ANTHRAX's SCOTT IAN Says 'Vibe Has Been Great' During Songwriting Sessions For Next Album

February 20, 2014

ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian recently spoke to RollingStone.com about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band'ss follow-up to 2011's "Worship Music" album.

"Frank [Bello, bass] and Charlie [Benante, drums] came out here to my house and we jumped right in in November," he said. "Not to jinx anything, but things have been going pretty fast creatively, which normally isn't the case. We've got a ton of material; I'm talking 12 songs now, musically arranged. I'm on my fifth and sixth lyrically, and Charlie sent over ideas for two more songs. He even wrote in an email, 'Now the really good stuff is coming.' And I was like, 'Really? The shit we have right now is pretty fucking killer.'

"This could probably be the first time in this band's history that we'll go into the studio with more original material than we need. Normally we have nine or 10 songs then do a bunch of covers, but I can safely say this time, we'll be recording about 15 of our own songs, if not more, which we've never had before.

"The vibe has been great. I think we're all just happy to be doing it because we came off this great run with 'Worship Music', two years, 207 shows, and people all over the planet really love that record. It just afforded us the opportunity to do what we love to do, so we can't wait to get back in and start."

Asked when ANTHRAX expects to hit the studio, Ian said: "I'd like to think May, so we can get guitar, drums, bass done before we go to Europe. If we could get that done, live with it for a month, then finish the record in July or August, that'd be the perfect-case scenario, but it depends on if we really feel ready or not."

Regarding whether guitarist Jonathan Donais (SHADOWS FALL) — who joined ANTHRAX in January 2013 following the departure of Rob Caggiano — has been involved in the creative process so far, Ian told Greece's Metal Kaoz: "He hasn't contributed to the songwriting at this point, but he's writing leads, that's for sure."

ANTHRAX was nominated for a "Best Metal Performance" Grammy this year for its cover of AC/DC's "T.N.T." The track was featured on ANTHRAX's eight-track EP that pays tribute to the classic songs by some of the band's favorite acts from the 1970s. The CD was released in North America on March 19, 2013 (MRI/Megaforce),and on March 22, 2013 in Europe (Nuclear Blast).

"Worship Music" has sold more than 110,000 copies in the United States since its September 2011 release, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Find more on Anthrax

Prev More News Next

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).