The big Megadeth announcement

...means that I can no longer refer to it as "the solo project that Dave Mustaine insists on calling Megadeth."

Here is my full, honest opinion of David Ellefson: He is a talented bassist who sued Mustaine for eighteen and a half million dollars when the band broke up in 2002 (he lost). Mustaine forgave him a while ago, but I never in a million years thought he'd actually let Junior back in the band.

Here is my full, honest opinion of James LoMenzo: Dude got shafted.

I think this is the first time Dave chucked someone out to get someone else back. AC/DC did this to Chris Slade back in the early 90s, because Phil Rudd clicks with them more I guess, even though Phil was originally fired in 83 because he got in a fistfight with Malcolm Young (and possibly did something else, which I've only heard about from one source and thus won't print here). In an interview back from before 2002, Dave said Junior was the only one other than him who ever really had his finger on the pulse of the band, so it's probably a similar situation to the AC/DC example.

It's ironic that Dave, the guy Metallica said (way back in the day) was "just filling in" until Kirk showed up, seems to treat everyone other than Ellefson and (possibly) Broderick as "just filling in." (And a certain more professional blog refers to Broderick as "the latest guitarist who is not Marty Friedman.")

Still, this is pretty cool. Let's hope it lasts longer than the reunion with Chris Poland.

Edit: this would seem to indicate that LoMenzo's leaving opened the door for Ellefson's return instead of what I'd assumed, which was that Dave decided that Ellefson was coming back, which meant that LoMenzo had to go. Of course, the article doesn't quote Mustaine or LoMenzo, so it's still unclear to me what really happened.