ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante is featured in a new interview with Vinny Cecolini at JAM Magazine discussing the Worship Music album. An excerpt from the discussion is available below:

JAM: While overcoming numerous obstacles during its career, Anthrax has somehow managed to maintain a rather unique sense of humor about everything it's gone through.

Benante "It's our New York attitude. Hit us and we're just going to come back. It's what has kept us going. We don't look back; we just move forward. Comparing Anthrax to other bands, however, I'd say METALLICA has had some pretty bad luck itself, including the 1986 loss of bassist Cliff Burton during a horrific bus crash. Yes, we've experienced ups and downs that have been well documented. I wish they weren't well documented, but they were."

JAM: Did previous singer Dan Nelson's short tenure actually help the band create such a great album?

Benante: "It was an education. It made us realize what was important and what wasn't important. Some of us needed the kick to mature us, to bring us back down to earth, and to make us refocus on what we set out to do in the first place, to create music we enjoyed. I don't know why we were put through a tornado. Maybe that is what it took to make such an important record."

JAM: Although it is epic, would Anthrax ever consider releasing 'In The End' as a single?

Benante: "It would be great if we lived in a time when a song did not have to be less than four-minutes to be a single. Music should not be diluted or edited. It should be as free-form as possible and just put out on the radio so people can decide if they want to listen to it."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Anthrax entered the Billboard 200 chart at #52 with their new Anthems EP, selling approximately 8,500 copies in the US in it's first week of release.

The band recently issued the special edition of the band's last album, Worship Music. The special edition contains both the regular album as well as the brand new Anthems EP, featuring cover versions of songs originally performed by RUSH, AC/DC, BOSTON, JOURNEY, CHEAP TRICK and THIN LIZZY.

Anthems is released separately on CD and vinyl and is exclusively available at the Nuclear Blast Mailorder, here. On iTunes, get Worship Music Special Edition here, and Anthems EP here.

Anthems EP tracklisting:

'Anthem' (RUSH)

'TNT' (AC/DC)

'Smokin'' (BOSTON)

'Keep On Runnin'' (JOURNEY)

'Big Eyes' (CHEAP TRICK)

'Jailbreak' (THIN LIZZY)

'Crawl' (Album version)

'Crawl' (Remix)

A 3.5 minute video including snippets of every song and comments by the band's members can be found below:

Check out Bravewords.com's review of Anthems here.