As anticipation continues to build for MEGADETH’s final studio album—out January 23, 2026 via DAVE MUSTAINE’s Tradecraft imprint in partnership with Frontiers Label Group’s new BLKIIBLK label)—the metal titans have today (December 19) released the latest single and video for “Let There Be Shred!” The track is a rapid-fire manifesto with jaw-dropping riffs and “a tsunami of sound,” to quote a lyric from the song. Directed by Keith Leman, the video features DAVE participating in a mixed martial arts battle alongside live performance footage that highlights the track’s fretboard ferocity. Watch the video HERE and listen to the song HERE.
“When Megadeth started we said we would be fast and furious…we said so on the flyers we handed out,” DAVE MUSTAINE says. “This song is fast and furious. Know it! It has a very hooky chorus that draws you in and you can’t help but play air guitar and headbang to this one.
“It’s the second video from the new record that we made with Keith [Leman], who also directed ‘I Don’t Care.’ It was a blast to make and it’s a tribute to my first Sensei, Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez and my Professor, Reggie Almieda. Everyone on the set was really stoked to see each of us do our stunts. In the end, we got the balance of shredding and ass kicking just right!”
Meanwhile, MEGADETH are preparing for a busy month with a series of events leading up to the album’s release, along with the launch of their final tour, including:
• MEGADETH have teamed with Trafalgar Releasing for MEGADETH: BEHIND THE MASK, a cinematic legacy event that will debut on screens worldwide Thursday, January 22—on the eve of the album’s January 23 release. The film will screen in over 1,000 cinemas across 35+ countries. Read more HERE.
• The group have also announced an exclusive, day-long immersive celebration LET THERE BE SHRED: THE ULTIMATE MEGADETH IMMERSIVE LISTENING EVENT set for Saturday, January 17 in La Vergne, TN (just outside Nashville). MEGADETH will host fans for an unforgettable look inside the band’s world with a jam-packed day that will offer attendees the opportunity to get closer to the band, the music, the stories, and the legacy than ever before. Read more HERE.
• On the live front, MEGADETH will kick off their farewell tour in North America with a cross-country headlining tour of Canada launching February 15 in Victoria, BC and include stops in Calgary, Winnipeg, and Ottawa before wrapping March 6 in Quebec City, QC. Read more HERE.
Leading up to the new album, MEGADETH—Mustaine, Teemu Mäntysaari (Lead, Rhythm, and Acoustic Guitars), James LoMenzo (Bass Guitar) and Dirk Verbeuren (Drums)—have released two tracks: “I Don’t Care” out (watch the video HERE); “Tipping Point,” the album’s first single (watch the video HERE). MEGADETH have also announced a very special bonus track from the album: a reimagined version of “Ride The Lightning,” which MUSTAINE co-wrote with Metallica’s James Hetfield, Cliff Burton, and Lars Ulrich and was the title track from the group’s 1984 album.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, MUSTAINE revealed in a social post directly shared with his worldwide fanbase and Cyber Army that the forthcoming album will mark the final studio album from MEGADETH, who’ve sold over 50 million records worldwide and received a GRAMMY® Award (with 12 additional nominations). He shared the announcement of the album and tour via his alter ego Vic Rattlehead.
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About Megadeth
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 Dave Mustaine’s groundbreaking collaboration with the San Diego Symphony.
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