Leper

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The Leper's origins are shrouded in mystery. Once a king or noble of a fallen kingdom, he was struck by a terrible affliction that rotted his flesh and exiled him from his former life. Now, he wanders the corridors of the Darkest Estate, seeking a worthy death in battle. His face is hidden behind a porcelain mask, and his body is wrapped in bandages, concealing the extent of his decay. Despite his condition, he fights with unmatched ferocity, channeling his despair into each swing of his blade. He speaks little, but his actions speak volumes of a man who has lost everything yet refuses to yield.

In Their Own Story

Panic was Mustaine's first band. The initial lineup was Dave Harmon on drums, Tom Quecke on guitar, Bob Evans on bass and Pat Voelkes as the singer, with Mustaine on lead guitar. The first gig, played at Dana Point, featured Mike Leftwych as a substitute drummer. Leftwych and a sound man were killed in a car crash after the show. Mustaine stated that after the band started to fall apart in 1981, Quecke was also killed in a separate car crash shortly after. The first song that Mustaine ever wrote was Jump in the Fire. Panic songs that Mustaine went on to reuse for Megadeth include N2RHQ (renamed Hangar 18), Child Saint (renamed Rust in Peace... Polaris) and Mechanix. In 1981, Mustaine disbanded Panic and joined Metallica as the lead guitarist. Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich had posted an ad in a local newspaper, The Recycler, looking for a lead guitarist. Mustaine later said of his first meeting with James Hetfield and Ulrich: 'I was in the room warming up and I walked out and asked, "Well, am I gonna audition or what?", and they said, "No, you've got the job." I couldn't believe how easy it had been and suggested that we get some beer to celebrate.' Metallica began recording their first album titled Kill 'Em All in 1983 but Mustaine's tenure with Metallica was short-lived. Brian Slagel, owner of Metal Blade Records, recalled: 'Dave was an incredibly talented guy but he also had an incredibly large problem with alcohol and drugs. He'd get wasted and become a real crazy person, a raging megalomaniac, and the other guys just couldn't deal with that after a while.' On one occasion, Mustaine brought his dog to rehearsal; the dog jumped onto Metallica bassist Ron McGovney's car and scratched the paint. Hetfield allegedly yelled at Mustaine's dog and kicked it, which provoked Mustaine into physically attacking Hetfield. Mustaine was fired following the altercation, but the next day asked to be allowed back in and was granted his request. Another incident occurred when Mustaine, who had been drinking, poured a can of beer down the neck and into the pickups of McGovney's bass, resulting in electrical damage. On April 11, 1983, after Metallica had driven to New York to record their debut album, Mustaine was officially ejected from the band because of his alcoholism, drug abuse, overly aggressive behavior, and personal clashes with Hetfield and Ulrich, an incident Mustaine refers to as 'no warning, no second chance'. The band packed up his gear, drove him to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and put him on a Greyhound bus bound for Los Angeles. On this bus ride Mustaine scribbled some lyrical ideas on the back of a hand bill, which later became the song 'Set the World Afire' from the 1988 Megadeth album So Far, So Good... So What! During his time in Metallica, Mustaine toured with the band, co-wrote four songs that appeared on Kill 'Em All, and co-wrote two songs that eventually appeared on the 1984 album Ride the Lightning. Mustaine has also made unverified claims to have written parts of 'Leper Messiah' from Master of Puppets. Fallen Angels was a short-lived band that Mustaine founded after his departure from Metallica. In April 1983, after returning to California to live with his mother, he landed what he calls his first real job with the aid of Robbie McKinney. McKinney and a friend, Matt Kisselstein, worked with Mustaine as telemarketers. Mustaine quit his job after earning enough money to move to an apartment in Hollywood, and recruited McKinney, who played guitar, and Kisselstein, who played bass, for his band Fallen Angels. In his biography, Mustaine describes that 'We lacked the chemistry, the energy, the spark—or whatever you want to call it—that gives a band life in its infancy.' The partnership did not last. This paved the way for his partnership with Dave Ellefson and Greg Handevidt. Ellefson was playing the opening bass line of Van Halen's 'Runnin' with the Devil' in the apartment below Mustaine's. After stomping on the floor and shouting for them to stop, Mustaine, being hung over at the time, took a potted plant and threw it out of his window and hit the air conditioner of the apartment below. This resulted in the two coming up to Mustaine's apartment to ask for cigarettes. Mustaine replied 'There's a store on the corner' and slammed the door in their faces. A few minutes later, they knocked on the door, this time asking if they could buy him beer. Mustaine's reply: 'OK, now you are talking'. They spent the night talking about music, and soon after, Mustaine, Ellefson and Handevidt were bandmates. With little confidence in his own vocal capabilities, Mustaine added 'Lor' Kane to the Fallen Angels roster. Kane did not stay long, although he is credited for the suggestion that they should change the name to Megadeth, knowing that Mustaine had written a song of the same name. After Kane left, the first of many drummers, Dijon Carruthers, joined the band. The lineup of Mustaine, Ellefson, Handevidt, and Carruthers was one of the first incarnations of Megadeth. Initial drummer Carruthers was replaced after Mustaine and Ellefson decided they could not trust him. Carruthers had chosen to hide his black heritage from them by claiming he was Spanish, and they could not understand why he would deceive them. Brett Frederickson joined the band in November 1983 as their next drummer. After playing with other singers, including John Cyriis (who joined at Carruthers insistence, following his own rejoining of the band) and Billy Bonds, Mustaine took on vocal duties himself at a Megadeth rehearsal on New Year's Eve 1984, in addition to playing lead and rhythm guitar. Kerry King joined the band for a few shows (including the band's debut gig) in February and April 1984; however, he opted to leave Megadeth so he could continue working on his own band, Slayer. That year, Megadeth produced a three-song demo with drummer Lee Rauch. Rauch left after Mustaine convinced him to play with a broken foot. Jazz-influenced drummer Gar Samuelson joined the band. Megadeth recorded a demo as a three-piece band, which captured the attention of guitarist Chris Poland, also a jazz player and a friend of Samuelson, who subsequently joined the band. In November, the band signed a deal with Combat Records and began touring. In June 1985, Megadeth released their first album, Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!, via Combat Records. That summer, the band toured the U.S. and Canada with Exciter. Guitarist Mike Albert replaced Chris Poland when he was incarcerated for possession of heroin. After Poland was released, he rejoined the band in October and the band then began recording their second studio album for Combat. On New Year's Eve of that year, Megadeth played in...

Reader's Guide

Mustaine's career is marked by his role as co-founder, frontman, primary songwriter and sole consistent member of Megadeth. Megadeth has released seventeen studio albums, sold over 50 million records worldwide, with five albums platinum-certified, and won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2017 at the 59th Grammy Awards, for the title track of their fifteenth studio album, Dystopia. Prior to forming Megadeth, Mustaine was the lead guitarist of Metallica from 1981 to 1983 but did not appear on any albums. He was credited as a writer on four songs from Kill 'Em All and two songs from Ride the Lightning. He has experienced alcohol and drug problems throughout his life, and briefly battled throat cancer in 2019. In a vote on the internet forum of Ultimate Guitar, Mustaine was ranked third in the top 25 rhythm guitarists of all time, first in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists, tenth in Loudwire's '66 Best Hard Rock + Metal Guitarists of All Time', and third in their '10 Greatest Rhythm Guitarists in Rock + Metal'.

Did You Know?

• The Leper can be healed by other party members' healing skills; he is not immune to healing from allies.
• His signature ability, Hew, is a standard attack that hits two ranks with no accuracy penalty.
• The Leper's design is inspired by the historical figure of the leper king Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, who suffered from leprosy but led his kingdom in battle.
• Despite his low speed and accuracy, the Leper boasts very high base damage, though the Flagellant has higher base damage at maximum resolve level, and other heroes can match or exceed his damage in certain contexts.