In a new interview with THAT Rocks!, Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian offered more details about the progress of the band's long-awaited follow-up to 2016's For All Kings album.
When one of the hosts mentioned that Anthrax has been working on their new one for at least three years, Ian offered: "We've only really been working on it for a year-ish, I would say. I mean, we have demos. [Drummer] Charlie Benante, has demos that he sent pre-COVID. But then once lockdown and all that stuff happened, we just all walked away; nothing creative was happening at all with us through that whole period. And then, slowly but surely, when we started playing shows again in '21 and going into '22, that's when we started working again, really."
"And then in the last year, we really started to put stuff together and Charlie and [bassist] Frankie Bello, and I getting together and having writing sessions and arranging stuff, to the point where we finally went in the studio just recently and recorded nine songs that have drums, bass, and guitar done now. And [guitarist] Jonathan Donais's got a couple of lead breaks that are killer that he's demoed and sent to us. He hasn't actually officially recorded them yet, but I think he's gonna get most of his stuff written and then he'll go in and record all of it. And I'm pretty sure we've got dates on the books for [vocalist] Joey Belladonna, vocals to start working as well with producer Jay Ruston next month. So, yeah, everything's officially moving along at a decent pace now."
Anthrax shared a photo from the studio with producer Jay Ruston this past May, in what looked like the beginning of the recording sessions, and Ian recently stated that he would love to have the album wrapped up by Christmas or the beginning of 2024.
Even when that timeline might not come to exact fruition, we are already itching to get some new music from these guys.
