Scott Ian of Anthrax
by Cameron Edney
Guest Staff Writer —
In the Pit with Anthrax’s Scott Ian
With thirty years of thrashing under his belt Anthrax’s Scott Ian knows how to deliver a mind-blowing album and it don’t get much better than the long-awaited Worship Music but it’s surely taken some time to get to this point! Having spent the best part of the last eight years on the road without releasing any new studio material Anthrax have had a roller coaster ride of ups and downs which seen the band change vocalist not once but twice before being rejoined by longtime vocalist Joey Belladonna. With Belladonna back fronting the band, New York’s favorite Thrashers hit the road as part of one of the most successful Thrash tours of all-time playing alongside Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica in what was dubbed ‘The Big 4’.
Anthrax also spent a lot of time working on the follow up to 2003’s masterpiece We’ve come for you All writing and re-writing tracks for more than four years before settling on an astonishing list of tracks which finally became Worship Music. Worship Music is now on the shelves and fans have praised the bands efforts with mostly positive reviews. Their latest album is a return to the bands Thrash sound from the eighties and features phenomenal tracks like ‘In the End,’ ‘Earth on Hell’ and ‘Revolution Screams’.
I had the pleasure of speaking with the coolest mosher of all-time Scott Ian about the band’s latest album, the possibility of touring Australia next year and getting advice from Iron Maiden. Here’s what Scott had to say!
Hardrock Haven: On finally releasing the long awaited Worship Music’…
Scott Ian: It’s obviously very satisfying to finally have the record out so we can stop talking about it and we can finally let the record speak for itself.
Hardrock Haven: What inspired the writing process this time around?
Scott Ian: Oh I don’t know… nothing changes in the way that we write, we just get in a room and start writing riffs, start arranging songs and they start coming together and then I start getting lyrical idea’s. That’s the same way that we’ve been doing it since ‘Spreading the Disease’ basically. I don’t know how it works, where the inspiration comes from, how we do it, other than we literally sit in a room and start playing, jamming and it just all comes together.
Hardrock Haven: Thoughts on the response ‘Worship Music’ has been getting from fans and media…
Scott Ian: It’s been amazing; people are hearing the record the same way that we hear it. It’s obviously really satisfying, we feel very strongly about the record and it’s really exciting to know that people are digging the record! I’m just happy that I hear from people that they love the record and that makes me feel good. I hope that people listen to it, because it deserves to be listened to and if people want to enjoy fifty minutes of really fuckin good [Heavy] Metal they should listen to it!
Hardrock Haven: When can we expect to see Anthrax back in Australia and what fond memories do you have from past visits?
Scott Ian: Hopefully the first half of next year sometime, that would be awesome. My favorite memory of touring Australia has nothing to do with Anthrax… when we were here for Soundwave last time, we got to go and see Ac/dc playing at Olympic Stadium in Sydney and that would be my favorite memory of touring Australia.
Hardroch Haven: What band do you feel you’ve learnt the most from whilst on the road?
Scott Ian: The first time that we toured with Iron Maiden back in 1988, I can definitely say that we learnt from them. They never told us anything, but just how well they treated us and the respect they afforded us as their opening band. We always felt like they treated us so well. Obviously we’re huge fans of Iron Maiden and we got to go on tour with them, they were unbelievably nice to us so we felt it was the way we should pattern ourselves as well.
Hardrock Haven: Scott any last words for our readers?
Scott Ian: We look forward to getting back down there and playing again. With the album out it obviously makes us really excited to get back down to play some shows!