Megadeth’s David Ellefson has premiered a lyric video for his new song “Hammer Comes Down.“ The track features a number of guests including: Ellefson’s business partner Thom Hazaert, Eric “A.K.” Knutson (Flotsam And Jetsam), Mark Tremonti (Alter Bridge, etc.), Chris Poland (ex-Megadeth), Joey Radziwill (Sacred Reich), and Dave McClain (Sacred Reich, ex-Machine Head). The song will appear on Ellefson’s “More Life With Deth” companion album “Sleeping Giants“ (out July 16).
During her June 13 show at Basement East in Nashville, Tennessee, Nita Strauss (Alice Cooper, etc.) was joined onstage by David Ellefson (Megadeth) for an instrumental cover of Iron Maiden’s “Aces High.” You can see footage of that below:
Ellefson Films, the new film production company ran by Megadeth’s David Ellefson and music/film producer and industry exec Thom Hazaert, have greenlit their first film project, a horror film called “Dwellers.” The movie is being written and directed by musician, filmmaker, and actor Drew Fortier.
The following description of the film was shared:
“While shooting a documentary on the suspicious disappearances within the homeless community, a filmmaker and his crew go missing while uncovering a terrifying and vicious secret below the city’s surface.”
Fortier will star in the movie alongside James L. Edwards, Douglas Esper, Rick Jermain, and Mitch Lafon. Ellefson and Hazaert will also make cameos.
Fortier commented:
“I’ve been tossing the idea of ‘Dwellers’ around in my head for a few years now and am excited to finally make it a reality. It made perfect sense to rope in my buddies Ellefson and Hazaert for this whole thing as producers and I am honored to have their support for the film. The cast is amazing and I can’t wait to show off the finished product.”
Megadeth’s David Ellefson has added more dates to his summer “Basstory” tour. The trek will feature Q&A sessions/discussions about his new book “More Life With Deth” (out July 16) and full live-band sets featuring songs from the book’s companion album “Sleeping Giants.”
Tour Dates:
07/06 Providence, RI – Fete Music Hall
07/07 Long Branch, NJ – Brighton Bar
07/08 N. Branford, CT – Strangeland (book signing)
07/10 New Bedford, MA – Vault Music Hall at Greasy Luck
07/11 Waterbury, CT – Shamrock Pub and Grill
07/12 Halethorpe, MD – Fish Head Cantina
07/14 Long Island, NY – Revolution
07/17 Lakewood, OH – The Winchester
07/18 Pekin, IL – Twisted Spoke Saloon
07/19 Lombard, IL – Brauerhouse
07/21 Green Bay, WI – SV2
07/22 Rockford, IL – Whiskey’s Roadhouse
07/27 Indianapolis, IN – Citadel Music Hall
07/29 Minneapolis, MN – Turf Club
07/30 Mankatao, MN – What’s Up Lounge
09/07 Phoenix, AZ – Joe’s Grotto
Thom Hazaert, Dead By Wednesday’s Dave Sharpe and Opus Lawrence, and Hatchet’s Clayton Cagle are expected to perform with Ellefson on these dates.
In other news, Ellefson has also shared an updated track listing for “Sleeping Giants”:
Disc 1:
01. “Vultures”
02. “Sleeping Giants” (ft. DMC)
03. “Hammer (Comes Down)” (ft. Mark Tremonti and Chris Poland)
04. “Vultures” (Kristian Nairn Remix)
05. “If You Were God” (ft. John Bush) *
F5 Demos:
06. “Deadman Rise”
07. “I Fall”
08. “Bleeding”
09. “Why Can’t We Die”
10. “Dying on The Vine”
11. “Faded”
12. “Undeniable”
13. “Feel Your Pain”
14. “Out In The Rain” (ft. David Glen Eisley) *
15. “Voices” (ft. David Glen Eisley) *
*Unreleased Demo
Disc 2: (EMP/COMBAT Artist Sampler):
01. Last Crack – “Golden Age”
02. CO-OP (ft. Joe Perry) – “Howl”
03. Green Death (ft. David Ellefson) – “Pure Torture”
04. Semblant – “Scarlet Heritage – Legacy of Blood Pt. III”
05. Hatchet (Official) – “Back Into Dust”
06. Marc Rizzo – “Downside Up”
07. Mark Slaughter – “Conspiracy”
08. Doyle (ft. Alissa White-Gluz) – “Kiss Me As We Die”
09. Dead By Wednesday – “You & Die”
10. Evil United (ft. Jason McMaster) – “Operation Overlord”
11. Sunflower Dead – “Turn Away” (Radio Edit)
12. Arise in Chaos – “The Divine”
13. Doll Skin – “Daughter”
14. Psykotribe (ft. David Ellefson) – “End It”
15. Archer Nation – “Severed”
16. Ron Keel Band – “Fight Like A Band”
17. WRATH – “Draw Blood”
Megadeth’s David Ellefson has announced the first set of dates for his summer “Basstory – More Life With Deth” tour. The trek will feature a Q&A session/discussion with Ellefson’s “More Life With Deth” co-author Thom Hazaert and a full live-band set featuring songs from the book’s companion album “Sleeping Giants.”
Tour Dates:
07/06 Providence, RI – Fete Music Hall
07/07 Long Branch, NJ – Brighton Bar
07/08 N. Branford, CT – Strangeland (book signing)
07/10 New Bedford, MA – Vault Music Hall at Greasy Luck
07/11 Waterbury, CT – Shamrock Pub and Grill
07/14 Long Island, NY – Revolution
07/18 Pekin, IL – Twisted Spoke Saloon
07/19 Lombard, IL – Brauerhouse
07/22 Rockford, IL – Whiskey’s Roadhouse
09/07 Phoenix, AZ – Joe’s Grotto
It’s worth noting that these shows will find Ellefson performing with Hazaert, Dead By Wednesday’s Dave Sharpe and Opus Lawrence, and Hatchet’s Clayton Cagle. Archer Nation, Last Crack, Bleed (a.k.a. Crawl), Green Death and more will also perform on select dates.
Ellefson commented:
“When we got the unfortunate news that the Ozzy [Osbourne] tour was postponed, we thought we’d make the best of the downtime and take one more lap around the track to get up close and personal with the fans, and go talk about the book, and play some of these ‘Sleeping Giants’ songs live.
‘Basstory’ started out more in the vein of a ‘clinic’ and has evolved into a full-on live band show, and now with some new material to play, and revisiting some of my past material from other projects on ‘Sleeping Giants’, I think it’s going to be that much more exciting. That’s the great thing about ‘Basstory’ — it’s always a different show. And it’s always fun to get back into the clubs and get intimate with the fans in a way that’s not possible in a giant arena, and that’s really what ‘Basstory’ is all about.”
You can purchase a limited VIP dinner experience for each show HERE.
David Ellefson (Megadeth, etc.) has announced that he will be releasing a new album titled “Sleeping Giants” on CD/digital formats on July 5 (vinyl out August 30). The effort will serve as a companion album to his new memoir “More Life With Deth,“ which will be available on July 16.
“Sleeping Giants“ will feature new tracks recorded by Ellefson and his business partner Thom Hazaert, as well as demos and unreleased material from F5 and more. The following guests are tentatively set to be featured on the record: Daryl “DMC” McDaniels (Run DMC.), Ken Mary (Alice Cooper, Flotsam and Jetsam), Steve Conley (Flotsam and Jetsam, F5), Ethan Brosh, Bumblefoot (ex-Guns N’ Roses), John Bush (Armored Saint, ex-Anthrax), Dave Sharpe (Dead By Wednesday), Opus Lawrence (Dead By Wednesday), Mark Tremonti (Tremonti, Alter Bridge), Juan Garcia (Abbatoir, Body Count), Illias Papadakis (Memorain), Dave McClain (Sacred Reich, Ex-Machine Head), and David Glen Eisley (House Of Lords/Giuffria). Kristian Nairn, aka Hodor from “Game Of Thrones” also did a remix of the track “Vultures.“
Pre-orders can be found HERE.
“Sleeping Giants” Track Listing:
01. “Vultures”
02. “Sleeping Giants” (feat. DMC)
03. “Hammer Comes Down”
04. “Vultures” (Kristian Nairn Remix)
05. “If You Were God” (feat. John Bush)
06. “Deadman Rise”
07. “I Fall”
08. “Bleeding”
09. “Why Can’t We Die”
10. “Dying On The Vine”
11. “Faded”
12. “Undeniable”
13. “Feel Your Pain”
14. “Out In The Rain” (feat. David Glen Eisley)
15. “Voices” (feat. David Glen Eisley)
Ellefson commented:
“I love to collaborate and It’s timely and fitting to work up these song ideas with my friends, and get to break out and release some of these great demos and oddities from over the years, the stories behind many of which are told in the book. And to be able to include many of the EMP and COMBAT artists, I think it really brings another dimension to the stories we’re telling in More Life With Deth.”
Hazaert added:
“David and I were in Tampa for PBX – Playback Independent Music Expo, and had just finished an amazing run of BASSTORY, where I ended up performing with him, and several of our friends, including Bumblefoot, and Dave Sharpe and Opus from Dead By Wednesday. We capped it off with an amazing all-star BASSTORY jam at the Brass Mug in Tampa with Dirk Verbeuren, Troy Sanders from Mastodon, Jason Bieler of Saigon Kick, Head from Korn, Kyle Sanders from Hellyeah. It was insane. So, we went into a local studio, MASTERSOUND in Tampa, with the Dead By Wednesday guys, and ended up writing and tracking “VULTURES”.”
“David had all these other amazing instrumental songs and parts, laying around, that I had always loved, and we just ended up getting a bunch of guests to play on them, polished some of them up, I wrote lyrics, laid down vocals, and the rest is history.”
“It truly was just writing and making music from the purest place of writing and making music… like, buddies in the garage jamming on songs. And while everyone knows him as a bassist, David is such an incredible guitar player, and songwriter, and I love that we can finally showcase that. And to have a bunch of our friends who are IN the book play on it, and for me and David to collaborate the way we did.
I think it’s really special. And, at first, we really didn’t know what to do with it, or if we would even do anything with it, for that matter. We’d discussed the idea of releasing the new tracks as singles, then an EP, and then we came up with the idea to create a sort of “island of misfit toys” b-sides release, with all this killer stuff David had been involved with over the years, and it really all just kinda fell into place.”
David Ellefson (Megadeth) has announced some spring European “Basstory” dates. These shows will see the bassist performing and telling stories.
Tour Dates:
03/06 Dusseldorf, GER – Pitcher
03/07 Nancy, FRA – M.A.I.
03/08 Auxerre, FRA – Le Silex
03/09 Strasbourg, FRA – La Laiterie
03/10 Lucern, SWI – Shuur
03/12 Ankara, TUR – 6:45 Hall
03/13 Istanbul, TUR – If Besiktas
03/15 Paris, FRA – L Empreinte
03/16 Madrid, SPA – Copernico
03/17 Barcelona, SPA – Boveda
03/19 Milan, ITA – Legend Club
