Megadeth announce release of final studio album in 2026
Today Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine revealed in a social post directly shared with his worldwide fanbase and Cyber Army that his forthcoming album (due out early next year) will be the final Megadeth studio album of his career. Mustaine shared the announcement via his alter ego Vic Rattlehead. Mustaine also revealed that the multi-platinum superstar band will embark on a global farewell tour kicking off in 2026. Also set for next year is a new memoir from Mustaine, details of which will be revealed in the coming months. Check out the Vic Rattlehead announcement video below:
“There's so many musicians that have come to the end of their career, whether accidental or intentional,” Dave Mustaine says. “Most of them don't get to go out on their own terms on top, and that's where I'm at in my life right now. I have traveled the world and have made millions upon millions of fans and the hardest part of all of this is saying goodbye to them.
Dave adds, “We can't wait for you to hear this album and see us on tour. If there was ever a perfect time for us to put out a new album, it's now. If there was ever a perfect time to tour the world, it's now. This is also a perfect time for us to tell you that it's our last studio album. We've made a lot of friends over the years and I hope to see all of you on our global farewell tour. Don't be mad, don't be sad, be happy for us all, come celebrate with me these next few years. We have done something together that's truly wonderful and will probably never happen again. We started a musical style, we started a revolution, we changed the guitar world and how it's played, and we changed the world. The bands I played in have influenced the world. I love you all for it. Thank you for everything.”
Megadeth are set to release their forthcoming album via Mustaine’s Tradecraft imprint in partnership with Frontiers Label Group’s new BLKIIBLK label. It will launch with the project's first single (TBA) in tandem with global pre-orders this fall.
Fans can click HERE to register for early access to exclusive information and offers surrounding the forthcoming final album and all Megadeth news. In addition, look for the initial run of farewell tour dates to be announced later this year.
Photo (c) Ross Halfin
Megadeth are always and forever the point of no return for metal. It would be nearly impossible to conceive where heavy music and culture would’ve gone without the band founded, fronted, and fueled by vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, and producer Dave Mustaine. The blast radius of their impact has only magnified since 1983. Thus far, they have sold 50 million records worldwide, received a Grammy Award (with 12 additional nominations), generated billions of streams, notched seven Top 10 entries on the Billboard 200, and enthralled millions of diehard fans in arenas and stadiums across the globe. Their catalog spans indisputable classics such as the platinum “Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?” (cited at #8 on Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time”), the platinum “Rust In Peace”, and double-platinum “Countdown To Extinction”, which captured #2 on the Billboard 200. Meanwhile, “Dystopia” notched a Top 3 debut and earned a Grammy Award in the category of “Best Metal Performance” with its title track. They only upped the ferocity with “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!” in 2022. It saw them return to #3, receive a “Best Metal Performance” Grammy Award nomination for “We’ll Be Back,” and incite rave reviews. Their influence can be felt practically everywhere—whether it be Post Malone proudly sporting a tattoo of “So Far, So Good… So What!,” Homer Simpson’s iPod displaying their moniker during an episode, or Showtime’s smash hit series Billions and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey utilizing Megadeth in plot points. The band have delivered simultaneously relevant and timeless records in five decades now, setting the pace for the thrash renaissance of the eighties, tearing through the MTV years of the nineties with swagger and style, maintaining their stride in the post-Y2K 2000s, elevating to canonical heights in the social media and streaming era of the 2010s, and unassumingly harnessing the uncertainty and unease of the Post-Pandemic world into their boldest, biggest, and best work yet.
Along the way, Megadeth extended their influence even further. During 2016, the band entered the spirits world with their very first signature beer À Tout Le Monde followed by Saison 13 in 2019. The brand asserted itself as a player in the beverage space and impressively moved over 15 million pints. Joining forces with Keystone in 2025, they ignite the next phase of Megadeth Beer on the biggest global platform yet.
Beyond his role as a music icon, Dave founded the visionary wine brand House of Mustaine which uniquely blends music, culture, and fine winemaking. The brand launched with the 2013 Symphony Interrupted Cabernet Sauvignon which was inspired by Megadeth’s groundbreaking collaboration with the San Diego Symphony.
