ANTHRAX Drummer, Former MISFITS Singer To Appear At 'The Ultimate Horror Convention'

ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante and former MISFITS singer Michale Graves are scheduled to apear at The Ultimate Horror Convention, set to take place September 11-13, 2009 at The Westin Chicago Northwest in Chicago, Illinois.

For more information, visit UltimateHorrorCon.com.

Charlie Benante is best known as the human drumming machine of ANTHRAX, whose impeccably precise double kick technique has rarely been matched within the realm of heavy metal – in addition to coming up with one of the most instantly recognizable drum openings of a metal song (the ANTHRAX classic "Indians"). Benante's contributions to ANTHRAX run deeper than just serving as a time-keeper, however, as he's a co-founder of the group and has long been one of ANTHRAX's main songwriters.

But there is a whole other side to Benante, one that can be summed up on one word — collector. "Since I was a little kid, I've always been a kind of hoarder or pack rat. I'm the guy in the band who always keeps one of everything — it's just my thing. I've always collected things — whether it be certain toys or paraphernalia. I have a huge 'Simpsons' collection and a huge 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' collection, and a lot of horror things. It's always appealed to me; I just never had the room or the space to unveil it all... but now I do! I have a 'Simpsons' portion of the room, where I have these life-size 'Simpsons' characters sitting on a couch. I just enjoy it – I don't think I ever stopped being a kid."

"My other issue is I'm a completist, so if there's a set of something, I can't just have three out of the five, I have to have the five, or else it just ain't worth anything. My 'Star Wars' stuff, that's the only thing that's still in boxes, because it's just too much to display – I'm actually thinking about selling that whole set. But I have an actual replica of the shark from 'Jaws', that was made for me. It's scaled down, of course, but it's to the t — that's one of my favorite pieces, I have him hanging on my wall. My whole 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' collection started when the movie came out, and it just never stopped. I've got this one thing that Disney put out, it's called 'The Twelve Faces of Jack', and it's twelve heads that sit in this black velvet frame. It's beautiful – it's the actual heads that they used for the movie. I still read certain comic books here and there. I think Scott [Ian] stayed with the comic book thing, but me, I got rid of most of my comic book stuff. I'll read certain things — my favorite thing of recent years has been this 'Marvel Zombies' series that they did, I thought that was awesome. They'll probably make a movie of it in a few years."

"Also, guitars. I have a Danelectro Jimmy Page model, and a Les Paul that is actually signed by Les Paul – I went to see him in New York at this club, and Les was there. I had my black Les Paul, and he signed it for me. And I've got my drum sets. I've got John Bonham replicas, and I play them all the time. It's like a museum piece – but a working one! I'll go down there and play my 'The Song Remains the Same' set, and just vibe out. And of course, the whole coffee thing, with Dave Mustaine [available via Net Worth Coffee Brokers]. That to me is a labor of love, because I'm such a coffee fanatic. The coffee thing came together about a year and a half ago — Dave was doing it, and I got approached to do it because if I could put an intravenous flow into me with coffee, I would do it! I love everything about coffee – the smell, the beans. The greatest thing was when they were sending me samples of the coffee that I wanted to make – I was trying it, and I would have to tweak it a bit, because it just didn't have that 'kick' to me. If I was going to put this coffee out, and people were going to try it, I'd want them to experience the same thing I did. So we tweaked it a bit and had it roasted a bit darker – it came out great. I have two types of coffee, and hopefully I'm going to be working on another one. I have my coffee every morning!"

"Like I said earlier, for me, I never really stopped being a kid when it comes to certain things — I still get off on all this stuff. It just makes me happy."