After what feels like years of talking about it, Anthrax is finally in the studio recording the follow-up to their 2016 record For All Kings. Anthrax is once again working with producer Jay Ruston, who they've recorded everything from 2011's Worship Music onward with.
"We have been in the studio with producer Jay Ruston, laying down basic tracks in preparation for Joey [Belladonna] to record his vocals, and for Jonathan Donais, to add his leads and solos," wrote Anthrax of their studio time. "No title nor release date at this time, Stay tuned for info!!"
What form the new Anthrax will take remains to be seen, as guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Charlie Benante recently discussed the possibility of releasing EPs instead of an album.
"It's all so different now," said Ian in a 2022 interview. "Slipknot's saying now why even make full albums anymore. I get it. I get all sides of it. I still love a full album, but at the same time I totally understand the idea of what's the point of giving someone 11 songs. Most people don't listen to albums anymore.
"So, yeah — why not parse it out? I don't know. All I know is at some point in the next few months we'll probably have 14 or 15 things and then we'll have to decide when we're going to record it and how we're going to release it."
"Think about it," Benante added. "If Anthrax released five songs and you have these five songs, and you absorb it in such a different way nowadays, too. I think that may be the way to go, rather than give everybody 11 songs and it's like, 'Oh — I only had a chance to listen to the first four or five.' I don't know. I just think maybe the business model is different."
Ian later noted that Anthrax generally only plays a few songs from each album, and that releasing a handful of EPs might give the band the opportunity to play more of the new material live. Which makes sense – if you're going to bust your ass writing new music and spend the money recording it, you might as well make the most of it.
"And even for us, playing songs live it's like, you put out a record with 10 or 11 songs on it with the idea that, 'Oh man, I can't wait to play this one live and I can't wait to play this one live,'" Ian added.
"On For All Kings, we definitely didn't play all of those songs at any point. I think there's maybe six songs on the record that got played – and that's it. I almost feel like you're wasting them. I understand album tracks, but if you put out just five songs it would be easy to play all five of those on a new tour."
