Due To Interview Charlie Benante On 2/3 - Submit Questions!

[AltWireDerek]

Hi everyone. My name is Derek and I'm the editor-in-chief of an Alternative Music website called AltWire. We specialize mostly in interviews, and one of the things we love doing is making our interviews more 'fan-centered' and asking the kind of questions that diehard fans would like to know, instead of the usual generic sounding interviews that you can find everywhere else.

I'm excited to say that we will be speaking to Charlie Benante of Anthrax this Wednesday at 2PM, and we would love to open some of the questions to fans on these forums. We've been given 25 minutes with Charlie, so we'll have plenty of time to make sure most questions are asked. You can literally submit any questions you'd like, and the best ones will be asked to Charlie during our interview.

Looking forward to what everyone comes up with!

 

[mrthrax]

Probably a bit premature but I'd love to know where there st a far as a world your when Australia will get to c them again,

 

[Vster]

Please ask why they don't mix up the setlist more! Got the time, Antisocial, Indians, Caught in a mosh are all great songs but have been in the setlist for 20 years! I know all those songs play well to the crowd but they have been over played....imo. Ask what they're gonna do with the extra songs they recorded for the album. Thanks

 

[timmyc]

Please ask why they don't mix up the setlist more! Got the time, Antisocial, Indians, Caught in a mosh are all great songs but have been in the setlist for 20 years! I know all those songs play well to the crowd but they have been over played....imo. Ask what they're gonna do with the extra songs they recorded for the album. Thanks

Further to this one, why is it that they don't play any songs live from the Bush era? Is this Joey's condition of being back in the band? Would love to know this one.

 

[IrelandCalling]

Plenty of questions I would like to ask Mr. Benante, a few would definitely be;

Q: So many of your fans love both the Belladonna and Bush era's - with lead singer changes sometimes it does make it more difficult to include tracks from the alternate era. It's understandable, with the most renowned material recorded with Joey that you will concentrate on that - however, there are so many great songs with john Bush. For the fans who genuinely love those albums, and they are important to your legacy - what songs stand out/stand the test of time? What songs would you love to perform, and, crucially I suppose, what songs do you think Joey would do most justice to?

Q: The press reports on an almost Stalinist division of labour in the Anthrax camp - Charlie writes the music, Scott the lyrics, and Frankie the vocal melodies. However, on the music side, do you write all of the actual riffs or does Scott contribute? He wrote some of the music for the S.O.D. project and is an amazing rhythm player, he must have tons of cool riff ideas. How do you split the music writing duties?

Q: In the current musical climate, what are your musical loves - would it be a variety of pop, rock and metal? Do you listen to a lot of new music or like most of us music fans of a certain age, is it your record collection you mostly return to?

Q: Charlie B's Top-5 favourite albums of all-time? And as you're a Beatles fan and so am I - your favourite Beatles song? Staying with the British Invasion - I've always wondered if Anthrax would cover the Rolling Stones, 'Paint it Black for example, 'Jumpin Jack Flash' - the attitude, Keith Richards riffs, is it something you've ever thought of doing?

 

[IrelandCalling]

PS Forgot one Q to put forward to yourselves Derek for your meeting with Charlie 'Chief Brody' B -

Q: Thrash is a genre you helped to pioneer and the genre has excelled in itself even 30 years after it's inception. The most recent albums from Kreator, Sodom, Overkill and Testament for example were stellar. And among your Big-4 peers, Megadeth have released 'Dystopia' which is fabulous, Slayer's 'Repentless' was good, and Metallica's 'Death Magnetic' was a huge step up from their 90s work. How do you rate 'For All Kings' against your peers and contemporaries, and, how did you feel about the releases mentioned from Megadeth, Metallica, Testament, Kreator?

Almost every Thrash act had a very difficult and even confused 90s, and yet you all, to a man, have come back with great albums in the original style. Your albums in the 90s are very different beasts to your earlier, what made you return to Thrash? Every other act mentioned also returned to Thrash, and is seeing great success - what is it about Thrash that is seemingly so relevant and visceral three decades on? No one seems to question men in their 50s playing Thrash, the way the Stones and the Who for example were the butt of endless ageist jokes in the 80s and 90s - what makes heavy metal, and Thrash, different for bands that have been around for 30 years?

 

[timmyc]

One other one...... It might not be well received but I think it's still a very fair question, to ask about Dan Spitz's notable absence / omission from the Spreading the Disease 30th anniversary release. After being such a huge part of the bands history and that record, why is he cut out of the packaging of the record??

 

[Anthrax_Mosher]

One other one...... It might not be well received but I think it's still a very fair question, to ask about Dan Spitz's notable absence / omission from the Spreading the Disease 30th anniversary release. After being such a huge part of the bands history and that record, why is he cut out of the packaging of the record??

They aren't on good terms with him.

 

[AltWireDerek]

These are brilliant questions guys. I actually, given the fact that we have 25 minutes with him...am definitely planning to make this a retrospective, focusing on the bands 35 year history as well as the new album.

So if you guys want to know anything about certain albums, past collaborations, or any 'inside stories' we're definitely going to try and get the scoop. Just ask! I'm going to let him know some of the questions we've asked are fan sourced too. The interview happens tomorrow at 2PM, so we still have all of today to take your questions. Don't be afraid to ask something. Unless it's completely obscene and rude (haha) I'm going to try and ask *everything*.

 

[johnnieCzech]

Will you ever release the cover song of Pearl Jam's Brain Of J., and how it was having Mike McCready as a guest guitar player on this one?

 

[mj777]

McCready was involved in the cover? That was before wm. Was that song recorded with Belladonna?

 

[resumurofnikufesin]

Please ask why they don't mix up the setlist more! Got the time, Antisocial, Indians, Caught in a mosh are all great songs but have been in the setlist for 20 years! I know all those songs play well to the crowd but they have been over played....imo. Ask what they're gonna do with the extra songs they recorded for the album. Thanks

Yes. This. Also, why do they not include stuff from POT and SOE?

 

[timmyc]

McCready was involved in the cover? That was before wm. Was that song recorded with Belladonna?

Great question - I totally forgot about that..........That was from the Dan Nelson days, wasn't it??

 

[Vster]

Ask if they would ever consider letting the fans vote online which songs for the set list. We're the fans that stuck with them through the lean years.

 

[AltWireDerek]

Thanks to both these boards, and our own curiosity on certain things, we are looking at at least 20 questions right now (combined with us and yours). Keep submitting. If Charlie brings his a-game and wants to talk...this is going to be an incredible interview.

 

[IrelandCalling]

Great stuff! I really look forward to this interview; have you an idea when it will be published?

Great to have the chance to put fans' questions to Charlie

 

[timmyc]

They aren't on good terms with him.

Yeah I know, but it's an extremely unusual move nonetheless. It doesn't take away from his work being an awesome contribution to the records.

 

[johnnieCzech]

Talking about Dan Spitz, I would be quite interested to know how much he really contributed to the band writing-wise. Who wrote the songs on Spreading The Disease? Was it all Charlie? Or Among The Living?

 

[johnnieCzech]

Is it true that Charlie and John Bush had a fallout when John said he'd sing on Worship Music for a certain sum of money?

 

[AltWireDerek]

We're ready for Charlie today. Good mix of legacy and new album questions. 20 questions, and we have 25 minutes. So there's actually a chance we may not even be able to ask them all, unless Charlie willingly goes over time (which some artists do).

We'll let you all know how it went the minute the phone hangs up.