According to BusinessInsider.com, ANTHRAX‘s cover version of JOE JACKSON‘s “Got The Time” is one of several songs that have been used to wake up the Mars Science Laboratory rover, nicknamed Curiosity, since it touched down on the Red Planet’s surface on August 5.
Every morning the crew plays a song for Curiosity — a tradition more than likely dates
back to NASA‘s manned spaceflight missions, according to Steve Collins, a member of the attitude control systems team.
Source: Blabbermouth.net
On July 27, Zach Shaw of Metal Insider conducted an interview with ANTHRAX guitarist Rob Caggiano at the Camden, New Jersey stop of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Metal Insider: I know that you guys have been recording an EP of covers.
Caggiano: No, it’s not an EP. Basically, we have a bunch of different cover tunes that are all at different states of completion at this point. We did a BLACK SABBATH song, “Neon Knights”, for the [Ronnie James] Dio tribute album. That’s completely done and that’s coming out soon. The other tunes, actually Scott [Ian, guitar] and I were just talking about doing some recording on the bus before this tour is over.
Metal Insider: So it’s not even completed?
Caggiano: Well, the Dio song is, but the other songs aren’t. Joey [Belladonna, vocals] still hasn’t sang them, I have to do the leads and stuff, Scott has to play some guitar. We’re going to finish them some point very soon, but I think there’s going to be a re-release of the album [“Worship Music”], some bonus tracks. They’re going to be used for different things. But the whole EP rumor, I’m not really sure where that came from. [laughs]
Metal Insider: How did you guys come about choosing the songs to cover? Did have a say in what you guys recorded?
Caggiano: Yeah, it’s really just about having fun with the cover tunes. Basically, it’s tunes that we all love and connect with and stuff that inspired us over the years, and that’s pretty much the basis for it when we pick the tunes.
Metal Insider: Is there one song that you kind of wish the band covered but that maybe got outvoted on?
Caggiano: There’s a tune that we recorded that’s actually pretty much done, but it’s not going to get finished because I don’t think Joey [Belladonna, vocals] wants to sing it. [laughs]
Metal Insider: Which one was that?
Caggiano: It’s AC/DC, “Whole Lotta Rosie”. It’s one of my favorite tunes.
Metal Insider: Really? That would have been a lot of fun to hear!
Caggiano: Well, we ended up doing a lot of different ones. We ended up doing “TNT” as well. So, he did the vocals on that and came out awesome.
Read the entire interview from Metal Insider.
Source: Blabbermouth.net
According to WSBT.com, a television station in South Bend, Indiana, ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante and his wife were arrested Friday (July 27) for domestic battery in front of a child.
Arrest records indicate the pair were picked up at the Hilton Garden Inn in Elkhart, Indiana, and both were released from Elkhart County Jail on Saturday (July 28).
For more details, visit the web site of the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department.
Benante and his wife Sandra had their first child, Mia Charley Benante, in 2006.
Charlie and ANTHRAX bassist Frank Bello (who is Benante‘s nephew) missed several shows on ANTHRAX‘s North American tour in February in order to spend time with Charlie‘s mother, who was terminally ill. On February 4, Benante informed fans via his official web site that his mother passed away.
More recently, Benante was forced to miss a number of shows on this summer’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival while he was recovering from a minor hand injury. Filling in for him is SHADOWS FALL drummer Jason Bittner.
In February 2011, Charlie took his then-five-year-old daughter to a Lady Gaga concert at the United Center in Charlie‘s hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Benante said afterwards, “Gaga gave ANTHRAX a big shout-out tonight. She treated my daughter like a little queen and proved again that she is a metalhead at heart!”
Source: Blabbermouth.net
ANTHRAX bassist Frank Bello is making his feature film debut, playing the New York punk rock legend Richard Hell in the biopic “Greetings From Tim Buckley”. Frank Wood (“Changeling”, “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3”) plays songwriter and Jeff Buckley collaborator Gary Lucas, while Penn Badgley (“Gossip Girl”) has been cast as Tim Buckley‘s son Jeff. Dan Algrant (“People I Know”, “Naked in New York”) is directing from a script he co-wrote with Emma Sheanshang and David Brendel.
When asked how he got involved with the project, Bello told Artisan News (see video below), “I have an agent friend in New York — she’s an acting agent. I’ve studied theater way back when — I love it; it’s just another extension of performing. So… nobody’s gonna become the big-actor guy. I love acting, but it’s a thing I do; it’s just a hobby. So I got a call to go read for this ‘Greetings From Tim Buckley’ movie. I liked the script; it was great. This role of Richard Hell, a rock/punk icon, I thought it would look really cool. I did some research on it. I read for it and it worked; it just clicked. I read for it on a Thursday, I was cast on a Friday and it started shooting on a Monday. . . I did a week on it — seven days. It was 16-hour shoots.”
He added, “It was a great experience. I think people are gonna see a different side of me. I had to sing in French, which is pretty crazy; I never spoke a word of French in my life. That was pretty fast to learn, yeah. But it was a lot of fun. I was surrounded by some really great actors. I learned a lot on it and I had some fun.”
Bello previous told Legendary Rock Interviews about his work in “Greetings From Tim Buckley”. “As soon as I got the part, I just sunk myself into doing a lot of research. I am a big Jeff Buckley fan and I really was familiar with his songs and I knew of his father Tim, so I had heard of this Richard Hell character but I really only knew of him. There was really a lot of learning I had to do because I wasn’t that familiar with all of his music and his personality. It was a lot of fun once I started researching it. . . Of course, the director gave me a ton of notes on everything from the music to the look of the character. It was kind of cool to put their pieces of research together with mine and bring this character to life.”
Bello shot his scenes in New York in September 2011, including an early call on the set the morning after ANTHRAX‘s September 14 homecoming concert at Yankee Stadium with the rest of the so-called “Big Four” of 1980s thrash metal (METALLICA, MEGADETH and SLAYER).
“Greetings From Tim Buckley” is one of three rival projects centering on Buckley‘s life. The film will tell the true story of the days leading up to Jeff Buckley‘s eminent 1991 performance at his father’s tribute concert in St. Ann’s Church.
According to indieWIRE, Bello previously had tiny roles in a handful of television and movie projects mostly as a member of ANTHRAX, though he did also play “Johhny, Rocker” in an episode of “Law & Order”.
Source: Blabbermouth.net
New York-based heavy metal singer Dan Nelson (BLACKGATES, TRED, ANTHRAX) is the proud father of a baby boy, Benjamin Nelson.
Nelson recently settled a lawsuit he filed against ANTHRAX over the fallout from his departure from the veteran metal group. Details of the settlement were not made public.
Nelson, who was in ANTHRAX for nearly two years — from late 2007 until July 2009 — filed a lawsuit last November claiming that Charlie Benante (drums), Frank Bello (bass) and Scott Ian (guitar) falsely stated in “numerous interviews” that he had “abruptly resigned” after getting sick, forcing a cancelation of a tour. The $2.65-million suit also alleged that Benante told BLABBERMOUTH.NET that Nelson “was a bully.”
The Long Island native said his ex-bandmates’ “intentional defamation” has caused him a loss of income and damaged his reputation.
Nelson is currently a member of BLACKGATES alongside drummer Paul Bostaph (ex-TESTAMENT, EXODUS, SLAYER, FORBIDDEN), guitarist Jeremy Epp (THE VENTING MACHINE) and bassist Luis Barillas (THE VENTING MACHINE). He is also working with TRED, the new group featuring Mike Orlando (guitar; ADRENALINE MOB), AJ Pero (drums; TWISTED SISTER) and Rudy Sarzo (bass; OZZY OSBOURNE, QUIET RIOT, WHITESNAKE, DIO).
Source: Blabbermouth.net
Video footage of ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante laying down a cover version of the BLACK SABBATH classic “Neon Knights” for inclusion on the upcoming Ronnie James Dio tribute album can be seen below. The collection, which is being assembled by the singer’s widow and longtime manager Wendy Dio, will also tentatively include contributions from METALLICA, JUDAS PRIEST‘s Rob Halford, MOTÖRHEAD‘s Lemmy Kilmister, DEEP PURPLE‘s Ian Gillan, Alice Cooper, Glenn Hughes (DEEP PURPLE, BLACK SABBATH), Sebastian Bach (SKID ROW), Chris Jericho (FOZZY) and Dave Grohl (NIRVANA, FOO FIGHTERS).
“I’m letting them pick what songs they wanna do in the way they wanna do it,” Wendy told Artisan News at last December’s Dimebash event in Hollywood, California.
Tentatively due next year, the Dio tribute album will see Grohl covering BLACK SABBATH‘s “The Mob Rules” and Halford contributing a version of RAINBOW‘s “Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll”.
In a recent interview with Guitar International, ANTHRAX guitarist Rob Caggiano stated that his band’s cover version of “Neon Nights” “came out pretty smoking.”
Ronnie James Dio, best known for his work with BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW and his own band DIO, died of stomach cancer on May 16, 2010 at the age of 67.
Video footage of ANTHRAX performing “Neon Knights” on June 15 at the Copenhell festival in Copenhagen, Denmark can be seen below.
Last month, it was reported that ANTHRAX was recording several cover songs, to be issued in September to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the release of the band’s latest album, “Worship Music”. While the band does have plans to release an EP of covers that they’ve done, ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian made it clear to VH1 Radio Network‘s Dave Basner that they are “not working on a covers album.” He said, “It’s not at all what we’re doing. [laughs] We just always record cover songs. They just happen when we’re in the studio or when we’re touring, we get bored of jamming on our own songs at soundcheck, so you end up jamming on cover songs and eventually we’ll end up recording them and eventually, somehow, they end up getting released in some way, shape or form as B-sides, but we’re definitely not working on a covers album.”
Regarding ANTHRAX‘s plans to write and record new music, Ian told VH1 Radio Network, “We do already have two or three things kind of in the works as far as new music goes, so it’s just a case of if you can get into that mode to start working on them. I can’t even explain why or how it happens, but sometimes you’ll just get into a mode and you’re able to create and you’re able to work on stuff and move stuff forward, new stuff, but sometimes you just can’t. Sometimes you’re on tour and there’s just no spark, it’s just not there, it’s just all about what you’re doing in the moment, playing those shows.”
ANTHRAX has reportedly started recording the following cover songs for possible release:
* AC/DC – “T.N.T.”
* BOSTON – “Smokin'”
* JOURNEY – “Keep On Runnin'”
* RUSH – “Anthem”
Laying down drum tracks to “Neon Knights”:
“Neon Knights” performed live at Copenhell festival in Copenhagen, Denmark on June 15:
Source: Blabbermouth.net
Click image to watch the video
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