This week’s featured Massive Metal Monday track comes to us courtesy of Metal Blade recording artists Redemption whose new album, The Art of Loss, was released this past Friday February 26, 2016. The song is entitled “Damaged” and features guest guitar work by former Megadeth virtuoso Marty Friedman.

The Art of Loss is the sixth full-length entry in the band’s discography, which dates back to 2003. In addition to Friedman, the album features guest appearances by two other former guitarists for Megadeth, Chris Broderick and Chris Poland, as well as Armored Saint/Anthrax vocalist John Bush.

Megadeth
Dystopia
MP3 | CD | Vinyl
Label: T-Boy Records/UMe
Release date: January 22, 2016

After 20 or so years of churning out several mediocre (at best) albums, Dave Mustaine and company are back with their fifteenth studio album Dystopia. There has once again been a major shakeup in the Megadeth lineup as both guitarist Chris Broderick and drummer Shawn Drover exited the band in the wake of the previous album, 2013’s abysmal Super Collider. The two musicians continue to play together in a new band known as Act of Defiance. Their replacements are former Angra guitarist Kiko Loureiro and drummer Chris Adler who is pulling double duty with both Megadeth and his own band Lamb of God.

Pioneering heavy metal band Megadeth has announced that its fifteenth studio album Dystopia will arrive on January 22, 2016. The album will be the first to feature the band’s new lineup, which includes Chris Adler (who is also in Lamb of God) on drums and former Angra guitarist Kiko Loureiro. Former members guitarist Chris Broderick and drummer Shawn Drover left the band earlier this year to form the new unit Act of Defiance.

Along with the album announcement comes the premiere of Dystopia’s first single, “Fatal Illusion,” which you can listen to here below.

As many of you know if you’ve been reading my columns here for a while, my son Jesse Bergen has been a student at School of Rock here in Los Angeles, CA, for almost 5 years now. He’s primarily a guitar player, but is also proficient at bass, vocals, and drums. We’re very fortunate to live in L.A. where celebrities often stop by to support the school and mentor the kids.

Mine is a family of metalheads, so you can imagine our excitement when we heard that on Friday, August 21, 2015, David Ellefson, bass player and founding member of Megadeth, would be dropping by for a Q&A and jamming with the kids. So my son and his fellow house band members set about learning two Megadeth classics.

Check out my videos of the performances here below, along with my firsthand account of the event.

Today’s Thrashback Thursday theme is: great band, cool song, terrible record. Megadeth‘s anthemic track “Crush ‘Em” was just about the only redeeming factor of their otherwise abysmal 1999 album Risk. The record’s title reflects Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine’s belief that the band was ready to take a risk and step outside of their comfort zone. The problem was that the step they took was toward pop metal and the risk that they took alienated many fans. The album would be the last to feature legendary guitarist Marty Friedman, who left the fold a year later.

“Crush ‘Em” was also used as the theme song for the equally terrible Jean Claude Van Damme and Bill Goldberg movie Universal Soldier: The Return and the song’s official video features both actors.