Dave Mustaine confirmed that Megadeth is entering its final phase. In a December 5, 2025 interview on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation, he said the upcoming self-titled album and the 2026 farewell world tour will mark the end of more than forty years of thrash metal. The decision comes from physical reality rather than artistic burnout. Mustaine described years of touring damage accumulating in his body: painful hands that are “letting me down,” a broken lumbar bone, bulging discs, arthritis, and chronic neck and back problems. He said that after decades of aggressive performance, he could no longer guarantee giving a hundred percent every night. That realization became the turning point.
The band still managed to finish recording the new album, and Mustaine believes they “did a good job” on it. But during the sessions he told his manager that he wasn’t sure how much longer he could push through. From there, long conversations followed — with his family, management, and bandmates — and the conclusion became clear: one final album, one final tour, and then the legacy is complete. Mustaine stressed this is not a collapse or crisis. Everyone in the band is financially stable, nobody is being forced off the road, and they are choosing to exit on their own terms rather than stick around while the quality declines.
The last studio album, simply titled Megadeth, arrives January 23, 2026 through Mustaine’s Tradecraft imprint, working with Frontiers Label Group’s BLKIIBLK. The record follows 2022’s The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead! and is intended to feel like a return to the band’s most primal energy. Mustaine described it as full circle: raw, visceral and rooted in the same metal instincts that defined their earliest recordings.
Afterward, the farewell tour will begin. The This Was Our Life Tour is expected to start in 2026 and could run for three to five years. Mustaine said there’s no reason to drag things out once they can no longer deliver at the highest level, and he would rather bow out while the performances still feel powerful. When the tour ends, the road ends. He noted he may continue creating music in smaller forms — possibly one-off projects or studio work that doesn’t involve the physical punishment of a world tour. But as a live touring band, Megadeth will be finished.
For fans, it marks the conclusion of a historic run. Formed in the early 1980s out of Mustaine’s fire and ambition, Megadeth became a cornerstone of thrash metal, influencing generations of musicians and reshaping heavy music. The last album and farewell tour are designed as closure: not a fade-out, but a deliberate end from a band that helped define the genre and wants to leave while still standing tall.
