Dave Mustaine, frontman of thrash legends Megadeth, has shared a new preview of a song, titled “Life In Hell,” from the band’s forthcoming sixteenth album.
The 12-second snippet was shared in a Cameo clip that Mustaine had filmed for a fan named Gabe. According to Mustaine, Gabe is “the first person in the outside world – outside of the studio and the band and my family – that’s heard any music from the new record.”
From its introduction, “Life In Hell” leans into the heavier side of Megadeth’s sound, with the low, menacing chug of a guitar in the foreground. Its melody and lyrics, however, remain unheard, as the clip cuts off just as Mustaine begins to sing.
The track is suggested by Mustaine in the video to be the second track on the album, which has been provisionally titled The Sick, The Dying and the Dead.
No release date has been publicly confirmed yet, but it has been slated to drop sometime in 2022. In spite of this, Mustaine has been teasing the follow-up to 2016’s Dystopia for a couple of years now, revealing last June that the band had 18 new songs in the can, and in April said that he had “one song left to sing”.
In another video posted to Cameo in July, Mustaine had revealed to another fan that there is a song already confirmed for the record called “The Dogs of Chernobyl.” “It’s very similar to ‘Fatal Illusion’ [from Dystopia] in aggression. So I hope you like that song when you get the new record.”
Bassist David Ellefson left the band earlier this year, and his replacement has not yet been announced. His parts on the album were subsequently re-recorded by another musician, who has not been named thus far. Megadeth reunited with former bassist James LoMenzo for their recent North American tour.
Mustaine was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2019. After receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment, he was declared cancer-free in early 2020.
More recently, he teamed up with Gibson guitars for an exclusive new line of guitars called Dave Mustaine Flying V EXP.
Listen to the best of Megadeth on Apple Music and Spotify.