ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian spoke with John Doran from Thequietus.com recently about a number of topics including the band's new album, Worship Music, due out later this year. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Thequietus.com: Hearing the new tracks (four were made available) I’m blown away by what I heard. What kind of sound were you going for?

Ian: “It does sound great you’re right. We’re really happy with how they’ve come out. Rob Caggiano has done a great job again. Remember it’s been six years since We’ve Come For You All and during that time Rob has got better and better at what he does. He’s been working on all kinds of different projects too and because he’s in the band, he knows us better than anybody.”

Thequietus.com: How many tracks are there? I’ve heard there are a few covers on there too.

Ian: "There are thirteen Anthrax songs and we honestly haven’t decided exactly what is going to be on there yet. You’re right, there are some cover versions and one way or the other they will all be made available through all the different formats the album will come in. The mixing process has been the big thing and I’m so happy with the route we went down. We chose Dave Fortnam to do the mix and I absolutely knew he was the right guy. He came to see us at the Montreal Festival and we talked about it. Also, I love the way that new SLIPKNOT record sounded so it was the right choice.”

Thequietus.com: Do you find it as easy writing songs as you did before?

Ian: “Well this is the longest we’ve spent writing an album since Spreading The Disease, it’s been basically two years worth of writing. This record was never ever going to come out until it was ready but there have been times along the way where I have thought that we’re getting there, only to go back and re-evaluate melodies or lyrics. Charlie has always been the one to say ‘Let’s go back and have another listen’ and I have in some cases radically improved songs as a result of that. ‘Down Goes the Sun’ is one example of a song that we did that with. Obviously it would be great to have the record out for the summer, but we’d rather have it right. We’ll play one or two new ones at our live shows, but a festival isn’t really the place for people to listen properly to new songs in detail. If I remember right it was the same when we played Donington in 1987; I don’t think Among The Living was even out then?”

Read the entire interview here.