Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine shares who he thinks would make the modern ‘Big Four’ of thrash metal

Megadeth ‘s Dave Mustaine has revealed the bands who he thinks would make the modern ‘Big Four’ of thrash metal.

READ MORE: Dave Mustaine tells us Megadeth’s farewell album will cause a “renaissance”: “It’s going to smack people upside of their earholes” The original ‘Big Four” refers to the four main bands who pushed thrash metal into the mainstream back in the ‘80s – Metallica , Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax .

All four of them fianlly played together for the first time back in 2010, playing a total of six shows at that year’s Sonisphere festival series, before coming together the following year for a ‘Big Four’ concert at the Yankee Stadium in New York.

Since then, they have only played together a handful of times, including a slot at Australia’s Soundwave festival in 2013, and at Canada’s Heavy MTL festival in 2014.

Now, in a recent interview with Czech Republic outlet Óčko , Mustaine has spoken about the four bands he would select if he had to “put together a new generation” of the ‘Big Four’.

“Well, it wouldn’t be a young generation, but I do believe that there are ways to do a new ‘Big Four’,” he said (via Blabbermouth ).

Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, 2026.

CREDIT: Travis Shinn “I think Testament , I think Overkill, I think Exodus , and maybe Trivium ,” he continued, before debating whether Trivium would work with them leaning more towards metalcore.

“I don’t know.

Trivium’s not really a thrash metal band, so I’d have to think about that.

But I think those other three guys would be really great.” “Overkill is really important on the East Coast metal scene,” Mustaine added.

“Exodus, of course, I love Exodus.

And I’ve been friends with Gary [Holt, guitarist] longest of all people that I’ve been friends with in the music industry.

“And Testament.