jazz,” Ellefson, who plays bass in Megadeth, said by phone on Tuesday from New Orleans, La. “It has the musical progressions of jazz, and it kicked [butt] like punk.”
Those were the wild, wild west days of heavy metal. Much of it was split into two major cities in California.
“Los Angeles had the hair bands like Motley Crue and Poison,” Ellefson said. “But we headed to San Francisco, which is where the heavier stuff was coming from.”
Megadeth dates back to 1983. Formed by Dave Mustaine and Dave Ellefson, the band resulted from Mustaine’s firing from fellow metal band Metallica.
“Dave [Mustaine] always had a very clear vision,” Ellefson said. “While on that that long bus ride he had coming home from New York after Metallica, things came to him really quick. He’s gotten to do things in Megadeth that he couldn’t do in Metallica.”
So Megadeth signed with Combat Records. In May 1985 they issued their first album, “Killing is My Business…and Business is Good.” Recorded for a paltry $4,000, the album established Megadeth as a band on the rise.
“I think with metal music, if you do what you like to do, then fans will like it, too,” Ellefson said. “You don’t end up second-guessing yourself. If we’re in the room thrashing to it and loving it then the fans like love it, too. That’s been our motto.”
Their motto sure worked.
Check their data. In 27 years, Megadeth has released a dozen albums, been nominated for eight Grammy Awards and sold millions of albums including million-sellers such as 1990’s “Rust in Peace” and 1992’s “Countdown to Extinction.”
Megadeth has toured the world with such bands as Iron Maiden, Dio and even rivals Metallica. But perhaps the band’s most heard moment was its least acknowledged. For years, MTV News’ theme featured a bass line played by Ellefson and grabbed from a Megadeth song.
“It was really cool,” Ellefson said. “It fell in my lap. It’s cool that Megadeth has one of the most iconoclastic opening lines in music history. It’s a great honor.”
Then, as now, Megadeth struck like heat-seeking missiles. They were and remain four long-haired, whiplashing head-bangers from California who played heavy metal with punk rock anger and speed.
Megadeth is downright nuclear.
“It was like the best of Iron Maiden meets the Sex Pistols,” Ellefson said. “We owned Judas Priest records, and we owned Sex Pistols records. The thrash scene, we fused all that together, metal and punk.”
Themes such as politics, addiction and occasionally black magic ran through such songs as “Peace Sells,” “Burnt Ice” and “The Conjuring,” respectively. Yet now Megadeth has dropped songs such as “The Conjuring” and added Christian-based songs such as “Never Walk Alone…A Call to Arms.”
Yep, Megadeth founders Mustaine and Ellefson, who had battled drug and alcohol addictions for years, are now clean and sober, born again Christians.
“If there were ever two guys who needed it, it was Dave and I,” Ellefson said. “It’s the real deal. For me and him to back out of dark corners into the light, that’s a good thing.”
TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at features@bristolnews.com.
IF YOU GO
Who: Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax
When: Sept. 30, 7 p.m.
Where: Knoxville Coliseum, Knoxville, Tenn.
Admission: $12-$54
Info: (865) 215-8999
Web and audio: www.megadeth.com
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