Former Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler has offered new, detailed insight into his crucial role in the creation of Megadeth‘s Grammy-winning 2016 album, Dystopia. In a new interview, Adler revealed that Dave Mustaine recruited him not just to play drums, but with a specific, personal mission: to help him write a pure “thrash record” and steer the legendary band back to its aggressive roots.
Speaking with Metal Master Kingdom, Adler recounted the pivotal phone call from Mustaine, which came while he was ironically in a Los Angeles hotel room recording a Lamb of God album. He said Mustaine had come to a creative crossroads after 2013’s more rock-oriented Super Collider.
“He had come to the same conclusion … that ‘I don’t think this softer side of things is gonna work out for me,'” Adler recalled Mustaine saying (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “So what he asked me was, ‘Hey, Chris… Would you like to help me write a thrash record?'”
The specific nature of the request was music to Adler‘s ears. “Right away I knew, like, ‘Okay, boom,'” he said. “Because I would not want to… I mean, I’d be very thrilled to get in a room with him no matter what, but I definitely wouldn’t be interested in writing, like, ‘Super Collider 2’. If you are calling me to do a thrash record and I can do what I do… that would be great.”
What followed was an intimate and intensive writing process. After sending demos back and forth, Adler moved to Nashville for months to work one-on-one with the Megadeth leader.
“It was just Dave and I, and we basically wrote the entire thing, then brought the other guys in to kind of do their parts,” Adler revealed, highlighting his deep involvement in the album’s composition beyond just performing the drums.
For Adler, the experience was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. He vividly remembered being 14 years old and hearing Megadeth for the first time, a moment that he said was instrumental in “setting the point on the horizon of where I wanted to be.” To then be personally tasked with helping one of his heroes craft a return to form was “wildly amazing for me.”
“I remember when I was 14 years old on a skate ramp hearing them for the first time… So that was wildly amazing for me,” he said. “It didn’t sit well with everybody, but it was an incredible opportunity for me to do that.”
Adler performed on the Dystopia album and toured with Megadeth through May of 2016 before ultimately being replaced by the band’s current drummer, Dirk Verbeuren. He concludes that the experience was an “incredibly important” part of his musical journey, allowing him to help one of his childhood heroes reclaim their thrash metal throne.
