About the Big Four, the next record with Beladonna, about S.O.D., the FIFA World Cup and many more...

ANTHRAX are cool! And we know that. But they missed to release their brand new album with DanВ Nelson - a singer who parted ways with the band shortly before the official release date.

ANTHRAX will play for the first time in Bulgaria this Tuesday, June 22,В packed with three more great bandsВ Metallica,В SlayerВ andВ Megadeth. And we talk with dummer Charlie Benante on the phone - four days before the show (the pictures were added after the concert).

an interview conducted by Vassil VarbanovВ 

HEY CHARLIE, AS FAR AS WE CAN SEE IN YOUR SCHEDULE YOU MUST BE SOMEWHERE IN SWITZERLAND, RIGHT?

Yeah - we are in Switzerland and it's raining like crazy!

SPEAKING OFВ THE RAIN - IT'S BEEN SEVEN YEARS SINCE YOUR FIRST ATTEMPT TO PLAY IN BULGARIA, BUTВ BACK THEN THE STORMВ BLEW THE STAGE AWAYВ ... AND YOU PROMISSED TOВ COME BACK TO SOFIA AS SOON AS POSSIBLE - WHY THE HELL IT TOOK YOU SO MANY YEARS?

Hahahaha - because we had to get everything together... you know our band is now back together and we are strong and now we gonna come, now we gonna play a fucking killer concert for everyone.

YOU'VE BEEN THROUGH SOME LINE-UP CHANGES ON THE VOCALIST POSITION, SO THE BIG QUESTION HERE IS: ARE YOU GOING TO PUT THE RECORD THAT WAS RECORDED WITH DAN NELSON ...I MEAN LIKE KEEPING THE SAME SONGS BUT TO RE-RECORD THEM WITH A NEW SINGER OR YOU'RE PLANNING A TOTALLY NEW STUFF?

OK - so what we are going to do is: we gonna keep some songs the way they are and we are going to re-write some other songs. But Joe Belladonna, he knows one song right now, which is called ‘Fight'em 'Til You Can't’ and we gonna try to play that, maybe we gonna play it in Sofia. 

EUROPE HAS BEEN UNDER THE SPELL OF THE FOOTBALL WORLD CUP...OR SOCCER AS YOU CALL IT IN THE US ... AND ACTUALLY THE AMERICAN TEAM IS DOING PRETTY WELL, DO YOU KNOW THAT?

I know that Mexico won last night.

YEAH... BUT DO YOU KNOW THAT THE AMERICANS MADE A DRAW VERSUS ENGLAND A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO?

I do now haha - as you told me!

PLEASE TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR POSSIBLE FUTURE STUDIO RELEASE - OBVIOUSLY IT IS INTERESTING FOR US TO KNOW BECAUSE WE WERE SO MUCH WAITING FOR THIS NEW RECORD TO COME OUT AND NOW WE ARE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT'S GONNA BE - ARE YOU RECORDING WITH JOEY?

Yes - we gonna finish this tour and then we gonna start working on the material again, and then we gonna comeback here in July and August to finish the Sonisphere festivals.

And then after that we gonna continue working on the record again. So, we hope to finish the record and have it out by next year - spring maybe.

WELL - THE BIG FOUR - OBVIOUSLY THIS IS THE BIG THING NOW. HOW DOES IT FEEL? YOU HAD ONLY 3 OR 4 CONCERTS SO FAR, TOGETHER WITH THE OTHER 3 BANDS, RIGHT?
Two!

TWO RIGHT, SO THE THIRD IS TONIGHT - HOW HAS IT BEEN, WHAT IS THE VIBE INSIDE? IS IT MORE LIKE A CORPORATE THING OR IS IT LIKE AS VITAL AS THE FANS ARE HOPING TO BE?

Well, honestly - the first show, which was in Poland, we had over 100 000 people there. And it was just the big four bands, with another band Behemoth - they opened up the show. It was just awesome - it's just great, was such a great vibe, you know the four bands together - was kind of emotional!

IF YOUВ COULD CHOOSE THE DREAM-TEAM, THE BEST 4 OR 5 GUYS FROM EACH BAND OF "THE BIG FOUR" TO FORM A SUPER-BAND, WHO WOULD YOU PICK UP? OBVIOUSLY YOU WILL BE THE DRUMMER AHEAD OF LOMBARDO ETC, BUT WHO ELSE?

For bass I would choose Dave Elefson, for singer I choose probably James, for lead I would probably put Jeff Hanneman, and I would also put Kirk Hammet in there too.

IT'S BEEN 12 YEARS SINCE THE S.O.D. 'BIGGER THAN THE DEVIL' RELEASE - BUT WHAT WE'VE HEARD IS THAT THE BIG PROBLEM FOR A SECOND REUNION IS A KIND OF A TENSION BETWEEN SCOT, YOU AND BILLY MILANO, SO - CAN WE WE EXPECT ANYВ NEW STUFF FROM S.O.D. OR IT'S NOT THE MOMENT TO TALK ABOUT IT?

No, no, no - we don't have any bad vibes at all with Billy. We just concentrate on doing this now. I don't really want to bring any of the elements into this now. We just want to focus on Anthrax - and we want to finish this record and we just want to enjoy this.

THIS SOFIA SONISPHERE THING WAS PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCEDВ WITH HEAVEN & HELL GOING FIRST ON STAGE - IT WOULD BE A BIT STRANGE TO HAVE RONNIE DIOВ FORВ SUPPORT ACT, DON'T YOU THINK?

Huh - well, you know I don't put this together - I just found out what bands are on and I'm like "Oh really!? OK". But you know - Ronnie Dio means a lot to us and it's just a shame that Ronnie passed away.

YEAH, HE'LL BE SURELY MISSED THAT NIGHT. LAST QUESTION: GOING BACK TO THE FOOTBALL WORLD CUP - THE AMERICANS PLAY SLOVENIA TONIGHT - DO YOU KNOW WHERE SLOVENIA IS?

Yeah - I've played Slovenia before.

SO WHO'S GONNA WIN THIS GAME?
Oh come on - how could you ask me hahaha!

HAHAHA - WHATEVER YOU SAY, WE GONNA TAKE IT FOR GRANTED!

Uuumm, I think the Americans yeaaaaaaaah!

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