ANTHRAX Producer JAY RUSTON On New Album: 'We Have 18 Songs We're Working With'

ANTHRAX, along with producer Jay Ruston, is currently in a Los Angeles studio recording the follow-up to the band's 2011 Grammy-nominated, critically acclaimed album "Worship Music". The group — Charlie Benante (drums),Frank Bello (bass),Joey Belladonna (vocals),Scott Ian (guitar) and Jon Donais (guitar) — has been writing and demoing new songs over the past few months and plans to continue recording for the next several weeks. The band's as-yet-untitled eleventh full-length effort is tentatively due this summer via Megaforce.

Speaking to Metal Insider, Ruston stated about the making of the new ANTHRAX album: "They've been writing songs for well over a year. I sat in and helped them record the demos and basically made sure everything was heading in the right direction. Once we hit the point to where they felt they were ready to go, around Thanksgiving, we decided it was time to get going."

He continued: "We have 18 songs we're working with that made the cut. We're going to try to record everything just to see what turns out the best. Out of those 18 songs, we've got eight that we're working on.

"I didn't want to get too far ahead, because instead of Joey [Belladonna, vocals] coming in and singing a ton of songs, I wanted to break it up a little bit and finish these eight, then start another bunch from scratch, which we'll probably do in March. In the meantime, we're going to finish this first batch."

Ruston also spoke about ANTHRAX's contribution to an upcoming "Game Of Thrones" mixtape from HBO. He said: "Luckily, one of the songs that was already on the list that we all loved fit perfectly, and just needed the lyrics to be adjusted slightly. So that song's actually completely finished, mixed, mastered and already sent off to the 'Game Of Thrones' people. I don't know when it's coming out, but I'm really excited. It's a cool song, and it's going to be the first thing people hear since 'Worship Music'."

In a recent interview with RockSverige.se, Ian was asked what Ruston brings to the ANTHRAX sound. "[Jay's] just got a great ear," Scott responded. "He's got a great feeling for this music, and I think he really understands this band and I don't even mean just musically — all of us individually, personally and psychologically — and really brings out the best in each one of us, as far as people and musicians. He's a very easy person to be around and it's just a pleasure to work with him. On top of all that, he's an amazing engineer and an amazing mixer."

He continued: "I think 'Worship Music' hands down, is the best-produced, best-sounding record we've ever made and this one's only gonna be better, because Jay started with us since the demos stages. He's been with us through the whole thing, whereas on 'Worship Music', he came in and did some guitars, did all the vocals and then mixed it. This time he's been with us literally since the first demo, and he's just as involved in the music as we are, and so far everything just sounds fucking amazing. The rough tracks already sound better than any album we've ever made."