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It’s been a long time coming, but former Megadeth bassist and current Dieth bassist David Ellefson has stepped up to the mic to take his first ever solo lead vocal, fronting Dieth on their new song “Walk With Me Forever.”
It’s not the traditional heavy fare for Ellefson, as the new song takes on a moodier approach with Ellefson adding his deeper and more weathered vocal to fronting the track, which picks up to something more dynamic and anthemic by the time it hits the chorus.
“We’ve all experienced loss and grief at some point in our life, and this song expresses that feeling as well as the gratitude we find when accepting, letting go and carrying the beauty of that person’s life with us as we move on,” says Ellefson of the song.
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Ellefson was recently a guest on Loudwire Nights with our own Chuck Armstrong. Speaking about stepping up to the mic, he told the host, “In my bands growing up, I was always one of the singers, including that first band when I was 12. I was one of the singers just out of the de facto way, ‘Hey, we need someone to sing.’ But of course at age 12, I was probably an alto, right? My voice was very high. And then I became a tenor, in most of my years singing. Certainly in Megadeth, Peace Sells probably being the first time you heard me singing that high, as I always called it, the Michael Anthony high third. Of course, I grew up playing in cover bands in the Midwest. We played Van Halen, we played all this kind of stuff and then, fast forward to now, my voice is very much a baritone.”
He reveals that his taking on vocals came about organically, adding, “When we were working on it in the studio, I asked, ‘Hey, can I step on the mic here real quick and try a couple of vocal ideas just to kind of flesh out this melody a bit more.'”
“I’m lucky, in Dieth we tune down to C, so first of all, the range is perfect for me. Once they heard me sing, they were like, ‘Whoa, you’re singing this one.’ I’m not going to lie, I was thinking in my mind, ‘Who do I call to be the guest,'” recalled Ellefson. “My voice, it really did sit right with it. It’s got the right tone to tell the story, because that’s what it is, it’s a story. It’s a story of grief and sadness and loneliness and, you know, a relationship ending.”
READ MORE: David Ellefson Keeping Megadeth in the Rearview Mirror for Now
“Fortunately, I think as humans, we’re wired for the bad times in our lives to sort of diminish over the years,” Ellefson continued. “The memories of them and the sweetness of the good times, always get a little better. That’s what I’ve found in my life anyway. This story plays into that a little bit.” Check out more of Ellefson’s interview in the Loudwire Nights player below the video.
“Walk With Me Forever” featured on Dieth’s debut full-length album, To Hell and Back, which arrives this Friday (June 2) via Napalm Records. Check out the Oskar Szramka-directed video starring Polish actors Jan Napieralski and Agnieszka Goździewicz below. You can pre-order the album here, and look for the band playing European dates this summer.
