{"id":47445,"date":"2003-01-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-01-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/death-of-the-deth\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T12:01:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:01:58","slug":"death-of-the-deth","status":"publish","type":"feature","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/death-of-the-deth\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Of The Deth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"megadeth_killing\"<\/div>\n

\u00a0 <\/p>\n

It was the summer of 1990. I was a soon-to-be junior in college and working in a restaurant, bussing tables, doing dishes, waiting on tables, cashiering – – I did anything but cook. A co-worker, a punk reject who quit school between 8th and 9th grade, came in to work with a casette version of Rust In Peace<\/i>. “Listen to this.”<\/p>\n

Remember, this is 1990. Thrash metal was on the verge of going mainstream. Slayer’s South of Heaven<\/i> was out and The Clash of the Titans tour was in full-swing: an unknown band called Alice in Chains, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer. My friend repeated, “Listen to this. They’re Megadeth and they’re cool. Come to the Clash with me. It’ll be cool.”<\/p>\n

This from a punk who thought Lemmy was a vocalist. I declined his invitation to see the Clash of the Titans show, but I said I would put in his casette on my way home from work.<\/p>\n

I still remember that car ride home. Even though I was dog-tired from working 10 hours, I remember my head bobbing back and forth. When I pulled into my parent’s driveway, I didn’t want to get out of the car. I put the car in Reverse and just drove, wanting to hear more. I turned up the treble and the bass to their highest level and I knew my life was changed.<\/p>\n

First, the opening riff of track 1 echoed through my 86 Buick Century T-Type. Okay, I thought. This is a tight band. Mustaine’s vocals came in and wow, I could understand him. Then the guitar solo. Then I noticed the drummer was in-synch with the bass in a way that I hadn’t heard before.<\/p>\n

I had found my second favorite band, though I never reached the fanaticism that defined my love of And Justice for All<\/i>. I liked “Lucretia,” I liked “Hangar 18” and, most of all, I liked the tight bass groove of David Ellefson and Nick Menza in “Dawn Patrol.” There wasn’t a song on that CD that I couldn’t listen to again and again.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to summer 1998. I am writing freelance music reviews and I get a contact at Capitol Records, Megadeth’s label. I’m asked if I want to interview David Ellefson on the phone as press for their upcoming gig in Cedar Rapids.<\/p>\n

The phone call comes in to my job. Our grandmotherly-ish receptionist pages me and says, “Someone by the name of David Ellefson is on line 1 for you.” She had no idea to whom she had spoken to and her sons didn’t believe her when she told them she had talked to David in Megadeth. I remember bits and pieces of that interview.<\/p>\n

I remember talking about how the lyrics on “I Thought I Knew it All” had inspired me during a 3 year job search during my senior year of college and two years post-college. I can still recite them: “Somewhere there’s a reason \/ Why things go like they do \/ Somewhere there’s a reason \/ Why some things just fall through \/ We don’t always see them \/ For what they really are \/ But I know there’s a reason \/ Just can’t see it from this far.”<\/p>\n

I remember asking if they’d play “Paranoid” in concert. I had been spinning Hidden Treasures<\/i> daily, adoring every moment of their version, including Mustaine shouting, “Nick! Nick!” at the end of the track. I remember that he was late calling me and that he apologized for being tardy.<\/p>\n

I remember their concert. Monster Magnet (whose singer no-showed the gig) and Sevendust opened. I interviewed Lajon before the show and had a beer with him. I remember Mustaine acting pissed when no one sang along to “God Save the Queen” which they did as an encore.<\/p>\n

All of these things and other memories I can’t put into words have surrounded this band in my mind. Millions of fans have listened (and liked) this band. Each probably has a different individual moment where the band captured their heart and when they knew that this band was making a difference in their life.<\/p>\n

Even though The World Needs A Hero<\/i> didn’t sell well, and Mustaine had declared that if Hero didn’t sell well, he was going to end Megadeth, I thought they were on the right trail. I enjoyed several of the songs, including “1000 Times Goodbye,” the agonizing tale of a break up, climaxing with Mustaine stating, “You know what? You SUCK!”<\/p>\n

I was shocked to hear that Mustaine had decided to leave Megadeth — however, I’m pleased that the remaining members didn’t decide to carry on the name as a three piece instrumental until Mustaine returned, though that might have returned the band to its Peace-era thrash metal.<\/p>\n

I read on http:\/\/www.blistering.com today (4\/8\/02) that Kirk Hammett (Metallica’s guitarist) was stating openly that David Ellefson was not joining Metallica as bassist. When I interviewed Ellefson, we had talked briefly about a Megadeth\/Metallica joint project. While no specific details were given, it would seem natural that these two bands, which have gone their separate ways, would cross paths. A local DJ joked that Megadeth was ending because Mustaine had tried out for bass in Metallica and Hetfield had said, “No way man, we fired your ass years ago.”<\/p>\n

At this point, it’s clear as mud whether we’ll ever hear something from Mustaine’s guitar. News reports I read stated that it would take at least a year of physical therapy to be able to play guitar again. I wish Mustaine and his fellow Deth brothers the best of luck. I hope we do hear from Mustaine’s guitar again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 It was the summer of 1990. I was a soon-to-be junior in college and working in a restaurant, bussing tables, doing dishes, waiting on tables, cashiering – – I did anything but cook. A co-worker, a punk reject who quit school between 8th and 9th grade, came in to work with a casette version […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":51199,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"tags":[],"feature_type":[5606],"class_list":["post-47445","feature","type-feature","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","feature_type-essay"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/feature"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47445"},{"taxonomy":"feature_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature_type?post=47445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}