Greg Prato, reporting for Ultimate-Guitar.com:

Guitarist Chris Poland reflected on his work with Megadeth and Dave Mustaine, comparing the early albums to his involvement with the band as a session musician on The System Has Failed.

Poland is one of the more interesting guitar players in metal music. Comparably to his thrash metal colleague, Testament's Alex Skolnick, Chris went towards jazz music after leaving Megadeth. But even while he was a member of one of the biggest metal bands, you could notice that his solos weren't your usual early 1980s lead sections as he brought some previously unheard elements to the mix.

Recently, we got the chance to chat with Chris Poland and, among other things, he shared some of the details behind the sessions for The System Has Failed, an album that also featured Vinnie Colaiuta on drums and Jimmie Lee Sloas on bass.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: Dave has a reputation for being a very strict band leader. What was it like to work with him in creative sessions and in the studio? Did he demand very specific solos of you, or did he let you do what you wanted?

Chris Poland: "He never told anybody what to do, really. I mean, sometimes he would say, 'Can you go in an upper register?' after I'd maybe try to solo three or four times. And he's like, 'Can you go up there?' But it was never like, 'Okay, you're gonna start here and then you're gonna do this.' It was never like that.

"And then with The System Has Failed, it was fun. I'm pretty sure he was sober. It was a good experience. Except, I don't want to get into what happened, but he was remixing all the records, and we all know the story.

"But anyway, I had a lot of fun. It was really great working with Ralph Patlan. He's just a consummate pro, man."

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(Photo - Mark Weiss)