Anthrax reunite with Joey Belladonna

[whiplash1972]

http://anthrax.com/NFWS/

 

THE RUMORS ARE TRUE:

JOEY BELLADONNA REJOINS ANTHRAX

"Big Four" Dates with Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth Set; New Album Due in 2011

 

 

 

LOS ANGELES, CA - MONDAY, May 10, 2010 --

With rumors swirling since Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante and bassist Frank Bello were seen together with former Anthrax vocalist Joey Belladonna late last month in New York, the band - Benante, Bello, and guitarists Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano - is elated to announce that Belladonna has officially rejoined the band. In his once and current capacity, Belladonna will make his first appearance with Anthrax this summer when the band joins Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth - The Big Four founding bands of the thrash genre - to co-headline a series of Sonisphere Festivals in ten European cities, as well as playing a handful of Anthrax-headlined shows (itinerary is below).

 

"I am super excited about this," said Scott Ian. "Joey and the rest of the band came to see me play at a club in New York, I hadn't seen Joey for years, since the end of the reunion tour. Joey taps me on the shoulder, instant big hug, it felt like no time had gone by. The band dynamic is an interesting one - in Anthrax, Joey and I spent so many years of our lives together, we grew up together, we know each other so well, so it was like no time was lost."

 

Belladonna, an essential part of Anthrax's lineup from 1985 to 1992, sang on some of the band's most popular albums including Spreading the Disease, Among the Living and Persistence of Time. He had reunited with original members of Anthrax for the 2005 - 2007 "Among the Living Tour," but this situation is different. Explained Belladonna, "I had been in touch with Charlie and Frank, then I got a call from their manager who said that everyone wanted me back in the band. I thought, 'are you guys for real? You want me up there, fronting the band like it was before?' I was thrilled. We've already started to reconnect with the old ways of having conversations. Everything is easy going and feels really good."

"We're going to do these summer shows and gel as a band," explained Charlie Benante, "get comfortable playing with each other again, and the energy from that should go right into making new music."

Immediately following the final Sonisphere festival in early August, the band will fly back to the U.S. and begin writing and rehearsing for a new album that's expected to be out in early 2011.

"We've got an unusual luxury of hindsight," added Ian. "We finished an album a year ago, we've lived with those 12 songs since then, and we can look back on them and see what we really love and what we can make even better, especially with Joey back in the fold."

Added Benante, "There are five or six songs from a year ago that we don't want to change, we love them the way they are, other than having Joey making them his own with his vocals. Then there's another five or six that we may want to rework, and then there are a bunch of other tunes that are still in the early stages, that we want to finish.

 

"The band has been on an emotional roller coaster since last summer," Benante continued, "but I think everything that we've had to deal with during that time was pushing us toward this, to Joey being back in Anthrax, and the timing couldn't be more perfect or appropriate. To have Joey with us playing these shows with Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth is the way it should be - as Anthrax's vocalist from '85 to '92, he was part of 'The Big Four.'"

 

"John was a real stand up guy about the situation," said Ian, about John Bush, Anthrax's vocalist from '92 - '05. "He knew we wanted to move forward at full speed, that we needed a total commitment to Anthrax, and he knew that wasn't what he wanted. We certainly wish John well. We've had so many great times with him, and we appreciate his stepping in last summer at the last minute, and performing with us since then. He will always be an integral part of the Anthrax family."

 

With worldwide sales in excess of 10-million, Anthrax is about to celebrate its 29th year as a band. Over its career, Anthrax has received multiple Gold and Platinum albums, multiple Grammy nominations, and a host of other accolades from the press, industry and fans.

 

 

 

Complete dates for Anthrax - with Joey Belladonna on vocals - are as follows:

JUNE 16 Sonisphere Festival, Warsaw, Poland 18 Sonisphere Festival, Wil, Switzerland 19 Sonisphere Festival, Prague, Czech Republic 20 Arena Wien, Vienna, Austria 22 Sonisphere Festival, Sofia, Bulgaria 24 Sonisphere Festival, Athens, Greece 26 Sonisphere Festival, Bucharest, Romania 27 Sonisphere Festival, Istanbul, Turkey

JULY 31 Sonisphere Festival, Knebworth, UK

AUGUST 1 Lokerse Feesten Festival, Lokerse, Belgium 3 Metropol, Hengelo, Netherlands 5 B1, Moscow, Russia 7 Sonisphere Festival, Stockholm, Sweden 8 Sonisphere Festival, Pori, Finland

[chocularok]

http://anthrax.com/NFWS/

 

THE RUMORS ARE TRUE:

JOEY BELLADONNA REJOINS ANTHRAX

"Big Four" Dates with Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth Set; New Album Due in 2011

 

 

 

LOS ANGELES, CA - MONDAY, May 10, 2010 --

With rumors swirling since Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante and bassist Frank Bello were seen together with former Anthrax vocalist Joey Belladonna late last month in New York, the band - Benante, Bello, and guitarists Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano - is elated to announce that Belladonna has officially rejoined the band. In his once and current capacity, Belladonna will make his first appearance with Anthrax this summer when the band joins Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth - The Big Four founding bands of the thrash genre - to co-headline a series of Sonisphere Festivals in ten European cities, as well as playing a handful of Anthrax-headlined shows (itinerary is below).

 

"I am super excited about this," said Scott Ian. "Joey and the rest of the band came to see me play at a club in New York, I hadn't seen Joey for years, since the end of the reunion tour. Joey taps me on the shoulder, instant big hug, it felt like no time had gone by. The band dynamic is an interesting one - in Anthrax, Joey and I spent so many years of our lives together, we grew up together, we know each other so well, so it was like no time was lost."

 

Belladonna, an essential part of Anthrax's lineup from 1985 to 1992, sang on some of the band's most popular albums including Spreading the Disease, Among the Living and Persistence of Time. He had reunited with original members of Anthrax for the 2005 - 2007 "Among the Living Tour," but this situation is different. Explained Belladonna, "I had been in touch with Charlie and Frank, then I got a call from their manager who said that everyone wanted me back in the band. I thought, 'are you guys for real? You want me up there, fronting the band like it was before?' I was thrilled. We've already started to reconnect with the old ways of having conversations. Everything is easy going and feels really good."

"We're going to do these summer shows and gel as a band," explained Charlie Benante, "get comfortable playing with each other again, and the energy from that should go right into making new music."

Immediately following the final Sonisphere festival in early August, the band will fly back to the U.S. and begin writing and rehearsing for a new album that's expected to be out in early 2011.

"We've got an unusual luxury of hindsight," added Ian. "We finished an album a year ago, we've lived with those 12 songs since then, and we can look back on them and see what we really love and what we can make even better, especially with Joey back in the fold."

Added Benante, "There are five or six songs from a year ago that we don't want to change, we love them the way they are, other than having Joey making them his own with his vocals. Then there's another five or six that we may want to rework, and then there are a bunch of other tunes that are still in the early stages, that we want to finish.

 

"The band has been on an emotional roller coaster since last summer," Benante continued, "but I think everything that we've had to deal with during that time was pushing us toward this, to Joey being back in Anthrax, and the timing couldn't be more perfect or appropriate. To have Joey with us playing these shows with Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth is the way it should be - as Anthrax's vocalist from '85 to '92, he was part of 'The Big Four.'"

 

"John was a real stand up guy about the situation," said Ian, about John Bush, Anthrax's vocalist from '92 - '05. "He knew we wanted to move forward at full speed, that we needed a total commitment to Anthrax, and he knew that wasn't what he wanted. We certainly wish John well. We've had so many great times with him, and we appreciate his stepping in last summer at the last minute, and performing with us since then. He will always be an integral part of the Anthrax family."

 

With worldwide sales in excess of 10-million, Anthrax is about to celebrate its 29th year as a band. Over its career, Anthrax has received multiple Gold and Platinum albums, multiple Grammy nominations, and a host of other accolades from the press, industry and fans.

 

 

 

Complete dates for Anthrax - with Joey Belladonna on vocals - are as follows:

JUNE 16 Sonisphere Festival, Warsaw, Poland 18 Sonisphere Festival, Wil, Switzerland 19 Sonisphere Festival, Prague, Czech Republic 20 Arena Wien, Vienna, Austria 22 Sonisphere Festival, Sofia, Bulgaria 24 Sonisphere Festival, Athens, Greece 26 Sonisphere Festival, Bucharest, Romania 27 Sonisphere Festival, Istanbul, Turkey

JULY 31 Sonisphere Festival, Knebworth, UK

AUGUST 1 Lokerse Feesten Festival, Lokerse, Belgium 3 Metropol, Hengelo, Netherlands 5 B1, Moscow, Russia 7 Sonisphere Festival, Stockholm, Sweden 8 Sonisphere Festival, Pori, Finland

 

He's in, he's out, he's back in, he's out again, & now he's back...sheesh!

[Fat Freddy]

One word:

 

 

"Yawn."

 

 

[Ali Rock]

He's in, he's out, he's back in, he's out again, & now he's back...sheesh!

100 % backed. AGAIN and wuill he stay this time,,,,

[heaven&hell]

As a big Anthrax fan this IMO is a fucking joke.

 

If anyone has read the constant quotes coming from the Anthrax camp and saw Scott Ian on That Metal Show then you know how many great complements they've been throwing John Bush's way and how he's back now. I do understand that he couldn't commit full time and I understand that they didn't have anywhere else to turn but to me their just going backwards. They have slagged off on Joey since the reunion tour and have talked about how it was a mistake that they let John leave. I get that their doing what they have to do to survive but quit lying to your fans please. With that said IF they finish a disc with Joey and that's a huge IF, I will buy it because I am an Anthrax fan but I've never hidden my love of the John Bush era and was really looking forward to hearing some of the Nelson tunes sung by Bush so this bit of news leaves me a little cold.

[TIM (2)]

I loved this band in the 90's and never liked the earlier stuff at all. Hated Belladonna's vocals. As for the tour of "The Big Four", well I just don't think they deserve to be called that anymore. Testament, Exodus and Overkill should be touring with Megadeth for it to be really worthy of that name IMO...

[heaven&hell]

I loved this band in the 90's and never liked the earlier stuff at all. Hated Belladonna's vocals. As for the tour of "The Big Four", well I just don't think they deserve to be called that anymore. Testament, Exodus and Overkill should be touring with Megadeth for it to be really worthy of that name IMO...

 

It really should be the big 7 or maybe even 8 if you include Metal Church in there. Of course it came down to album sales and those 4 had them. But when you take into account what the bands are doing today to me Overkill, Testament and Exodus seem to be thriving and picking up new fans and have put out more consistent stuff over the last 5-10 years then the big 4 have except for maybe Slayer.

[Guest attacker]

June 16, Warsaw - I'm ready!!!

[Mullethead]

One word:

 

 

"Yawn."

 

 

 

 

I agree...I'll get more excited when Bush rejoins.

[heaven&hell]

One word:

 

 

"Yawn."

 

 

 

 

I agree...I'll get more excited when Bush rejoins.

 

I only wish but since he can't commit full time it's never gonna happen again.