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Kevin and Ian of the "Metal Shop" radio show, which airs on the Seattle station KISW 99.9 FM, conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine at the third show of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival on July 12 in Auburn, Washington.

When asked when fans can expect to see the return of Gigantour — the acclaimed traveling heavy music festival launched by Mustaine — the MEGADETH frontman said, "Next year. We just started booking that last week. We've got three of the four bands booked and confirmed, but we're gonna wait until the whole package [is set] before we say it. But I'm pretty excited about that. I always thought the Gigantour is a really cool vibe, because it's about the guitar playing. Now, these bands that are gonna be part of Gigantour [next] year aren't shredding bands by any means, but I think they're cool just the same. There's really not a lot of great bands left to go out and tour [with] that are guitar-playing bands. Most people got afraid of doing solos — probably because they couldn't.

Conceived in 2005, Gigantour — proclaimed "the mother of all shred fests" by Revolver magazine — resurrects metal's focus on stellar musicianship.

The third installment of the North American Gigantour officially launched on April 12, 2008 in Denver, Colorado with headliner MEGADETH, Swedish metal band IN FLAMES, Finland's CHILDREN OF BODOM, Arizona's modern extreme act JOB FOR A COWBOY and Oakland, California heavy power trio HIGH ON FIRE. The 29-date trek criss-crossed North America and wrapped May 22, 2008 in Phoenix, Arizona.

The "Gigantour 2" DVD and CD, which contains footage from the second coming of Gigantour, arrived on April 22, 2008 via Image Entertainment.

MEGADETH has set "TH1RT3EN" as the title of its new album, tentatively due in November via Roadrunner Records. The CD was recorded at MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine's Vic's Garage studio in San Marcos, California with producer Johnny K (full name: John Karkazis), who has previously worked with DISTURBED, SEVENDUST, MACHINE HEAD and STAIND, among others. The artwork will once again be created by artist John Lorenzi, who was responsible for the artwork on the last two MEGADETH studio albums, 2007's "United Abominations" and 2009's "Endgame", as well as the band's 2007 box set, "Warchest".