Dave Mustaine Bemoans The State of Metal In New Interview: “How Long Has It Been Since You Heard An Album Like ‘Master of Puppets’?”

Dave Mustaine has shared that he laments the state metal is in, asking, “How long has it been since you heard an album like [Nirvana’s] Nevermind, or [Guns N’ Roses’] Appetite For Destruction or [Megadeth’s] Rust In Peace or [Metallica’s] Master of Puppets?”

Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has lamented the state of rock and metal in pop culture in an interview with Kerrang earlier this week.

Ahead of the band’s upcoming final self-titled album, Mustaine would share with the publication that while Megadeth will be releasing their final album and embarking on a final tour, the singer doesn’t expect to wrap up for another few years.

“We’re easily talking about touring for another three to five years, And if we’re going to be doing it for that long then, shit, I’ll be looking at the birthday I don’t even want to think about!” Mustaine would remark.

So, for anyone clawing for tickets hoping to see the band’s final send off, no need for any urgency, as the guitarist clearly has a few years left in him.

The interviewer would ask Mustaine if he felt as though he was leaving metal in “safe hands” moving forward, which sparked the metal icon to share his less-than-enthusiastic response.

“How long has it been since you heard an album like [Nirvana’s] Nevermind, or [Guns N’ Roses’] Appetite For Destruction or [Megadeth’s] Rust In Peace or [Metallica’s] Master of Puppets?” Mustaine replied. “You just don’t hear records like that anymore. You get maybe one good song on a record now, and people are so used to skipping tracks. That saddens me, because there are a lot of our songs where, if you listen to them multiple times, you’ll hear there’s a lot more to them.”

Unfortunately, Mustaine isn’t the only one to recently share this boomer take. In 2024, Gene Simmons of KISS argued that “rock is dead“. Even former Megadeth bandmate David Ellefson stated back in 2024:

“Rock is dead in America – it really is. And I know people will lambaste me for saying that, but it is. When Gene Simmons said it, everybody hated him for it, but he’s right. Unless you’re an established band, unless you’re Linkin Park and Metallica and KISS and Slayer, whatever, to start a new rock band – kids aren’t into that shit. They’re into Facebook and Tesla. Yeah, their lives are on their phones. Being a rock star is not cool anymore, like it was for us growing up.”

I would argue that there are several albums breaking similar molds. You need only cast your mind back a few years to Deafheaven‘s Sunbather, Sleep Token‘s Take Me Back To Eden, even Deftones’ private music from this year has broken into the mainstream away from the enclosed fandom of metalheads.

Of course, these bands may not be dominating the pop culture like Metallica and Guns N’ Roses once did, but it’s hard to ignore that fans aren’t turning up in droves to support them.

Recent acts like Yungblud, Wisp, Geese, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizzard, Beabadoobee to an extent, the list goes on, all of these are relatively new rock or rock-adjacent bands carrying the torch for a new generation. They may not be thrash bands like Metallica or Megadeth, but those bands will still be around (for the next three to five years at least).

Still, Mustaine remains optimistic about Megadeth’s legacy, sharing, “The body will disappear, but the legend will remain. And the music will go on forever.”