ANTHRAX Drummer: 'Worship Music' Is 'The Most Emotional Record That We've Ever Had To Make'

April 27, 2011

ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante spoke to Christina Fuoco-Karasinski of SoundSpike earlier this week about the status of the recording sessions for the band's long-awaited new studio album, "Worship Music", tentatively due in September via Megaforce Records in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast Records in Europe.

"This is years in the making," Benante said of the forthcoming CD. "It's finally at the end stages of it all. I'm very happy. This record is like a labor of love in all the different ways that it took to get here — a lot of blood, a lot of sweat, a lot of tears. It's very emotional to get to this point. Nothing's fabricated here. It's all based on truth."

He continued, "The ANTHRAX car was driving through peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys, peaks and valleys. Sometimes we just couldn't get out of the valleys. Finally, we went in for a tune-up, and now it's running really well. We're trying to stay up in the peaks. There were so many things that went into this record that made it special. There were so many other things going into it that were not special. We needed to make this record as special as possible. Certain personalities interfered. This record is probably the most emotional record that we've ever had to make."

"Worship Music" will mark the first new ANTHRAX recording to feature singer Joey Belladonna in 20 years.

"I don't want to talk to you and give you all these clichés," Benante said. "I don't want to do that. I want to be as real as possible. Joey sounds awesome and that's the truth. When he sang on the first song, it sounded like ANTHRAX again. I finally knew this is the way it should sound."

Benante added that the album will feature a tribute to JUDAS PRIEST, tentatively titled "Judas Priest".

"Let's say that JUDAS PRIEST was one of the first true heavy metal bands that a lot of the Big Four bands looked up to and almost modeled themselves and their music [after]," he said. "You can hear how JUDAS PRIEST influenced a lot of those bands."

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).