Dave Mustaine Slates Book About Megadeth’s ‘Rust in Peace’ Album

Dave Mustaine will release a new book detailing the making of one of the group’s high water marks, their 1990 album, Rust in Peace. The volume, which Mustaine titled Building the Perfect Beast and co-wrote with Joel Selvin, is due out September 8th, according to its publisher, Hachette Books.

A synopsis for the book promises tales of “alcohol, drugs, sex, money, power, property, prestige, the lies the band was told by the industry-and the lies they told each other,” according to Loudwire. It chronicles how Mustaine put together a new Megadeth lineup for that album, adding lead guitarist Marty Friedman and drummer Nick Menza to complement himself and bassist David Ellefson, and how the music they made together elevated them to new stages. Shortly after the record’s release, the band embarked on the Clash of the Titans tour with Slayer and Anthrax. The band performed the LP in full on their 2010 tour.

Meanwhile, the songs “Hangar 18” and “Holy Wars … the Punishment Due” subsequently became staples of the group’s concerts over the years, and Mustaine included both in his Rolling Stone interview “My Life in 15 Songs,” in which he picked the defining songs of his life.

Megadeth are currently on the road in Europe, where they’re playing alongside Five Finger Death Punch. These dates mark the first the group has played since Mustaine was diagnosed with cancer. Late last year, he told Rolling Stone he was not cured of the disease yet but that his doctors felt positive about his recovery. “I’m on the other side of the majority of the treatment, and I feel really strong,” he says. “After the radiation, the guy said all of my test results looked amazing. ‘You look like you’re in a stage 1 and you’re supposed to be in stage 3 right now.’ And then the oncologist said the same thing: ‘You look really strong.’ So we kept moving through the process.”

At the time, he said that he hoped Megadeth would have new music ready ahead of the European tour, but no new tunes have come out yet. He detailed three songs in particular that he was excited to release. The working titles for these were “The Dogs of Chernobyl,” which he said had a feel similar to Megadeth’s last record, Dystopia, and “Faster Than Anything Else” and “Rattlehead, Part Two,” the last of which calls back to a song about headbanging on the group’s 1985 debut, Killing Is My Business … and Business Is Good.