Interview | Dirk Verbeuren talks about Megadeth’s final album and tour
Megadeth’s terrific final studio album is taking the world by storm. It’s topping charts across the world. Roppongi Rocks’ Stefan Nilsson talked with Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren about the final album and tour.
The self-titled “Megadeth” album is Megadeth’s 17th studio album. It was recorded by the band’s current line-up: Dave Mustaine on vocals and guitar, Dirk Verbeuren on drums, James LoMenzo on bass and Teemu Mäntysaari on guitar.
Congratulations on a great new Megadeth album! It sounds fantastic! How do you feel about it being completed and released?
“Of course, I am super excited for people to hear it. I am proud of the way this record came out. I put a lot of thought into everything, mostly into the drum sound, but also into the songwriting. We all worked together on this. We all brought ideas and wrote riffs and put songs together. I’m very happy about it. I’m very happy with how it came out. To me, it’s truly a Megadeth-sounding album. I think that, at this point in the career of the band, that’s what we wanted to make. I don’t think there’s a point in being too left-field or exploring at this point. It’s just creating some great Megadeth music. I think we did that. It’s really cool to see a lot of people’s reactions to it, a lot of enthusiasm. A lot of really positive reactions! Stoked!”
The new record has been announced as the band’s final album. Did you know this was the plan when you were recording it, or is that something that was decided once it was completed?
“I did not. We started recording this record and writing this record as we would any other album. It was not until well after I had recorded my drums and guitar tracking was under way, that Dave shared with us that he was going to hang it up. It wasn’t a total shock because we knew of some of the physical difficulties that he’d been facing. Also, for me personally, I always knew joining this band, probably at some point, it was going to end. The history, the time that this band has been around. How many years can you do this, really, at the level that it requires? It’s not easy music to play. It is very physical to put on a Megadeth show for all of us. With Dave turning 64 in September, this past September, it wasn’t a shock to me that he said that maybe this is gonna be the last go-around. We are going to be on the road for several years, by the time it’s done, we’ll be a few years older still and it’s good to go out on top! I like that idea, to go out on your own terms versus being forced to quit because you can’t do it anymore, because you get hurt or something like that. It’s still a bit of a shock at the same time in the sense of this is actually going to end. This has been my life for the past ten years now. Life is made of cycles and different eras, every person’s life. I look forward to what the future holds. There will be a new era for all of us and I’m sure it’s going to be great.”
Did you record the drums in Dave Mustaine’s studio in Nashville?
“No, I did not. The whole album was recorded in Dave’s studio in Nashville except for the drums. Chris Rakestraw, the producer, and myself really wanted to go to One On One Recording here in North Hollywood, near where I live, because it’s an amazing studio. We got to spend time there working on a sample pack for Toontrack called “Metal Mania”, which came out last year. We sampled three full drum kits, two of my own and a third one, and a bunch of extra snare drums and stuff, for Toontrack’s EZdrummer and Superior Drummer software. And the studio, the drum room is absolutely incredible. The studio is amazing and we are so happy with the result. We both thought, this is the place to record drums for Megadeth. So, we made it happen. Dave agreed to go along with that and came with us and was there the whole time I was recording drums. It was really a productive session. I think the drum sound is very natural. Our big example was the drum sound Nick Menza had on ‘Countdown to Extinction’. That’s kind of what I wanted. Something very organic-sounding but still very crisp and powerful. I think we achieved that. I am very happy with the way it turned out. It was great working there. I really wanted the drums to be as organic and natural as possible on this ‘Megadeth’ record. I wasn’t fully happy with the sound, honestly, on ‘The Dying and the Dead’. I thought it was a bit too crisp and produced, if you will. I made sure to change that on this one.”
“Let There Be Shred” is a splendid track about being a leader in the thrash metal world. How did the idea of this track come about?
“Musically, that track started with our producer Chris, Teemu and myself starting on an idea and just jamming from there. The base of the track was created with just Teemu and I jamming and then, of course, we fleshed that out with Dave and James and turned it into a full song using the best parts, making a structure and adjusting things. Making everything as good as we could. Which is kind of the way we tend to work. We start with recording some ideas and then we develop them together. Like you said, it’s a track about being a leader in the thrash metal world. Lyrically, I see it as a throwback to songs like ‘Whiplash’ and ‘Bonded by Blood’ and, in Megadeth’s case, of course, ‘Rattlehead’, which is a big classic in that sense from the first Megadeth album. I really like that kind of stuff because I think, as much as this kind of music can be very serious and dramatic and talk about very serious and important subjects, it also needs to be lighthearted sometimes. This is it. It is something very special we have in the metal scene. Attending a metal concert is unlike anything else. It is always fun to see people going to their first metal show and getting caught up in the energy and the amazement of the fans and feeling that whole vibe for the first time is a very cool thing. I like it. ‘Let There Be Shred’ kind of talks about that and the importance of guitar playing in metal music.”
Tell us about the drums on the track “I Don’t Care”. They’re terrifically mad!
“Haha!! Thank you. ‘I Don’t Care’ is obviously very inspired by Dave’s influences, such as Fear, Dead Kennedys and the punk bands he grew up listening to. I am also a punk fan. Outside of all the other kinds of music I listen to, I grew up listening to punk as well. Notably, Dead Kennedys is one of my favourite bands. Sex Pistols, Exploited and so on and so forth. When it came to ‘I Don’t Care’, I really wanted to have that vibe. That’s why in the chorus there’s the rhythm where I use the floor tom instead of the hi-hat kind of as the driver. Overall, the song has a very punky approach, very loose and, like you said, very mad and just high energy with the kind of carelessness and reckless abandon that comes for me with punk music. That was the approach. I really like the fact that we have that song on the album because I do think that’s an influence and has always been there. Especially if you listen to some songs on the first three Megadeth records. Songs like ‘Killing Is My Business’ and ‘502’ on ‘So Far, So Good… So What!’. There’s really that punk vibe. It’s nice to have that included here. Personally, I love the lyrics on that song too.”
The new touring cycle is about to kick off. What can we expect before Megadeth calls it quits? Two, three years of touring?
“Yes! That’s the plan right now. The plan is to be on the road for that amount of time, possibly more. We’ll see what comes up. Right now, our schedule is already booked well into 2027. We’re starting off in Canada. Then heading to Latin America, then opening for Maiden here in the States, also a couple of Canadian shows with them. After that, things are still to be confirmed, but these are the things we announced so far. And there is much more to come. Obviously, some people have asked us ‘Are you gonna headline?’ and, yes, we are obviously going to do headlining tours and shows everywhere we can. Our goal is to visit the entire planet! That’s the plan!”
The current line-up of the band is brilliant. It seems you all get along great both as persons and musicians. Has there been any talk of documenting the band with a live record before it all ends?
“Yeah, it’s true. We do get along really well. I do think we have a really good relationship in the band. I think we all understand our roles and how we can best fulfil those roles and support each other and mostly support Dave because, obviously, he has the entire weight of Megadeth and Megadeth’s history on his shoulders. We’re kind of there to help with that and support him. His linebackers, if you will. I think we all do that really well. It’s been increasingly fun in the years that I’ve been in the band. I think I’m having more fun now than ever before playing with the guys. It is obviously a huge honour playing with such amazing musicians. I just really take every day and just look at my job and go ‘Wow, I can’t believe I’m doing this!’ That’s pretty cool. I’m pretty sure we probably do a live record. I don’t see why we wouldn’t. We have plenty of opportunities to record. I think it would be cool. I hope we do. It would be great to have maybe a career retrospective type of live record where we record several shows and make sure there is a big variety of songs on there, because we have way too many songs than we can put in a live set that we wanna play. I think that right now we have somewhere between 40 and 50 songs that we know, that we are always, more or less, ready to play. And that’s not even mentioning anything from the new album. We have already played ‘Tipping Point’ and ‘I Don’t Care’ live. Those and ‘Let There Be Shred’ would be on the setlist coming up, I would imagine. So, yeah, hopefully, a live record. That would be great!”
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