ANTHRAX was supposed to release its new album, tentatively titled "Worship Music", last October. However, the set has been delayed indefinitely following the departure of singer Dan Nelson in July 2009 and the return of John Bush, who fronted the band between 1992 and 2005. Guitarist Scott Ian spoke to VH1 Radio Networks' Dave Basner about the record's current status. "It's all up in the air," Ian said. "We're kind of in a standby mode right now. John is committed to touring, we're going to Australia to next week for two weeks and we've got all the Sonisphere [European festival appearances] in the summer, but it's just kind of been like baby steps as far as moving forward creatively and working on this album again."
One issue with the effort is that it was recorded with Nelson, who is believed to have contributed vocal melodies and lyrics to the LP. Now that John Bush is fronting the band again, what does that mean for the album?
"It wouldn't be a case at this point of John just coming in and re-singing the record," Ian explained. "That's not going to happen. If John sings on this album, then we're going to go back in and re-write because John Bush would then be committing to it and we would go back in and re-write stuff the way we did just like 'Sound of White Noise' [1993] or 'Stomp 442' [1995] or 'We've Come For You All' [2003]. That's how it would have to be, so we're just kind of in a standby mode waiting to see how John feels about it and what he wants to do. Maybe after these Australia dates we'll have a better idea on what we're going to do with that."
ANTHRAX kick off the Australia dates on February 20 in Melbourne.
One issue with the effort is that it was recorded with Nelson, who is believed to have contributed vocal melodies and lyrics to the LP. Now that John Bush is fronting the band again, what does that mean for the album?
"It wouldn't be a case at this point of John just coming in and re-singing the record," Ian explained. "That's not going to happen. If John sings on this album, then we're going to go back in and re-write because John Bush would then be committing to it and we would go back in and re-write stuff the way we did just like 'Sound of White Noise' [1993] or 'Stomp 442' [1995] or 'We've Come For You All' [2003]. That's how it would have to be, so we're just kind of in a standby mode waiting to see how John feels about it and what he wants to do. Maybe after these Australia dates we'll have a better idea on what we're going to do with that."
ANTHRAX kick off the Australia dates on February 20 in Melbourne.
