Thrash metal legends Megadeth make their Hong Kong debut this week – here’s why frontman Mustaine ‘saves it all for the tour’

Megadeth and its founder, principal songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Dave Mustaine really couldn’t be more rock ‘n’ roll. There’s the spectacular turnover of band members, for reasons both personal and musical; there’s the inevitable falling out and subsequent reconciliation of Mustaine and bass-playing band co-founder Dave Ellefson, aka Junior; and there’s Mustaine and various other band members’ prodigious alcohol and drug consumption throughout the 1980s and ’90s (Mustaine alone has been in rehab 17 times).

But mostly there’s the music. Formed in 1983, Megadeth were pioneers of thrash – a kinetic collision of metal and punk with influences from classical music and jazz – and were faster, harder and nastier than pretty much anything that had gone before. But their virtuoso playing and severe rhythmical discipline were always underpinned by strong melodic elements, and during the early ’90s that translated into both commercial and critical success with the albums Rust in Peace and Countdown to Extinction. In total, the band have sold more than 50 million records.

Thrash’s punk origins mean it’s often quite political. Mustaine’s broadly anti-authoritarian lyrics often deal with politics, religion and war, frequently depicting individuals struggling against the system. His rhetoric has drifted to the right as the years have gone on, and he can be a controversial figure; there are corners of the internet that openly loathe him.

His maximalist vocal stylings can also sometimes make him sound borderline unstable, reaching their apogee on 1993’s song Sweating Bullets, in which he sounds like his brain might be about to explode and leak out through his ears.