Anthrax Will Begin New Studio Album in January 2019
Thrash titans Anthrax are getting ready to reach for the mighty trifecta. The two albums Anthrax released since '80s vocalist Joey Belladonna rejoined the band, 2011's Worship Music and 2016's For All Kings, earned the group its best reviews in more than a decade. Now, Anthrax are hoping the third time's a charm; the band plans to start working in earnest on its next album in January.
Drummer and songwriter Charlie Benante said he has already written a variety of riffs for the new album, but was unable to compose while Anthrax were on the road with Slayer for their farewell tour. Still, he got off to a good head start and it looks like the upcoming record will be even more savage than the past two releases.
"There's a bit more aggression to the new stuff — a bit more anger," he told Revolver. "I think that's just a reflection of where we are in our lives and in this world. A lot of people are really angry at these things that are happening, and now that we're getting up there in age, we see it from a different set of eyes than I would have when I was in my 20s."
The Slayer farewell tour ends Dec. 8 in Helsinki, Finland. While the tour delayed Anthrax's original plans to work on their new album before the end of 2018, the shows with Slayer have been motivational and have generated new interest in Anthrax.
“There’s been, like, this rebirth of people noticing the band … and it makes you hungrier,” bassist Frank Bello told The Salt Lake Tribune. “This is a very, very hungry band, Anthrax. Maybe it’s our New York mentality; I don’t know what it is, but there’s a very fierce energy going on within the band. We can’t wait to see what’s next. So, if anything, we’re just getting started, I think. There’s a whole new generation of kids and fans coming out. I think our fan base is growing big time.”
In addition to thinking about the future Anthrax album, Bello has been reminiscing over the countless times Anthrax has toured with Slayer since the '80s. One night, he recalls, he was a little too zealous about drinking from Slayer's frozen Jagermeister machine on the tour bus.
"That night, I puked everywhere – from their tour bus, there was a trail to my tour bus, and continuing in my bathroom in my tour bus,” he recalled. “I remember waking up, and I was hugging the bowl, and it was 7AM I think, and I was still puking. It was one of those really horrible hangovers, and it was a show day, by the way. I didn’t realize we had a show that day, and I paid for it dearly, with a great hangover. The Jagermeister on the tour bus — very dangerous!”
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