ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE – the project featuring MEGADETH bassist and EMP LABEL GROUP‘s President David Ellefson and ANTHRAX bassist Frank Bello – is currently in the studio in Hollywood, California recording material for their new album, with the producer Jay Ruston (ANTHRAX, STEEL PANTHER, STONE SOUR).
David Ellefson commented: “What started out as simple bass ideas quickly developed into some really great songs together. Our fans would probably never suspect that a couple of metal bass players would have songs like these inside of us. It’s exciting to write melody with diversity while still pushing the limits of lead-bass playing. Frank’s singing, and both of us playing guitars and other instruments, gave us a whole new dimension for creative opportunities.”
Frank Bello added: “We thought it would be cool to let fans hear something they wouldn’t expect from us — which is what ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE is”.
Regarding how ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE came together, Ellefson told recently Guitar World: “We were doing bass clinics for our endorsement of Hartke bass amplification a few years back when the ‘Big Four’ were playing shows together. I just said to Frank, ‘We should really write some of our own material we can play for these clinics. Something unique just for us.’ So at Bass Player Live! at the Key Club in Hollywood, Frank got us talking to ANTHRAX producer Jay Ruston, who is also a bass player, and he got excited to get on board to record some songs for us. We agreed to do just a few songs we could release in EP format. This would make the workload easier with all of our schedules and even allow us to continue releasing more songs moving forward as well. Jay brought in Jeff Friedl on drums and even suggested Gus G. to play the solos I wanted to have on the track ‘Here Again’.”
Check out the video for “Tell The World”, taken from the ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE’s EP, released in 2014:
February/March 2017 will see legendary New York thrashers ANTHRAX back on European soil for the band’s first full European headline tour in more than a decade. Dubbed the “Among The Kings” tour, dates will kick off on 9th February in Birmingham, UK and wrap on up in Paris, France on 16th March; the full itinerary is below. On all of these dates and to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its release, ANTHRAX – Joey Belladonna (vocals) Charlie Benante (drums), Scott Ian (rhythm guitars), Frank Bello (bass) and lead guitarist Jon Donais – will perform live, start-to-finish, their classic and Silver-certified 1987 album “Among The Living” alongside fan favourites from throughout the band’s rich 35-year career. ANTHRAX‘s “Among the Kings” European dates are in support of the band’s critically-acclaimed album “For All Kings” (26 February 16/Nuclear Blast).
Said the band’s Scott Ian about the tour, “Finally! We’ve been looking forward to headlining in Europe for so long. We have a killer set planned, new stuff, old faves, deep tracks and »Among« front to back. You’d better start getting in shape now for the epic wardance. See you soon my friends – cheers!”
British metallers THE RAVEN AGE will support on all dates.
Over the band’s 35-year career, ANTHRAX have sold in excess of 10-million units, received multiple Gold and Platinum certifications, six Grammy nominations and a host of other accolades from the media, industry and fans. In 1991, their music helped break down race and genre barriers when they collaborated with PUBLIC ENEMY on ‘Bring The Noise.’ And, of course, along withMETALLICA, SLAYER and MEGADETH, ANTHRAX helped pioneer the thrash/metal genre as a member of The Big Four.
An Evening with ANTHRAX – »Among The Kings«
w/ THE RAVEN AGE 09.02. UK Birmingham – o2 Institute
10.02. UK London – o2 Forum Kentish Town
11.02. UK Bristol – o2 Academy
13.02. UK Nottingham – Rock City
14.02. UK Manchester – Academy
15.02. UK Glasgow – Barrowland
16.02. UK Newcastle – Northumbria University
17.02. UK Norwich – UEA
19.02. NL Utrecht – Ronda
20.02. B Antwerp – Trix
21.02. D Oberhausen – Turbinenhalle
22.02. D Stuttgart – LKA Longhorn
24.02. D Nuremberg – Löwensaal
25.02. D Munich – Backstage Werk
27.02. S Gothenburg – Pustervik
01.03. FIN Helsinki – Ice Hall Black Box
03.03. S Umeå – House Of Metal Festival @ Idunteatern
04.03. S Stockholm – Berns
06.03. DK Copenhagen – Amager Bio
07.03. D Hamburg – Docks
08.03. D Frankfurt – Batschkapp
09.03. D Berlin – Huxley’s
10.03. PL Warsaw – Stodola
12.03. H Budapest – Barba Negra
13.03. A Vienna – Arena
14.03. I Milan – Live Club
15.03. CH Zurich – Komplex
16.03. F Paris – Elysee Montmartre
More ANTHRAX dates:
02. – 06.02. USA Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, FL – 70000 Tons Of Metal
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice spoke with former ANTHRAX lead guitarist Greg Walls who was a member of Anthrax from 1981-1983.
Greg Walls ex- Anthrax guitarist (1981-1983) talks about Metallica in 1983 in New York as the band was preparing to record Kill em all his lost opportunity to replace Dave Mustaine in Metallica, how he was not was given songwriting credits on Fistful of Metal and at how he quit Anthrax out of fear that Scott Ian might fire him someday
On how Greg Walls joined Anthrax
“I worked for Toys R US as a kid and I met Scott we must have been 17 we were all really young, he used to have a little earring and long hair and we used to talk and I said do you have a band and he said my bands name is Anthrax and I said Amtrack like the train, he said Anthrax it’s a disease. We worked together and we become pretty good friends when I got into playing with them I went to this music building. I played with him and Danny Lilker (bass Nuclear Assault), Dave Weiss who was a childhood friend of Scott. They weren’t really musicians. Scott never really practiced and Danny had a lot of musical knowledge but Danny sort of was like every note that he played 70% notes 30% noise that’s why he couldn’t record. But we used to love each other’s company. “
On how Greg Walls did not get credit for his musical contribution on Anthrax first album ‘Fistful of Metal’
“I wrote (the music) ‘Panic’ and I wrote (Music) ‘Metal Thrashing Mad’, I wrote those two songs, the only part in Panic where there is a double lead towards the end Danny Lilker wrote and the rest of the songs on the first album (Fistful of Metal) I had a little hand in writing stuff here and there. So there is a little of me in a lot of that stuff. It was very hurtful actually to go and actually see the album and look at it and not see my name at all that was very weird. Especially thinking that I really loved the guy (Scott Ian).”
On turning Anthrax into a professional band
“I think I contributed a lot not only with the music but getting the band together with serious musicians that would have never happened if it wasn’t for me. Even Scott’s name, Scott Ian (Scott Rosenfeld). I told him to do that. I said Rosenfeld sounds like a pharmacy. About a month later he said I think you are right Scott Ian does sound like a cool name.”
On his recollections of Meeting Metallica in 1983 in the Music Building in Jamaca, Queens, New York
“I didn’t know who the hell they were I didn’t know what they sounded like and I really didn’t think it was a big deal. I went to the rehearsal room very early and I was there before everybody else and Metallica came to the door I didn’t know them I joked around with them . So they said listen we are going to play a set you want to come upstairs to our room and listen to our set and I was alone and I said ok. They went through all their tunes and they were fucken tight, so fucken tight. Metallica was sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor, in the Music building it was like a bombed out building ,it was a mess.
On his time with Cliff Burton
“Well Cliff had this tough guy Clint Eastwood personality but I was such a clown and I was doing voices and I got through to him I used to make him laugh. He seemed like he had this exterior tough metal player but he was a very sweet guy.”
On His lost opportunity to replace Dave Mustaine in Metallica
“Dave Mustaine was not a very warm person and maybe cause he was not getting along with the band and he had some demons. I know he was a drinker. There was stuff going on like when you see a husband and a wife and they are not getting along and you don’t know them. Eventually Dave did get fired and he went to Dan Lilker’s house, took a shower and he was crying like a baby and he took the bus back.”
“I was there when there was no guitar player and I thought about it like what the hell they are looking for a guitar player. I really regretted all that later I saw how they were the Led Zeppelin of the 90’s, they were huge and I thought, you idiot you could have had a gigantic house on the hill. At the time there was no mention of Kirk Hammett, they were looking and I remember they were thinking of different people but there was nobody . When Kirk eventually came in we used to play together. I didn’t think Kirk Hammett was so great I thought Mustaine was great, I thought Dave Mustaine was a fantastic guitar player.”
On why he left Anthrax out of fear that Scott Ian might fire him some day
“I went to college a few times and I dropped out cause I kept going back into the band and I kept seeing this guy( Scott Ian) is really motivated to do something for himself and I thought I was going to end up being 40 years old watching TV with my mother and being a bum and I said I just don’t want to see this for myself I’m not getting paid, I’m not an important member. I’m just going to be one day thrown out like a piece of garbage after I helped him.
I loved Scott Ian and Danny Lilker and I would have definitely stayed if I knew there was a future and if I knew Scott Ian wouldn’t fuck me over. I have seen him do things to people that were close to him , he got rid of people and I said man this is not a way to go for me for my future. I was intelligent to put those things together and I quit I wrote him a note put it on the door I took my equipment 2 in the morning one day.”
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke with ANTHRAX Bassist Frank Bello in Montreal Canada on their North American tour with Death Angel and Slayer.
When asked about the song ‘Got the time’ being played on Mars
Well first of all you have to have a fan that works at NASA. We just got a letter for someone that they did that it’s amazing but certainly you got to remember it was a Joe Jackson song. Its Anthrax’s version of the Joe Jackson song, because I want to give him credit because he is such a brilliant artist and songwriter, I love Joe Jackson
When asked about the recording process of their new album for all Kings
At this stage it’s like clockwork for us, we go in and we do what we do. Charlie, Scott and myself get together to do the drums in L.A. with Jay Ruston our producer. We Jam all the songs together and make sure everything is right for the drums. Then individually, I live in New York, Scott lives in L.A. and technology really rules right now, so I can do my tracks wherever I want, so Jay came to New York, I had a local studio near me, we did my tracks there, it worked out amazingly I got to go home and see my family. Scott did the same thing in LA and it’s really easy now. Technology although it has ruined the music business, it has actually helped us where we can go where ever we want to go and record which is nice. But the three of us are all together for the drum tracks and it will always be tighten up like that
When asked about how word of mouth and Social media plays a role in today’s music industry
When you think about it social media it’s still really word of mouth, that’s really what it is, that’s the new tape trading, check this out, check this out. We never really had real airplay, or MTV, we never really had that big global music radio stuff, its word of mouth, its fans talking to fans because there was no internet, but now there is this whole social media thing that makes it a lot easier to get it across, thank god for it. It’s great to get our music out, spread the word.
When asked if he would do an Anthrax / Armored Saint (with John Bush) tour together?
Joey Vera is literally one of my best friends, when I have something to do with the family Joey will come in and do a gig from me and he played with Anthrax for a while. So my thing is yeah or course that can happen. There is no ill stuff with John Bush
After a successful tour with their label mates SLAYER and many headliner and festival shows all over Europe, legendary New York thrashers, ANTHRAX, want to thank their loyal fans by releasing a vinyl single for ‘A Monster At The End’. The song is from their latest chartbreaker “For All Kings” and the vinyl edition will contain their hymn ‘A Monster At The End’ and the b-side track ‘Vice of the people’ and is available in four different colours: Lilac, silver, black and gold (NB mailorder exlusive!)
ANTHRAX live in Europe:
11.08. Leyendas del Rock Festival, Villena, Spain
13.08. Alcatraz Festival, Kortrijk, Belgium
14.08. Bloodstock, Walton-On-Trent, UK
Thirty-five years ago today (July 18, 1981), the New York-based thrash/metal band ANTHRAX was formed and started on the road to help change the history of music. “Thirty-five years have passed since that day and my life has changed profoundly,” states co-founder Scott Ian. “I am a husband, I am a father. I am a long way from the 17-year-old soon-to-be-college dropout who co-founded a heavy metal band. The only thing that hasn’t changed in 35 years, the one constant, is that I am still the rhythm guitar player in ANTHRAX. It’s what I GET to do. I GET to play in a band and I never take that for granted.”
Over that 35-year period (see the entire band history here!), ANTHRAX has sold in excess of 10-million units, received multiple Gold and Platinum certifications, six Grammy nominations and a host of other accolades from the media, industry and fans. In 1991, their music helped break down race and genre barriers when they collaborated with Public Enemy on “Bring The Noise”. And, of course, along with METALLICA, SLAYER and MEGADETH, ANTHRAX helped pioneer the thrash/metal genre as a member of The Big Four.
So, with all those years, all those experiences, all those memories, what’s the one big takeaway experience that stands out for the guys? Was it when legendary author Stephen King included the band in one of his “Dark Tower” series books? Or in 2012 when ANTHRAX became the first metal band to have its music played on Mars, when NASA played “Got The Time” to wake up the Mars Rover, Curiosity? Or how about in 1991 when they received their first Grammy nomination? Maybe it was when the band was caught up in the 2001 U.S. anthrax attacks and considered changing their name due to the PR nightmare that was caused. Or possibly it was when ANTHRAX made a cameo appearance on the popular 1992 TV series, “Married…with Children.”
Remembers Charlie Benante, the band’s drummer since 1983, “We had such a ball doing that show. We taped the episode twice, once in the afternoon then another one in the evening, which was done with rewrites. They changed some of our lines, but we got bigger laughs the second time so it was all worth it. After the show, we went to a sit-down dinner with the entire cast and crew at a restaurant in Hollywood. Here I am sitting next to Al Bundy [played by actor Ed O’Neill), and I look over at the booth across from us, and there are Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman having dinner. Al said, ‘hey, let’s go talk to Clint and Morgan,’ and I went ‘whaaaaa???’ He took us over there and introduced us to them – and I’m thinking ‘where am I? Am I here right now? This is actually happening?’ It was just surreal. That stands out as one of the highlights. It wasn’t really a musical thing, but music got us to that. I’m just a guy in a band making music…what am I doing here with these stars?”
Then there is newest member, lead guitarist Jonathan Donais who has a completely different take on his “best Anthrax moment”: “It was probably 1989 or ’90, whenever the ‘Antisocial’ video blew up at Dial MTV,” he remembers. “It was the first time I’d ever heard Anthrax, and I immediately fell in love with the band.” Donais’ “best Anthrax memory” now happens like Groundhog Day: “I brought a tape of the Dial MTV performance to my guitar teacher and told him I wanted to learn how to play it. Now I get to play every night with the band!”
The most memorable time as a member of ANTHRAX could have been on September 14, 2011 as it was named “Anthrax Day” in the Bronx. Or June 22, 2010 when The Big Four played together on the same stage for the first time ever in Sofia, Bulgaria.
For ANTHRAX‘s Ian, it was a different occasion: “My ONE thing of thousands of things I’ve done in ANTHRAX that stands out the most in the world would be playing Yankee Stadium,” he said, referencing The Big Four’s second of only two U.S. concerts, held on September 14, 2011. “For me that is the pinnacle. My mecca. The most NY thing a NY band could ever do. I got to play on stage on the field, in the building where so many of my heroes since I was a child played. It was surreal and overwhelming and I was in tears almost the entire first song, I had so much emotion pouring out of me. Like the words to the song say, I was ‘King of the hill, top of the heap.’ So, to quote the Scottish poet Robbie Burns, ‘Here’s to us; who is as good as us? Damn few, and they’re all dead.’ Thank you my friends…35 and counting.”
ANTHRAX – Ian, Benante, Frank Bello, Joey Belladonna and Jon Donais – will celebrate their 35 years well into the fall playing major festivals, headline shows and as Special Guest with fellow Big Four comrades SLAYER. Dates are below.
David Taylor, a staunch ANTHRAX fan, compiled a variety of in-concert clips of the band performing the 1988 classic “Antisocial” over the past three-plus decades, to create a celebratory gift for the band and their 35th anniversary. Check out that tribute video here:
Confirmed dates for ANTHRAX are as follows:
JULY
19 Castrelos, Vigo, Spain
20 Sala Arena, Madrid, Spain
22 Area Concerti Festival Majano, Majano, Italy
23 Fosch Fest, Bagnatica, Italy
24 Rock in Rome, Roma, Italy
AUGUST
11 Leyendas del Rock Festival, Villena, Spain
14 Bloodstock, Walton-On-Trent, UK
21 Pain In The Grass, Auburn, WA
SEPTEMBER
9 Jacob’s Pavilion, Cleveland, OH
10 Freedom Hill Amphitheatre, Detroit, MI
11 Ground Zero, Travers City, MI*
12 Sound Academy, Toronto, ON
13 Metropolis, Montreal, PQ
15 Stage AE, Pittsburgh, PA
16 Anthology, Rochester, NY*
17 Revolution Rock Fest., Mashantucket, CT
18 Rock Allegiance Festival, Chester, PA
20 Egyptian Room, Indianapolis, IN
21 Concord Music Hall, Chicago, IL*
22 The Pageant, St. Louis, MO
24 Houston Open Air Festival, Houston
25 Knotfest, Devore, CA
27 Hard Rock Live, Orlando, FL
28 Fillmore, Miami, FL
29 Club L.A., Destin, FL*
30 Horseshoe Casino Tunica, Tunica, MS
OCTOBER
1 Louder Than Life Festival, Louisville, KY
3 Norva, Norfolk, VA
4 Orange Peel, Ashveille, NC*
5 Tabernacle, Atlanta, GA
6 Varsity Theatre, Baton Rouge, LA*
7 Gas Monkey Live, Dallas, TX
8 ACL at the Moody Theatre, Austin, TX
10 Fillmore, Denver, CO
11 The Complex, Salt Lake City, UT
12 Rev Hall, Boise, ID*
13 The Wilma Theatre, Missoula, MT
14 The Hill event Center, Idaho Falls, ID*
15 Revolution Concert House, Garden City, ID
16 Knitting Factory, Spokane, WA* (offer)
17 ENMAX Centre, Lethbridge, AB
19 S. Okanagan Cvents Centre, Penticton, BC
20 Abbotsford Centre, Abbotsford, BC
21 Hawthorn Theatre, Portland, OR*
22 Discovery Park, Elverta, CA (w/Aftershock)
23 Reno Events Center, Reno, NV
22 Aftershock Festival, Sacramento, CA
25 Orpheum Theatre, Flagstaff, AZ*
26 Top Deck, Famington, NM* (offer)
27 El Paso County Coliseum, El Paso, TX**
* Anthrax & Death Angel
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