ANTHRAX is putting the finishing touches on the follow up to 2011’s critically acclaimed, Grammy-nominated album “Worship Music” for a tentative early 2016 release via Megaforce Records.
In this new in-studio clip, bassist Frank Bello talks about ANTHRAX’s writing and recording process, drummer Charlie Benante gets into the pressure that ANTHRAX has felt with this new project and gives his thoughts about why the new album is “the next level” for ANTHRAX, and guitarist Scott Ian explains why the band recorded the 18 new songs in batches.
ANTHRAX will hit the road late summer into fall, playing major U.S. festivals, a series of North American dates with MOTÖRHEAD, including MOTÖRHEAD’s MotörBoat cruise, and then dates in Japan and Europe, many with SLAYER.
In a recent interview with the “Mars Attacks” podcast, Bello talked about why ANTHRAX is taking such a long time to write and record the new album. He said: “We just wanted to take our time, ‘cause there’s no rush. It has to be the right record. And for us, you can’t let it go until it’s ready; there’s no reason to do that at this stage. And we learned that, and that’s the way to do it. And so, we wanted to just make sure it’s the right record. And I think… As I speak to you genuinely, I think we have that right record.”
He continued: “I couldn’t be more excited for ANTHRAX. Just as a fan — not even a bandmember — just as a fan, ‘cause I think the songs speak for themselves. I’m really excited right now about them. ‘Cause I can’t wait to play them live, and that means a lot to me, man. I can’t wait to get on stage and play these songs live…”
Bello added: “My thing is, I have to be excited about it. I mean, everybody’s excited about their new record, but my thing is… We have to live this, man. This is what we do. It’s gotta have energy. It’s gotta kick you in the ass. Otherwise, everybody’s wasting time. It’s gotta be that record; otherwise, what are we doing? Just as a fan… Put you headphones on, [and] it’s gotta blow you away. My thing is, it’s gotta blow me away. The last record we did, ‘Worship Music’, it did so well, thankfully. Everybody said, ‘ANTHRAX Is back. It’s the best record. Blah blah blah.’ Thankfully. And we couldn’t be more happy about, and humbled, quite honestly, ‘cause we didn’t expect that reaction. But we write like that, and I think we’re in a good vein of writing right now. I just think we’ve learned something, and I just think, right now, we’re taking the next step into that with this record, so I couldn’t be more excited.”
ANTHRAX’s new CD, which is once again being produced by Jay Ruston (STONE SOUR, STEEL PANTHER), will include such songtitles as “The Battle Chose Us”, “You Gotta Believe” and “The Evil Twin”.
ANTHRAX recently completed a six-week North American tour with VOLBEAT. The band’s setlist included the new song “Soror Irrumator (Lords Of The Rock)”, ANTHRAX’s contribution to the the second installment of “Catch The Throne: The Mixtape”, for HBO’s Emmy– and Golden Globe-winning series “Game Of Thrones”.
Source: Blabbermouth