Anthrax is a band that refuses to be denied.
Since 1981, the band has consistently delivered uncompromising, fist-in-the-air, mosh-pit-inducing, smash-mouth trash metal. Despite numerous personnel changes, record label tumult, and the ever-evolving music industry, Anthrax has not only survived but thrived in the world of heavy metal. And while they may admit they are more towards the end of their career, than the beginning — their new music, and their most recent live performance in New Jersey we caught them at — is 100% proof that this band is far from calling it a day.
Over the summer,, Pop Break spoke with Anthrax’s drummer, Charlie Benante, about the band’s first album in a decade, Cursum Perficio; how and why the band continues to persist through time; using their platform to make change in the world; and their long history with the New Jersey born label, MegaForce Records.
Charlie, my first question is — how’s the hand feeling? [This interview happened before Anthrax’s tour with Iron Maiden, which kicked off at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, NJ]
So, it’s better. I just needed some rest, and I followed the doctor’s orders and just did some therapy. We did a video for “The Edge of Perfection,” and the problem was that I used these symbols for the video shoot, which are called dead symbols. Basically, they’re two symbols glued together so they don’t make a sound — they make a thud. When you’re doing the video, the adrenaline’s going, and you’re performing, and you don’t realize how hard you’re really hitting. I did some nerve damage. And I was like, “What the fuck is this now?” I went to a couple of doctors, did some X-rays and an ultrasound, and they said it’s a nerve thing. They could’ve injected me with a steroid, but they said with some rest it should heal, and it has. I have to be careful, because I don’t want that to happen again.
I don’t mean to blow up your age here, but you’re in your 60s now, and to borrow a Walt Clyde Frazier-ism of sorts, you still drum with velocity and ferocity.
I can’t let go of that. I have to play the way I’ve been playing. I’ve made some changes over the last couple of years. When I had the carpal tunnel thing happen about 15 years ago, I got the surgery for that. My hand, thank God, has been okay. Sometimes our brain wants us to do things that maybe our bodies are like, “Fuck, dude, I’m not doing that!
What’s your training regimen? You’re doing epic songs and drumming your ass off — what do you do to keep that stamina up and keep in shape?
On tour, a lot of it is muscle memory. When you don’t play for a long time, you tend to get rusty, and as you get older, that rust factor gets a little deeper. I still try to do rudiments when I’m home on a pad, and when it’s nice out, I’m riding my bike or just trying to stay active.
I’ll tell you the story. So, my friend, Chris Jericho, the wrestler — he’s one of my best friends — flew in, and we went to go see The Rolling Stones. There was a moment in the show when Mick comes out on the catwalk, and Mick is right next to us, and they’re playing this song called “Midnight Rambler.” All of a sudden, this 81-year-old man is now 30. And his body is moving like a fucking 30-year-old, you know … he’s got the moves like Jagger, of course. I hit Chris with my elbow; I’m like, “Look at this motherfucker.” and Chris is like, “The music just took him over.” That’s exactly what happens to all of us. The music takes you over. It doesn’t matter if you got 101 fever; you know, at that moment, you’re just a vessel, and this energy is flowing through you, and you can’t stop it. A lot is about taking care of yourself, but this business really keeps us young. Or at least we think it does.
The new album, Cursum Perficio, roughly translates to “my journey has come to an end,” or “my journey is over,” or “I complete my journey.” Is this some foreshadowing?
It’s twofold here for me. One part of it was that I didn’t have any juice in me to make or write another record. This was going back a bit, before COVID. I didn’t really feel creative. I started doing a couple of things here and there, but I wasn’t really thinking about a record. I’m always writing. I’m always putting stuff on tape. I’m always playing, but I wasn’t really thinking about another album. So, right before the pandemic, I started to feel that way, creative. We did get together once or twice to hear some ideas, and then the pandemic hit, and it all came to an end. During that time, two things happened. I was going out of my mind watching the news.
My wife, Carla, said, “You gotta turn this stuff off. You’re going crazy.” And I did. Then I went into my studio and started being creative, and all of a sudden it started getting good. I started doing these lockdown videos. That really inspired me to learn how to make songs in different genres and make them my own. Then I started doing more Anthrax-style songs. I’d start demos, send them to the guys, and get a thumbs up. I accumulated so many that we had a Dropbox full of demos.
Once we were allowed to travel again, we got together in LA to play some of these songs. It was such a great thing to be in a room again with everyone and make something new, make something fresh. [It was like] “Wow, this sounds like Anthrax again.” That’s how it happens. So, in one sense, the journey was starting. Then it finally came to an end when we mixed the last song, and then that was it.
Now, when I said it was two-fold, we’re definitely at the end of our career rather than the beginning. If we end this with 12 records, like The Beatles did, I’m fine with that.
Speaking of the lockdown, “For the Kids” is a very charged song — how much was inspired by lockdown?
When you’re a parent all of a sudden, you don’t remember anything before you had those kids. I don’t know if it’s a Men in Black wipe situation, but you forget a lot of what happened before you had kids. That’s what you care about, worry about, and nurture. When you see reports of other people’s kids being killed, and all you offer is thoughts and prayers, you don’t move; you don’t do anything to change it.
It’s a reality check for all of us, and people don’t like to hear the truth, especially people who are on the other side, who support certain things like gun laws and everything like that. So, for a parent to speak out about it is the right thing to do. Any moron who’s gonna rebut or give you any shit for doing that is a fucking asshole.
And that’s when I say a lot of the parents in this country, in this world, have failed. The government is failing us. This isn’t about any party. We need to stand up to a lot of this stuff, and we really need to speak our mind, because rock music, punk rock music, it’s always been a voice. So to tell us to shut up [and just play music] you don’t understand how this works.
People seem to have forgotten when you teamed up with Public Enemy — that just wasn’t for fun.
Exactly, speak up. That’s the only way you make change: by speaking up. And if you don’t like the way it is because you support someone…Why can’t you put yourself in someone else’s shoes just for a second? Just try to understand it. That’s what I always say: there’s no balance. It’s like you’re either with me, or I fucking hate you. And it’s like, ‘No, have a conversation. Be an adult.’
In a press release I read that “Everyone’s Got a Plan” is your favorite song on the album – can you go into why?
My favorite song is probably my favorite song at that time, but my moods change, and then I’ll pick something else that resonates with me that week or that day. But “Everybody’s Got a Plan,” that song in particular, was a riff that I had from about 2015. It could have even been left over from the last album. And it always had what I called the Van Halen riff; I don’t know why it reminded me of Van Halen. I finally figured out the next part to go because you always have the riff, and then it’s like, “Shit, where’s it gonna go?” And then, all of a sudden, one day the next part comes, and you’re like, “Yes, thank you!”
Then Scott [Ian] had these really cool lyrics. There was a quote by Mike Tyson that came out a couple of years ago, and it was about people on the internet—they’re all tough, but if you said that to my face, you would get punched in the face. So that’s the line where he says everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.
One thing I thought was really cool was that you dropped three spoken-word “songs,” which were stories of Grimm, Rowan Fenn, and Miss Clara Thorne. Can you talk about why this was important to this record? And also, this was inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas?
They’re the characters that are on the cover of the record; I just wanted to do more with them because they were just intriguing. When I was talking to the artist, Mark Stutzman, about the cover, and what I’d like to see in this, that, and the other thing. I wanted to give a backstory to some of the characters. I remember back in 1993 when they were about to release The Nightmare Before Christmas, they did this ad campaign where it was, like, Meet Jack, Meet Sally, Meet Lock, Stock, and Barrel. I always thought that was really cool because you don’t really know anything about them. So I talked to Missy [Collazo] at the record company [Megaforce Records] about this idea: let’s give these characters a backstory. And that’s what we did.
My thing is, the magician … or we call him the magician … but his name is Rowan Fenn. I wanted him to be a younger version of the guy that’s on the Among the Living cover. He’s just a sinister being. We don’t know where he comes from. I always pictured him in a place, like in The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy wanders off and she meets the medicine man who is, in her dream, the wizard. He’s in this place — but where the fuck is he? Where is this place? How do people even go to him? The cover of the new record, I wanted it to be some isolated place. It could be 25 miles from where The Persistence of Time cover is. I just wanted to tie everything in with little Easter eggs that, you know, our fans could recognize and give them a little chuckle.
You mentioned Missy from MegaForce Records. I’m in New Jersey, not far from Old Bridge and Sayreville, where MegaForce came from. And I know that this is a split release between them and Nuclear Blast, but I can’t be from NJ and not have you show some love for New Jersey and being on MegaForce.
Back in 1982, there was this man called Johnny Z, Johnny Zazula, and he was doing this thing in New Jersey at a flea market. He was selling [music and magazines] from England, and no one else was importing stuff like he was doing. I would have to go downtown [in NYC] to The Village to Bleecker Bob’s and some other stores to get certain things, whether it be Kerrang!, or my favorite band’s import records. So, Johnny was also doing that. Around 1983, he got more involved in bands; he brought over Anvil, he brought over Raven, and then he started working with a band called Metallica.
We were working with Johnny at the time. Metallica was using the same rehearsal place that Anthrax were using, and Scott got that for them. So we became part of his family, and he wanted to put out our first single. Then he put out our EP. Then we put out our first record with him. He became our manager because we liked everything Johnny was saying, and he did a great job for us. He had people working for him, and one of those people was Missy Collazo, who now owns Megaforce.
So, let’s fast-forward many, many years later: we were looking for a label, Missy was running Megaforce, and she came to us, and I felt this was meant to be. I always go where the love is, and not necessarily where a paycheck is. I always felt that if you go somewhere where the love is, the paycheck is gonna come, because if people love you and enjoy working with you, they’re gonna work harder because you have that relationship with them. Anyway, we’ve been with her for many years now. We put out three records with her, and we’re very happy with her. She’s very passionate about it.
I wanna go back to that idea of love. You’ve been in this band nearly your entire life. This band is as old as I am. I’m sure over the years there’s been many a time when I’m sure you could have walked away; you could have done something different. But what is it about Anthrax that makes this the place for you? Why is this where your heart lies?
You create something with people where not every day is great, but the good outweighs the bad. A lot of the time, and it goes back to what I said about [how] the music takes you over. I’m a person who needs music in his life daily; I sit on my couch with my guitar, watch some Bravo reality show, and I’ll make up a song because I have to. I don’t know what else to do; it’s in my DNA. For some reason, Anthrax was the vessel; that’s what I chose, or it chose me, actually. So I continue to ride it out and see how far I can push it. I’ve been saying that I’m most proud of this record, proud of myself, that I could come up with all these songs and these ideas, and they’re all different. Not one of them sounds the same. That to me is very important, because when I would listen to a Beatles record, all of a sudden it’s like where are these songs coming from? How did these guys do this? So I always push myself further and further to be original, you know? Because it’s important to me.
