An Open Letter From Anthrax

To our Fans and everyone who has supported Anthrax and Worship Music:

It was a little more than a year ago - September 13, 2011 - that Worship Music was released, and all of us in Anthrax can't believe how much has happened since then.

Our friends in the press gave the album great reviews, and so many writers singled it out as one of the best metal albums of the year.  Our label just told us that Worship Music has just passed the 100,000 mark on albums sold.  Since Worship Music's release, we've played 107 concerts all over the world - in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia, South America, and the U.K. - we've gone home to New York to not only play Yankee Stadium as one of The Big Four, but had September 14 named "Anthrax Day" in The Bronx, where Charlie, Frankie and Rob grew up.

We've been so lucky as a band, and we know we're able to do what we do because of you, our fans and all of our supporters in the press, at radio and retail, online, on the road, everywhere.  We've had one of the best years of our career, and we share it all with you.  So thank you for making the Anthrax's "year of Worship Music" the best!  More to come!

Frank, Scott, Charlie, Rob and Joey

Anthrax Plans Special Set for Mayhem 2012 Festival

When Anthrax was given the choice of playing this summer's Mayhem Main Stage or the festival's Jagermeister Stage, the band opted to headline the latter, and to do something special for the crowd.

ANTHRAX L-R: Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, Frank Bello, Joey Belladonna, Rob Caggiano

Explained Anthrax's Charlie Benante, "We decided to pattern the Mayhem set on the kind of shows The Ramones used to do:  a high-energy, non-stop barrage of hit, hit, hit, hit, hit.  No lulls, no filler, totally in your face.  We're going to be playing a supersonic-paced set loaded with the best of our best."

"We really like the idea of not 'playing to seats,'" added Scott Ian, "and we want our crowd to have the freedom to move around, to go crazy with us.  Plus, we've been on the road together now for about two years, so we're tighter as a band than we've ever been.  Our Mayhem set will be a fun, fast and furious 45-minutes, so they'd better have the EMTs on hand."

Since vocalist Joey Belladonna rejoined the Anthrax line up a little more than a year ago, Anthrax - Belladonna/vocals, Charlie Benante/drums, Scott Ian/guitar, Rob Caggiano/guitar, and Frank Bello/bass - has made one of the most impressive comebacks in rock'n'roll.  As one of The Big Four, the original architects of speed and thrash-metal, Anthrax joined Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth during the summer of 2010 on a series of Big Four shows in ten European cities, followed by a Big Four show outside of Los Angeles at the Coachella site (April 2011), and the big "homecoming" event for the New York-born-and-bred band members at Yankee Stadium last September.

The band released Worship Music on September 13, 2011, its first new album in eight years and the first with Belladonna on vocals in twenty years.  Worship Music debuted at #12 Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart, received stellar reviews that included being named one of the best albums of the year in media outlets such as Revolver, Guitar World, SPIN, Metal Assault, Metal Sucks, the UK's Classic Rock and Metal Hammer, Canada's Lithium, Lou Brutus' HardDrive, Eddie Trunk/VH1's "That Metal Show," and SiriusXM's Jose Mangin.  

Dates for this summer's Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival are below; Main Stage artists include Slipknot, Slayer, Motorhead, and a rotation of The Devil Wears Prada, As I Lay Dying and Asking Alexandra.

JUNE

30   San Manuel Amphitheatre, San Bernardino, CA

JULY

 1   Shoreline Amphitheater, San Francisco, CA

 3   White River Amphitheater, Seattle, WA

 4   Idaho Center Amphitheater, Boise, ID

 6   Ashley Furniture Home Store Pavilion, Phoenix, AZ

 7   Hard Rock Casino Amphitheater, Albuquerque, NM

 8   Comfort Dental Amphitheater, Denver, CO

10  Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas, TX

11  Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Houston, TX

13  1-800-Ask-Gary Amphitheater, Tampa, FL

14  Aaron's Amphitheater @ Lakewood, Atlanta, GA

15  Klipsch Music Center, Indianapolis, IN

18  Zoo Amphitheatre, Oklahoma City, OK

20  Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, St. Louis, MO

21  Firs Midwest Bank Amphitheater, Chicago, IL

22  DTE Energy Music Theatre, Detroit, MI

24  Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH

25  Blossom Music Center, Cleveland, OH

27  Susquehanna Bank Center, Philadelphia, PA

28  First Niagra Pavilion, Pittsburgh, PA

29  Jiffy Lube Live, Washington, DC

31  Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY

AUGUST

 1   Darien Lake PAC, Buffalo, NY

 3   Comcast Center, Boston, MA

 4   Toyota Pavilion, Scranton, PA

 5   Comcast Theatre, Hartford, CT

Anthrax Puts The Pedal To The Metal For 2012

Having made one of 2011's most impressive rock'n'roll comebacks that included the 9/13/11 release of the band's long-awaited new album Worship Music that landed on boatloads of "Best of 2011..." lists, metal masters ANTHRAX will keep the pedal to the metal in 2012.  The band launches the New Year with the delivery to radio of a second single from Worship Music, "I'm Alive," and plans to tour extensively beginning January 22 with round two of a U.S. co-headline tour with fellow thrash titans, Testament (dates are below).

 

Worship Music debuted on Billboard's Top 200 Albums charts at #12; the album and the track "Fight'em 'Til You Can't" both went to #1 on Mediaguide's Metal charts.  Worship Music was named one of the year's best albums in media outlets including Revolver, Guitar World, SPIN, Metal Assault, Metal Sucks, Blistering.com, the UK's Classic Rock and Metal Hammer, Canada's Lithium, the Copenhagen Post, JAM Magazine, Powerline, Lou Brutus' HardDrive, Eddie Trunk/VH1's That Metal Show, and SiriusXM's Jose Mangin.  In addition to naming Worship Music the #1 Metal Album of the Year, Loudwire singled out the track "The Devil You Know" as the site's #1 Metal Song of the Year, SiriusXM's Mangin named "Earth on Hell" as the #1 track on his Liquid Metal/Octane Countdown, About.com named Joey Belladonna as its "Man of the Year," and Revolver celebrated Anthrax as one of the Top 10 Stories of the Year.

Twenty-eleven also saw Anthrax play two Big Four shows in the U.S. with fellow thrash/speed metal architects Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth, the second taking place at New York's Yankee Stadium, making it an emotional hometown show for the New York born-and-bred members of Anthrax.

Last fall, immediately following The Big Four show at Yankee Stadium and in support of Worship Music, Anthrax played to SRO crowds from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, entertaining fans with brand-new songs and favorites from throughout the band's 30 year history.  Anthrax will head back out on the road in late January for Leg Two of its U.S. tour with Testament and Death Angel - Leg One was included on a number of "Best Live Shows of 2011" lists.  Worship Music, the band's first new album in eight years, and first with "classic era" vocalist Joey Belladonna in two decades, has received stellar reviews, as evidenced below.

As Anthrax's Scott Ian summed it up, "2011 was the best year of my life."

Dates for Leg Two of the Anthrax/Testament U.S. tour are as follows:

JANUARY

22  House of Blues, Las Vegas, NV

23  House of Blues, Anaheim, CA

24  Marquee Theatre, Tempe, AZ

26  Midland Theatre, Kansas City, MO

27  Egyptian Room @ Murat Center, Indianapolis, IN

28  Piere's Entertainment Center, Fort Wayne, IN

29  Expo Five, Louisville, KY

30  The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC

FEBRUARY

 1  Green Iguana - Stadium, Tampa, FL

 2  Tabernacle, Atlanta, GA

 3  Promowest Pavilion, Columbus, OH

 4  Bogart's, Cincinnati, OH

 6  Crocodile Rock, Allentown, PA

 7  Rams Head Live!, Baltimore, MD

 8  Best Buy Theatre, New York, NY

Leg Two of Anthrax-Testament-Death Angel U.S. Tour Announced

Following what can only be described as the Rock'n'Roll comeback story of 2011, Anthrax will kick off 2012 with round two of a U.S. co-headline tour with fellow thrash titans, Testament.  The dozen-plus dates that come on the heels of the bands' five-week Fall trek that packed venues from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, will kick off in Las Vegas on Sunday, January 22 and will take in some fifteen cities over a three-week period (dates listed below).  Anthrax will close all shows and Death Angel will again be main support on all dates.

Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 9 and Saturday, December 10 at 10AM local time.  For all details or to purchase tickets, log onto http://anthrax.com - http://www.testamentlegions.com/ or http://deathangel.us/  Can't wait until this weekend to grab tickets?  Prior to the official on-sale dates in each city, Anthrax fans can head over to AnthraxArmy.com and Anthrax.com beginning today at 3:00PM ET, to purchase a special pre-sale ticket bundle featuring a Worship Music sticker, an official Anthrax Army sticker, and a limited edition collectible band-member fan laminate.  These bundles are available for a limited time only.  Additional details online.

"The first leg of the tour with Testament and Death Angel was an amazing way to end a great year for Anthrax," said Anthrax's Scott Ian, "and it went above and beyond my expectations!  Sold out shows, raging crowds and EPIC war dances!  So we figured what better way to start 2012 than to continue this thrash-fest into the new year!!!  Thank you all for giving us this privilege to come and play for you. See you soon!"

The first leg of the Anthrax-Testament co-headline jaunt marked the first time the two bands had toured together in more than a decade, and proved to be a rousing success with reviews such as, "This line-up of thrash metal masters is what most metal heads' wet dreams are made of."  Minneapolis' City Pages summed the show up this way:  "Metal...is alive and well and will continue to be as long as Anthrax has anything to say about it."

Twenty-eleven proved to be a watershed year for Anthrax - Charlie Benante/drums, Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano/guitars, Frank Bello/bass, Joey Belladonna/vocals.  On September 13, the band released its long-awaited Worship Music, Anthrax's first new album in eight years and first studio album since 2003's We've Come For You All.  Worship Music features the return of "classic era" vocalist Belladonna making his first Anthrax album in twenty years.  The album debuted at #12 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart, has received stellar reviews and been called "the metal album of the year" by numerous critics and music tastemakers, including VH-1/That Metal Show's Eddie Trunk, and Alexander Milas, editor of the UK's Metal Hammer.  Worship Music has also landed on copious amounts of "year-end-bests" lists, and the editors of Loudwire named it their #1 Metal Album of the Year, with the track "The Devil You Know" claiming the #1 Metal Song of the Year honors.  

The return of Belladonna and Anthrax's remarkable renewal began in 2009 in a Cleveland hotel bar with Anthrax's Benante and Ian, and Metallica's Lars Ulrich when he first brought up the idea of The Big Four - Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax, the four bands that served as the original architects for the "thrash/speed-metal" scene," yet had never shared the same stage before.  The first of (so far) fourteen Big Four events took place on June 16, 2010, culminating in what was Anthrax's New York homecoming concert - The Big Four at Yankee Stadium on September 14, 2011, the day after Worship Music hit stores.  "We came into The Big Four as the underdog," said Benante.  "We were the band that had the most to prove, and we've worked really, really hard to do that." 

With more dates to be added, the confirmed itinerary is as follows:

JANUARY

22     House of Blues, Las Vegas, NV

23     House of Blues, Anaheim, CA

24     Marquee Theatre, Tempe, AZ

27     Egyptian Room @ Murat Center, Indianapolis, IN

28     Piere's Entertainment Center, Fort Wayne, IN

29     Expo Five, Louisville, KY

 

30     The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC

FEBRUARY

 2     Tabernacle, Atlanta, GA

 3     Promowest Pavilion, Columbus, OH

 6     Crocodile Rock, Allentown, PA

 7     Rams Head Live!, Baltimore, MD

 8     Best Buy Theatre, New York, NY

Anthrax Charlie Benante A Chicago Cub For The Day

Last week, he played at Yankee Stadium with his band Anthrax as a member of The Big Four - Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax.  Today, Anthrax's Charlie Benante crossed over from Major League Baseball's American League to the National League and threw out the first pitch at today's Cubs/Brewers game played at the legendary Wrigley Field in Chicago.

PHOTO CREDIT:  Gene Ambo

Not only did the Cubs lambaste Milwaukee with a 7-1 win, but Charlie got word that Anthrax's new album, Worship Music, will debut at #12 on next week's Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart.

 

Today was a very good day for Anthrax's Charlie Benante.