The singer talks the new 'Worship Music' album, about the band and about haveing good lawyers!

'Worship Music' is the first new studio album from Anthrax in eight years, and the first with vocalist Joey Belladonna since 1990's 'Persistence Of Time'. What a way for the band to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

And a great occasion for us to talk to the singer himself.

an interview conducted by Vassil Varbanov

ALRIGHT, WE ARE FACING THE RELEASE DATE OF THE NEW ANTHRAX STUDIO ALBUM – HOW DOES IT FEEL FROM YOUR SIDE?
Oh, you know, it’s very exciting to see that everything is ready for a new record finally, you know.

WE ALL KNOW IT WAS ORIGINALLY RECORDED WITH DAN NELSON. HOW MUCH TIME DID IT TAKE YOU TO NAIL DOWN THE VOCALS, I MEAN, IN TERMS OF RECORDINGS?
One song a day. Like four or five hours, not very long, really. I feel it was a very quick process for me. Didn’t spend much time, you know, each day was enough for one song. Unless there was parts that might have…, you know, we wanted to update something, tweek something, but for the 99 % of it was done in a day. 

YOU JUST HAD SOME DATES WITH OUR GOOD FRIEND ANDREAS OF SEPULTURA, AND THERE WERE SOMEВ  REALLY ENTHUSIASTIC REACTIONS ONLINE FROM ANTHRAX BAND MEMBERS. WAS IT REALLY THAT COOL?
Yeah, it was. I mean, It turned out to be a special event, you know, cause we got along quite well. He was just having the best time, you know, being a fan at the same time, and we’re being fans back, you know. We were just like kids, just having a ball. Played great. The songs were fun to do with someone else just for...well for out of necessity obviously.

THE REASON FOR THAT TEMPORY REPLACEMENT WAS SCOTT IAN'S NEWBORN CHILD…HAVE YOU ALL HAD THE CHANCE TO WASH THE BABYS’ HEAD AS A BAND?
No!

TALKING ABOUT KIDS, YOU ARE THE ELDER GUY IN ANTHRAX. DID IT ACTUALLY MATTER IN THE EARLY DAYS WHEN YOU WERE ALL  PRETTY YOUNG…YOU WERE 23 OR 24 WHEN YOU JOINED THEM AND SCOTT WAS LIKE 20?
I was 25 actually, to be exact. No, you know, I don’t feel any different towards that. If anything, I’m as vibrant, as I can be right now as far as an age group … I don’t know, I try not to think about that stuff. I don’t think there’s any cut-off  if you are not feelin’, you know, like playing and doing it right, then obviously you may think about age or something, but personally I don’t. 

CAGGIANO IS THE YOUNGEST MEMBER OF ANTHRAX TODAY, HE'S ONLY 34…DOES IHE GET BULLIED BY THE REST OF YOU – THE OLD FARTS?
Ha ha, Rob is a funny guy, man. Yeah, we pick on him in his way, but everybody gets picked on I think, but in a fun way, you know, as we call it - ball bustin’. But nothing any more than the rest of us. He picks on me as much as I pick on him. 

AS FAR AS I REMEMBER, CAGGIANO PRODUCED 'WE CAME FOR YOU ALL' BACK IN 2003, BUT NOT THE NEW ONE..WHY?
Well,  I don’t know. Maybe they were looking for different ears, different abilities and stuff like that, I mean, Rob had his hands on this one along the way. He did a lot of work. So I don’t think he was exempt from this record.

JAY RUSTON, ONE OF THE PRODUCERS ON YOUR NEW RECORD, ALSO MIXED THAT DVD YOU FILMED IN SOFIA, BULGARIA. THAT ONE IS PROBABLY A MEMORABLE SHOW FOR YOU GUYS?
Oh yeah, quite memorable. There probably isn’t a day that goes by without someone saying: "I just caught the Bulgaria show". It was awesome. It’s nice that it became like a live thing for us, separately, even though it’s all collectively a big show and we are all together in it. But it seems like a lot of people viewed it like they saw us alone It's nice to have something out that people get to see and hold on to as a moment. Plus they got to go to the theaters, which we didn't get to do. I would have loved to have gone to the theatre and seen it live. 

I GUESS YOU'RE BUSY WITH INTERVIEWS THESE DAYS. YOU'RE PROBABLY FACED WITH A FAIR AMOUNT OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BIG FOUR AND THEN ABOUT DAN NELSON. HOW MANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THE NEW RECORD DO YOU GET ASKED?
Well, you know, everybody wants to know how the Big Four is going. Of course that's just enormously cool and great and fun and just something that it's great that it's happening. I don't get much on the Dan Nelson thing, I don't pay attention to that. That was something they did, none of my business and nor do I really follow him in any way. As far as the record, people wanna know about it, it's something very new and exciting to hear, they ask questions about how it's been done, of course they want to know if I was coming in the studio before or later, how I did it, if it's the same or new etc. There's all kinds of new stuff, there's plenty of new guitars, there's all new bass, all new vocals, quite a bit of new drums, brand new lead breaks, all new mix. I mean, it wasn't even done really, at all. People think it was done and they just scrapped the vocals.

WHAT MUSIC HAVE YOU BEEN INTO RECENTLY?
Oh I listen to everything, man. I'm constantly flipping cd's around, I don't even wanna go into all that stuff. I listen to different, diverse music. I mean, God, I can from John Mayer to Sade in one afternoon, to Judas Priest late at night and I just flip around, I don't have anything in particular, I just like listening to everything, so I keep my mind open. Of course I've been listening to the new Anthrax now, so I can relearn what I did.В 

AND FINALLY, DO YOU HAVE A GOOD LAWYER?
A good lawyer? Not really. I mean, I'm sure I can find one. I mean, I know people. Why?

WELL IT SEEMS THAT IN YOUR BAND THERE ARE COMINGS AND GOINGS ALL THE TIME AND IN TODAY'S WORLD YOU PROBABLY NEED SOMEONE TO COVER YOUR BACK.
Well, hopefully we don't have to come down to that. Obviously I have a lawyer look over some documents and stuff like that, but if it's all good, it's all good.В  It should be pretty simple, straight up. And if people abide by it, there shouldn't be a need for anything. But if you need one, you can find one, there's plenty of them out there.

rights Tangra Mega Rock