ANTHRAX To Perform Entire 'Among The Living' Album On 2017 U.K. Tour

ANTHRAX will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its classic album "Among The Living" by performing the LP in its entirety on a U.K. tour in February 2017.

The eight-show trek, which is scheduled to kick off in Birmingham on February 9, will mark the band's first full U.K. headline tour in more than ten years.

ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian says: "Finally! We've been looking forward to headlining in the U.K. for so long. We have a killer set planned — new stuff, old favourites, deep tracks and 'Among The Living' front to back.

"You'd better start getting in shape now for the epic war dance. See you soon, my friends."

Support in the tour will come from THE RAVEN AGE, the U.K.-based band led by IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris's son George Harris.

Tickets go on sale on Friday, November 18 at 10 a.m.

ANTHRAX 2017 U.K. "Among The Living" 30th-anniversary tour dates:

Feb. 09 - Birmingham, UK @ O2 Institute
Feb. 10 - London, UK @ O2 Forum Kentish Town
Feb. 11 - Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy
Feb. 13 - Nottingham, UK @ Rock City
Feb. 14 - Manchester, UK @ Academy
Feb. 15 - Glasgow, UK @ Barrowlands
Feb. 16 - Newcastle, UK @ Northumbria University
Feb. 17 - Norwich, UK @ UEA

Regarding the recording process for "Among The Living", Scott said: "We had just come off the METALLICA tour in the fall of '86 when [METALLICA bassist] Cliff Burton was killed, and we had come off that tour obviously early because of the tragedy. And that's when we started recording that record, pretty much right after that. I feel like the energy just really jumps off that record; you fucking hear how pissed off we are playing our instruments on that record. There's a brutality on that album that you don't hear on the two records before 'Among The Living'. It was just the record of its time; it really was."

When ANTHRAX's "Among The Living" full-album performance at the 2014 edition of the Sonisphere festival was first announced, Ian said: "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away (1986, New York City) we wrote a record that at the time, we had no idea would become our 'signature' record. We had a song about the plight of the American Indian, we had songs about Stephen King characters (Randall Flagg from 'The Stand' and Todd Bowden from 'Apt Pupil'),we had a song dedicated to Cliff Burton and another about John Belushi's clichéd death. We had a song about Judge fucking Dredd and we had a song called 'Caught In A Mosh'. We had songs.

"When 'Among The Living' punched the world in the face in 1987, it launched ANTHRAX into a high-speed trajectory that we could barely keep up with. Like going from 0-200 kph in 5 seconds flat. Our heads were spinning as fast as they were banging, and [nearly 30] years later, nothing has changed."