Megadeth‘s forthcoming new album, ‘The Sick, The Dying And The Dead’, has been pushed back again, frontman Dave Mustaine has revealed.

The follow-up to 2016’s ‘Dystopia’ has been a longtime coming, with multiple projected release timelines shared over the last few years.

In June 2020, Mustaine revealed the band had recorded 18 new songs for the album, while in April last year, he said he only had “one song left to sing”. In late November, Mustaine suggested they were targeting a spring 2022 release, which would have aligned with the second leg of their US tour alongside co-headliners Lamb Of God.

Now, in a new interview with Forbes, Mustaine – who was being interviewed alongside Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe – spoke about their forthcoming tour and what’s next to come from the band.

When asked if the next leg of the US tour would be in support of a new record, Mustaine replied: “No. This is wrapping up the remainder of last year, but I know that our actual official record release date had gotten moved back again with all of the distribution stuff, and all of these issues with getting product from one place to the next with record plants making vinyl.”

Reports of delays in vinyl production have been rife as of late, and it seems that Megadeth are not impervious to the same issues. However, Mustaine said the delays to the album were not solely due to the vinyl delays.

“We’re not reliant on vinyl so much,” he explained, “but just the whole process has been delayed, so it’s just gotten moved back again. We’re going to be doing, I believe at the time I’m not sure, but I believe at the time when the record comes out this summer we’ll be on a tour that we’re going to be announcing, but I can’t really get into that right now because I don’t know for sure the dates.”

In December, the band’s co-founder shared a preview of the album in the form of a 12-second snippet of a track titled ‘Life In Hell’.

The snippet came in a Cameo clip that Mustaine filmed for a fan named Cabe, who, per Mustaine himself, had become “the first person in the outside world – outside of the studio and the band and my family – that’s heard any music from the new record”.

Meanwhile, ex-Megadeth bassist David Ellefson has opened up about his firing from the band, saying in a recent interview that he’s ultimately “not bitter” about their decision.

Ellefson was fired from his role last May, following allegations that the bassist groomed an underage girl online. Ellefson denied the claims, saying that “as much as it’s not something I’m proud of, these were private, adult interactions that were taken out of context and manipulated to inflict maximum damage to my reputation, my career and family”.