ANTHRAX bassist Frank Bello and his bandmates are shooting for a 2024 release of their next studio album
Speaking with Ultimate Guitar, ANTHRAX‘s Frank Bello gave an update on the status of the group’s long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s “For All Kings” album, saying: “We’re recording — guitars, drums. I’m actually recording my bass next month.
“What ANTHRAX does these days, we do a bunch of songs together, like a bulk of the songs,” he explained. “I think we have eight or nine right now. And we’ll keep writing. I think that’s important. That’s how we did the last record, and it came out the way we wanted it to. We have a good bulk of songs right now that we know already. But we still wanna have a couple of more. So that’s the way we go.
“We’ll digest these for a while. I’ll do my bass next month. Then vocals will come on and we’ll have this locked up. And then we’ll start writing a few more songs. Then we’ll choose what’s best for the record and how the record goes. We’re hoping — I’m praying, ’cause it’s been a while, man — [to have the album out] next year. It’s been, I think, almost eight years from the last record. I wanna have a record out. We all do. I can’t wait to play new songs — all this stuff. I wanna go on tour. But it’s gotta be right.”
Frank was asked if the band members attempted working on new material throughout the pandemic as far as sending files back and forth to each other. He replied: “We actually got together periodically. But during the pandemic, when everything was locked down — I live in New York; we were really locked down. It was really ridiculous when it first started. And everybody was doing their jamming over the Internet and all that. That’s great. I think that satisfied a lot of people. I thought that was great. That was fun.
“But with ANTHRAX, the three of us have to be in a room and looking at each other and vibing. And it’s spontaneous and it’s locked in. And you do it like this [via video], and I love this, but the latency — there’s a second delay. Imagine just jamming like that, it’s, like, ‘What’d you play there?’ And it stops the vibe.
“And all of a sudden you’re taking apart the song for no reason. It’s, like, ‘All right. This isn’t the way to do it. We have to get together.’ So that’s what we did. And I think it was a smart move because we won’t put out anything we don’t live. And it’s gotta be right. It’s gotta be exactly the record we’re coming out with. That’s who we are.”
You can watch the full interview below.
Back in May, it was revealed that guitarist Scott Ian, drummer Charlie Benante and Bello had been in the studio with producer Jay Ruston, working on some tracks in preparation for singer Joey Belladonna to record his vocals and for lead guitarist Jonathan Donais to add his portions.
Scott Ian posted on social media: “We started recording the new album last week and the first session was a blast! The songs are killer, challenging and a lot of fun to play – Riff-O-Rama. Tones are 1986 great. Can’t wait for all of you to hear what we’re doing.”
Charlie added: “We entered the studio and have begun recording our new record. I feel that the songs are next level for us. The first batch that I recorded were a bit challenging as far as my drumming goes. The next batch will be recorded in between my @panteraofficial schedule. I can’t wait to record the next batch… some great stuff coming! The persistence to spread the euphoric Music we worship among all you Kings ( and Queens) has always been our mission @anthrax”.