Perhaps our dismay came from the statement that they had neither planned nor synchronized their leaving. Perhaps we were wondering just how true the little metal joke of referring to the band as MegaDave was. Perhaps we were wondering what this new band would sound like and if it was worth leaving one of the biggest metal draws. And I think we were all hoping for sake of Drover and Broderick that the new project wouldn’t suck.

Well, just days after Broderick came forth with the statement that he would have stayed if he was given more creative freedom, we at Yell! Magazine had the chance to see Act of Defiance live and to interview both Drover and Broderick. And we can now confirm that AOD does not suck. Granted, they aren’t reinventing the wheel, but they absolutely shred.

Being that they are on the road promoting their first album, Birth and the Burial, we naturally had to ask some questions about that… such as how much of it was written while in Megadeth and how much of it was Dave-rejected material. As well, we talked about the band’s frontman, Henry Derek, who sounds amazing, by the way.

Check out the interview in the player above, and, by all means, tell us what you think of Act of Defiance… and no, the name has nothing to do with defying their tenure in Megadeth.

One last note: It was an absolute treat to hear AOD perform a Pantera cover!

Rock Hard \m/

The remaining two-fourths of Act of Defiance consist of former Scar the Martyr frontman, Henry Derek, and former Shadow’s Fall guitarist, Matt Bachand, on bass.

Act of Defiance has signed to Metal Blade Records, and the band has been in the studio with producer Chris “Zeuss” Harris since the end of January. Here’s a bit of what Broderick has posted on Facebook:

I’m so excited to finally be able to announce Act Of Defiance to the world. Shawn and I finished tracking drums in the first week of February – his performance and tones are simply incredible. I’ve started tracking rhythms and leads as well as working with Henry to get final voice takes, while Matt will record bass at his studio… I am really enjoying the ability to create a killer mix of thrash and modern metal. I’m very proud of what we have written, and I hope you all dig it.

So, what do you guys make of Act of Defiance and their sound? Sounds good, right? We can’t wait to hear more!

Rock Hard \m/

The news surrounding Megadeth lately has been bleak with two members, Chris Broderick and Shawn Drover, announcing their departure last month. Despite assurances from both remaining and founding members, David Ellefson and Dave Mustaine, that Megadeth will be moving forward with a new album and possibly a tour by the end of 2015, nothing is certain.

Nonetheless, Broderick finally broke his silence on the matter in an interview with SiriusXM host Jose Mangin, and some of it, like the possibility of a new band formed between Broderick and Drover, pretty damn exciting. Here’s what the guitarist had to say about his future plans:

Well, one of the things that I’ve always wanted to do is a solo CD, so I’m definitely gonna be working on that in 2015. But one of the things that I’ve really recently become very excited about is, through talking with Shawn Drover, we’ve talked about how we had all this material that was never gonna get released, all these killer, heavy riffs that we had written and stuff, and so we just decided, ‘Hey, why don’t we put the stuff out? Why don’t we form a band and get out these killer riffs, just to see what people think?’ So we formed a band, we’re working with a killer singer — he’s awesome — and we’ve got record labels that have made some good offers on the table, and we’re really excited about where that’s gonna go.

Now that’s awesome and all well and good, but don’t we all want some dirt spilled on the reasons for Broderick’s and Drover’s departures from the band? Broderick also spoke to that, but this is far less exciting and involves absolutely no dirt. In fact, it’s like a nice, clean shirt just back from the cleaners:

It’s not gonna be as exciting as anybody would want. It’s not gonna be some huge drama thing or anything like that. It was simply time. I’d been in Megadeth for seven years and I really wanted to just be able to have that kind of creative freedom to write anything I wanted to, to go anywhere with it that I wanted to and just kind of direct my own course.

The way I kind of think of it is it’s kind of not unlike a chef that works at a restaurant that decides that he wants to open up his own restaurant or maybe a lawyer that wants to start his own firm or something like that. It was a great time to move on. And I think, talking with Shawn, Shawn was in the exact same place. We had talked about it and we had thought about it for a little bit. And so when Shawn quit, it was, like, ‘Whoah! What happened?’ I mean, I knew that we had talked about it, but he did it; he actually just left the band.

Broderick continued about the timing as a thing of respect:

Megadeth is going to be ramping up for their next CD recording cycle and if you’ve got trepidation about being part of something, you don’t wanna commit to that process, the writing process, and then bail on ‘em.

So, now we know. The reasons for Broderick and Drover leaving are pretty ho-hum, but at least it sounds like there are some pretty heavy tunes coming our way from both parties involved!

Rock Hard \m/