Dave Mustaine appears to have covered a Metallica song he penned on Megadeth’s final album.
In the summer, the frontman revealed that their new record, which has since been revealed to be self-titled and set for release in 2026, will contain a cover of a track he wrote.
Now, fans have spotted that one of the faint song titles on a new Instagram animation teasing the tracklisting appears to be Ride The Lightning, one of two Metallica tracks he penned for their second album of the same name, along with The Call of Ktulu.
Speaking on Norwegian radio station Stjernepose in June, he said: “We have 13 new songs for the new album… One of the songs is a cover song, but I actually wrote it, so it’s kind of like a cover, kind of like my song.”
Before he co-founded thrash metal band Megadeth, Mustaine was the lead guitarist for Metallica, though he was dismissed from the band before their debut album in 1983.
He claims he penned “a lot of” music that “made” Metallica.
The 63-year-old rocker admitted he was left “p***** off” after the band allegedly went ahead and used his riffs – despite him telling them not to use his music.
Asked whether it was his booze habit that led to his departure, Mustaine told The Shawn Ryan Show earlier this year: “We all drank. That’s why they called it Alcoholica. I mean, they didn’t call it Dave-Alcoholica. We all drank. And they continued to drink like that even after I was gone. But that was, I think, the beginning of the end.”
Mustaine then shared that he had left Metallica with a tape of his riffs.
He went on: “Just me playing and playing and playing… We took that tape player and the reel of tape with us out to New York.
“We did two shows out there, and after those two shows, they woke me up one morning and said, ‘Look, you’re out of the band.’
“And I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘You’re out of the band.’ I said, ‘No warning? No second chance? You’re not gonna give me a warning? You’re just gonna kick me out?’ And I thought that was unfair. And it showed a grotesque lack of character. And so that p***** me off and was a huge part of the fuel.
But at the time, I was really mad and I didn’t wanna forgive them for what they did.
“And I told them when I left, ‘Do not use my music. And of course they used it.”
Mustaine claims that, as well as Ride The Lightning and The Call Of Ktulu, the Metallica tracks Phantom Lord, Metal Militia, Jump In The Fire, and The Four Horsemen contain his riffs.
He added: “And I wrote a bunch of Leper Messiah [on Metallica’s third album, Master Of Puppets] too. They didn’t give me credit on that.
“You listen to the riffs, you know they’re my riffs. It’s, like, you think I’m gonna all of a sudden hear my riff and say, ‘That’s not me.’ So, yeah, I wrote a lot of their music that made them, and all the solos on that first record were mine – the best Kirk [Hammett, Mustaine’s replacement] could try and copy them.”
Megadeath have so far released the lead single, Tipping Point, from their final LP
They will also embark on a farewell tour, with the full dates yet to be revealed.
The follow-up to 2022’s The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead! is set for release on January 23.