MEGADETH‘s new touring bassist James LoMenzo has shared photos from the rehearsal sessions for the band’s upcoming “The Metal Tour Of The Year” with LAMB OF GOD.

LoMenzo captioned the Instagram post: “I want to take a moment to sincerely thank all my friends and the amazing MEGADETH fans who took the time to wish me well this week. Tour prep has been a blast, it’s great to be playing with Dave [Mustaine, guitar/vocals] again! I’m finding that with Kiko [Loureiro, guitar] and Dirk [Verbeuren, drums], MEGADETH feels like a Locomotive bearing down the tracks. I can’t wait to see you all out there on ‘The Metal Tour of the Year’!”

Rounding out the lineup for “The Metal Tour Of The Year” are TRIVIUM and HATEBREED. Produced by Live Nation, the rescheduled trek will now kick off on Friday, August 20 in Austin, Texas and hit a further 27 cities before wrapping in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada on Saturday, October 2.

LoMenzo joined MEGADETH in 2006 and appeared on two of the group’s studio albums, 2007’s “United Abominations” and 2009’s “Endgame”. He was fired from the band in 2010 and replaced with returning original MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson.

In addition to MEGADETH, LoMenzo has played with Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde and WHITE LION. For the past eight years, LoMenzo has been performing with iconic rocker John Fogerty.

Mustaine has yet to reveal who played bass on the new MEGADETH album after Ellefson‘s tracks were removed from the LP following his dismissal from the band in late May.

Ellefson laid down his bass tracks on MEGADETH‘s sixteenth LP in May 2020 at a studio in Nashville, Tennessee.

In July, Mustaine announced during an episode of his Gimme Radio program “The Dave Mustaine Show” that Ellefson‘s bass tracks would not be used on the new MEGADETH LP.

In early May, on the same day that sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving Ellefson were posted on Twitter, he released a statement on Instagram denying all social media chatter that he “groomed” an underage fan.

On May 24, Mustaine — who formed MEGADETH with Ellefson in 1983 — announced the bassist’s departure from the band.

Ellefson was in MEGADETH from the band’s inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest departure.