During a recent conversation with Mxdwn, Megadeth’s Teemu Mäntysaari revealed thrash metal’s key pioneer.
The interviewer reminded the guitarist of Dave Mustaine’s words when he said, “I do believe that when somebody gets singled out by me, that’s pretty much it for them, they’ve been indoctrinated into the world of great guitar players. And from that moment on, their life will change.”
Mäntysaari shared his reaction, “It feels really, really great coming from Dave, maybe the biggest forefather of thrash metal. So, that’s huge, and just the history of the band, all these great players coming before me. It’s a huge honor to be now included in that lineage, in a way.”
Teemu replaced Kiko Loureiro in September 2023 after Loureiro decided to take a break from Megadeth’s ‘Crush The World’ tour to spend time with his kids in Finland.
“And we found out that Kiko was having stress and strain on his family, being away so much, and we knew that it wasn’t gonna get any better; it was just gonna be more shows and more time away from home right now. And he’s got three little ones [at home]. So, in the formidable years, he needs to be there. We all agreed and said that we’re gonna bring in an understudy,” Mustaine said of Kiko’s departure earlier this year.
He also added the following about Mäntysaari, “Teemu came in and helped us for a little while, and then we realized that this is probably the best thing, is for us to stick with Teemu and [for Kiko to] step aside and go back and take care of [his] little ones until everything’s okay.”
Megadeth is currently working on their new album. Teemu revealed in September that he still looks for Dave’s approval. “Now I have a bunch of riffs and ideas that I’ve gathered,” the guitarist shared.
He continued, “And then Dave told me that he likes to work the way that everybody does their riffs and then at some point we’re gonna get together and then review things and see which riffs are gonna work together and then work out the parts between the riffs to kind of connect things and then that way come up with the skeletons for the songs. And I’m really looking forward to doing that and hearing how he feels about my ideas as well.”
Megadeth’s latest album, ‘The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!,’ came out on September 2, 2022. The next album will be Mäntysaari’s first with the band.
