 Originally intended to be a solo album by Mustaine , the record was re @-@ branded with the Megadeth name as a result of contractual obligations owed to Mustaine 's publishing company . Mustaine co @-@ produced the record with Jeff Balding , who had previously engineered Cryptic Writings and Risk . Upon restarting Megadeth , Mustaine contacted bassist and founding member David Ellefson about resuming bass guitar duties for the band . Those efforts were ultimately fruitless , however . Ellefson claimed that Mustaine was not financially willing to pick up " where it was when [ the band ] broke up " and did not return to Megadeth . 
