Ex-MEGADETH members DAVID ELLEFSON, JEFF YOUNG and CHRIS POLAND.

KINGS OF THRASH materialized after Ellefson and Young reunited on stage on May 10 at Ultimate Jam Night, the long-running community-oriented show in residency at the famed Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California, as part of a special tribute to the so-called “Big Four” of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX. The event marked the first time David and Jeff had played MEGADETH songs together on stage since the U.K.’s Monsters Of Rock festival on August 20, 1988. “That spawned, basically, the KINGS OF THRASH,” Dave said. “It was, like, ‘Wow! That was frickin’ cool, and that was a lot of fun.'”