ANTHRAX's CHARLIE BENANTE: We Have Enough New Material For A Double Record

Canada's "The Metal Voice" (Facebook page) recently conducted an interview with ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the relationship between the bandmembers in ANTHRAX:

Charlie: "It's definitely a greater unit than it's ever been. With Joey, of course, back in, it just feels right.

"We're just moving on; that's exactly what we're doing. We're not even looking behind our shoulders.

"I think it's gotten a lot better now [than it was when ANTHRAX first reunited with singer Joey Belladonna in 2005]. I really think that now we're so much more of a band than we were back on [the 2005] tour [with JUDAS PRIEST]. I think we were still trying to figure out each other again and getting to know one another again.

"One thing that is really important, especially as you get up there in age or whatever, you start to realize that repairing old relationships should be a factor in this whole thing. Because there's so many bands that I loved when I was growing up who are not together anymore, and I always say to myself, 'Wow, I wish they could just get it together.' Because if anything is going to bring you together, it should be the love of music."

On the progress of the songwriting sessions for ANTHRAX's next studio album:

Charlie: "Some of the new music that's been coming out for us has been so inspiring. It's, like, I remember telling [guitarist] Scott [Ian], we had about 12 songs [in various stages of completion], and I told him, I said, 'Dude, now the good stuff's coming out of me.' And he's, like, 'Really? But these 12 are awesome.' I said, 'Nah, dude. Wait until you hear the next batch.'"

"I write most of the music in the band; the ideas pretty much come from me, musically speaking. But I don't like to… For me, I like everybody to have their input and their say-so. I'll bring in a song and usually me, Scott and Frank [Bello, bass] will play the song and make a change here or there. Or sometimes when Scott gets a riff, he'll kind of modify it a little bit to his own ability, and it just takes shape from there. But for the most part, I just have all these ideas.

"For this new album, I've been lucky enough to draw from the 'Worship Music' experience and really build on that. So these newer tunes are just… Man, if that record was, like… How can I put this? If that was like 'Led Zeppelin IV', then this one is definitely gonna be like 'Physical Graffiti'. The reason why I said that is because have such an abundance of songs. 'Physical Graffiti' was a double record. We have enough material to have a double record at this point too."

ANTHRAX issued a live-in-concert DVD "Chile On Hell", on September 16. The effort was filmed at the Teatro Caupolican in Santiago, Chile on May 10, 2013 and features ANTHRAX performing an extended set that featured songs from the band's entire catalog.