Metal Allegiance supergroup detail studio debut

Metal Allegiance – the project featuring members of Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth, Pantera, Lamb Of God men and others – will issue their self-titled debut on September 18.

The band is the brainchild of Mark Menghi who brought together Megadeth’s David Ellefson, Testament’s Alex Skolnick and drummer Mike Portnoy in 2011.

Since then, big-name artists including Phil Anselmo, Kerry King, Dave Lombardo and Steve Vai have joined the core group to participate in live events – but only now is their first album of original material set to be released.

Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe says: “When Lamb Of God asked Alex Skolnick to rip a guest solo on Ashes Of The Wake it was a big deal to us to have one of the legends of our scene play on our records.

“Much to my amazement, years later, he returned the request and it’s an even bigger deal to me to be asked on a peer level to contribute to a project with so many stellar players.”

Anselmo adds: “It’s always my pleasure to jam with such esteemed musicians and brothers, and my contribution to this project is further proof of the fact.”

The album is now available to pre-order from Nuclear Blast’s online store. The Digipak edition features a cover of Dio’s We Rock along with a behind-the-scenes documentary.

Metal Allegiance tracklist

  1. Gift Of Pain (ft Randy Blythe, Alex Skolnick, David Ellefson, Mike Portnoy, Gary Holt) 2. Let Darkness Fall (ft Troy Sanders, Alex Skolnick, David Ellefson, Mike Portnoy, Mark Menghi, Rex Brown, Randy Blythe) 3. Can’t Kill The Devil (ft Chuck Billy, Alex Skolnick, David Ellefson, Mike Portnoy, Phil Demmel, Andreas Kisser 4. Dying Song (ft Phil Anselmo, Alex Skolnick, Mark Menghi, Mike Portnoy) 5. Scars (ft Mark Osegueda, Cristina Scabbia, Alex Skolnick, David Ellefson, Mike Portnoy) 6. Destination: Nowhere (ft Matthew K Heafy, Alex Skolnick, David Ellefson, Mike Portnoy) 7. Wait Until Tomorrow (ft Dug Pinnick, Jamey Jasta, Alex Skolnick, David Ellefson, Mike Portnoy) 8. Triangulum (ft Alex Skolnick, David Ellefson, Mike Portnoy, Misha Mansoor, Ben Weinman, Charlie Benante, Phil Demmel, Matthew K. Heafy, Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal) 9. Pledge Of Allegiance (ft Mark Osegueda, Alex Skolnick, David Ellefson, Mike Portnoy, Charlie Benante, Gary Holt, Andreas Kisser) 10. We Rock (ft Mark Osegueda, Chris Jericho, Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens, Alissa White-Gluz, Chuck Billy, Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza, Alex Skolnick, David Ellefson, Mike Portnoy, Andreas Kisser, Phil Demmel, Gary Holt)

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald newspapers, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.