During a recent appearance at the Tuska Forum by “Bleeding Metal” at the Tuska festival in Helsinki, Finland, Megadeth guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari opened up about his journey with the legendary thrash metal group.
Reflecting on his nearly three-year tenure working alongside frontman Dave Mustaine, the musician discussed everything from his rapid entry into the band to the recording sessions for their upcoming studio album.
Initially stepping in as a temporary touring substitute, the guitarist quickly found himself becoming a permanent fixture in the iconic lineup. Speaking about the rapid transition and officially replacing former guitarist Kiko Loureiro, Teemu Mäntysaari explained how fast the momentum built up over the last few years.
“Well, of course, it all happened very fast in the beginning. I was called as a replacement [for previous Megadeth guitarist Kiko Loureiro], and then soon the guys realized that I’m gonna be needed later for a longer time. And then we toured for a little bit, for about a year, and then we already started recording the new album. So everything was kind of almost like a snowball effect. Everything happened very fast, and I didn’t really have too much time to process or too much time to reflect. And, yeah, just going for the next thing and then the next thing and the next thing, and here we are finally [playing] in Finland,” he said.
Stepping into a role previously held by several highly revered musicians naturally brings a heavy level of public scrutiny. However, when asked how he balances his own creative ambitions with his respect for the band’s historic alumni, the guitarist revealed that he intentionally avoids getting caught up in the inevitable comparisons.
“Yeah, of course, knowing Megadeth for a long time and knowing the band’s legacy and the long history and my huge respect for all the previous guitarists in the band, I kind of decided early on that I’m not gonna stress about anybody else’s opinion about comparing me to somebody else, but just try to be myself and do the best that I can and knowing that there’s gonna be people who love one of the old guys and it’s gonna be hard to convince them with the new guy. But, yeah, just trying to do my best and really pay respect to the music — the old catalog and then, of course, the new music that we’ve been recording and playing live,” he explained.
Despite the inherent pressure of joining such a massive and established act, the transition has been made significantly easier by the global heavy metal community. Addressing his overall reception from the massive Megadeth audience, the guitarist expressed deep gratitude for their continued support.
“Yeah, I have to say the Megadeth fans have been super welcoming and very warm from the very beginning, so I’m super humbled to, to be in this position. Very happy to play for the fans.”
In a recent interview with Finland’s “Radio City“, Mustaine said he was thrilled to see Mäntysaari perform in front of his home crowd, describing him as the piece the group had been chasing for a long time.
“Yeah, I’m excited. I’m really excited for Teemu because he’s never played here [in Finland] with us. And Teemu is a national treasure here — the first Finnish man to ever have a Number One record in America. So I get a lot of pleasure out of seeing him have success. ‘Cause he’s such a wonderful person and is a perfect example of the Finnish spirit of people — they’re nice, they’re intelligent, they’re wonderful people. And he’s been the missing link that we’ve been looking for for many, many years,” he said.
Mustaine recalled that Mäntysaari was reserved at first, a natural reaction to stepping up from a smaller act into one of metal’s biggest names.
“Well, he was very, very shy when we first hired him, because you go from being in a smaller band into a bigger band, obviously there’s gonna be a little bit of an adapting period,” he recalled. “But Megadeth is not a little bigger band — it’s a lot f**king bigger. So, I promised him, I said, ‘Your life’s gonna change. And it’s gonna change to where you’re gonna be the happiest you’ve ever been, beyond your wildest dreams.’ And that’s happened. We’re [super tight] on stage. We play like we’ve been playing together forever. And I think that his guitar soloing on the new album [2026’s Megadeth] really helped excite me too. The album’s got over 40 solos on it, I think — I think it was 45 or 47 solos on the album, and they’re all really involved, complex solos. So it’s a great guitar players’ record, and the songwriting part is very melodic, where I think a lot of people gravitated toward. It was Number One in 11 countries, so we did something right.”
