Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian sat down with Sam Dunn in 2010 for an interview about the history of thrash for the TV series Metal Evolution. He also gave his take on the rap metal cross-over of “Bring The Noise”, and how he ended up on a reality TV show with Ted Nugent.

This interview excerpt is presented Raw & Uncut:

Anthrax have released an official music video for their new single, "Monster At The End”, from the band's critically-acclaimed album, For All Kings, available via Megaforce.

The original concept was to have four still photographers placed strategically on a Florida set while the five members of Anthrax performed their new song "Monster At The End" live. Each photographer would hold down his camera's shutter button continuously for the near-four minute-long song, capturing a steady stream of hundreds of still images.

"Hey, it might have been a great idea," laughed video director Jack Bennett, "but holding down the shutter button on a still camera for that long a time? All we would have ended up with were four jammed cameras!"

Shooting the entire video with Super Sharp HD video still cameras, Bennett wanted an animated, staccato-feel to the flow of the individual images. "Video shutter speeds are faster and more reliable than anything we could have done manually, and we wanted as big a pool of still images to choose from as we could get."

In post-production, Bennett went through the footage frame by frame and hand-picked the still images he wanted to animate - hundreds of them. Rather than print the video at 24 frames per second, he animated movement of the band members using the still images, creating a jagged, crude motion. "We didn't want fluidity, we wanted the video to have more of a comic book feel to it, like flipbook animation."

This also allowed Bennett to hang on the band members' individual movements to accentuate the power of their playing, such as the strength in Charlie Benante's drum hits, or Scott Ian's strumming or Frank Bello's rhythm.

And then the real fun began.

Bennett and his crew went one step further, taking a cue from the legendary Walt Disney animators of the 1920s and 1930s, who used the technique of rotoscoping, the art of painstakingly hand-painting individual cels to embellish a primary image.

Employing the fundamentals of rotoscope, Bennett has peppered the video with monsters, tattoos that come alive, explosions, popping eyeballs, speech bubbles, morphed images, and nods to the influence of 'Creepshow.' There's even a frame or two of The Skull King, the evil character from Anthrax's "Blood Eagle Wings" music video that Bennett also directed. Actor Justin Michael Terry, who played The Skull King, is The Runner in "Monster At The End”.

"We used a lot of stop-motion effects as well as other special and visual effects in the same way as was done in the original 'Exorcist' film," Bennett added. "We even added a little bit of grain, some dust and some scratches just to give it that analog feel."

As the music video unfolds, the frame rate increases, giving the band members more and more fluid movements until the final chorus when the video is full-on 24-frames per second. "You could watch this video one frame at a time," Bennett added, "and probably not find everything we did."

"The “Monster At The End” video takes us back to our love of comics and horror," said Anthrax's Charlie Benante. "We've always loved the 'Creepshow' movies and wanted something like that for this video. Jack is easy to work with, all we did was perform the song, he did the real work with the editing and achieving the look that we wanted."

Bennett wraps the video with one more surprise, an unexpected ending that goes to show that in the end, there's a little bit of the monster in all of us.

Recently, Anthrax not only made its Late Night With Seth Meyers debut, but hung out with the iconic Robert De Niro.

Check out the band's live performance of "Monster At The End”, below:

 

 

With October designated as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Anthrax have announced a very special concert to be held at Brooklyn's Saint Vitus Bar on Friday, September 16th.

"This has to be the most intimate show we've played since the early 80s which makes it so special," said vocalist Joey Belladonna about the Saint Vitus Bar, known for putting on massive underplays in their small Brooklyn bar.

Jose Mangin from SiriusXM/Affliction Clothing will be on hand to host. Tickets are priced at $50 and go on-sale at 12 noon this Friday, August 19th at this location. All proceeds will go to benefit Gilda's Club NYC, and everyone who purchases a show ticket will get a special, limited-edition t-shirt created just for cancer awareness, courtesy of Jakprints.

In addition, Anthrax has joined up with artists including The Black Keys, the Pixies, Ed Sheeran and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to take part in this year's Ten Bands One Cause promotion aimed at bringing awareness to October's Cancer Awareness Month that also benefits Gilda's Club NYC.

A limited number of Anthrax's new album, For All Kings (Megaforce) will be pressed onto pink vinyl and released on September 27th. Identified by a special sticker, the album will be available at all retail stores where vinyl is sold, through Amazon.com and all F.Y.E. stores. Fans will be able to get their hands on a copy of Anthrax's For All Kings pink vinyl before release date as a small quantity - all signed by the band - will be on sale at the Saint Vitus show.

The members of Anthrax have a very personal connection with cancer awareness. Bernadette "Tina" Benante, drummer Charlie Benante's mother and bassist Frank Bello's grandmother, passed away from cancer in 2012. "Cancer took away one of the most important people in my life," said Bello. "I was at the hospital wheeling my grandmother to chemo and it was just brutal. Anything that we can do to not make people go through that hell is something we want to be involved with."

The band members will tell you that Tina never missed an Anthrax show. When the band played New York, she was there. She loved baking cookies and she knew each band members' personal favorites. When they played Yankee Stadium with The Big Four, she baked everyone's favorites and brought them to the band's dressing room.

"They don't make them like that anymore," Bello added. "She was and will always be a big part of Anthrax."

The day his mom passed, Charlie wrote, "My Mom was all about letting me follow my dream, she always pushed me in that direction. She was the one who would take me to buy my records, she was the one who would sit through a matinee of all five 'Planet of the Apes' movies. She was the one who got me to be who I am. I am going to celebrate her life every day."

Gilda's Club NYC was founded in 1995 in memory of Gilda Radner, the talented comedienne and original cast member of Saturday Night Live who passed away in 1989 from cancer. GCNYC's mission is to support, educate and empower cancer patients and their families.

Said Scott Ian about Gilda's Club NYC, "No one should face cancer alone. The vital support they give to cancer patients and their families is truly a noble cause and we are honored to be able to help."

During their three-and-a-half decades together, Anthrax has sold ten-million units, been awarded Gold and Platinum albums and six Grammy nominations.  They are card-carrying members of The Big Four (the sole representatives from the East Coast), and helped break down the race and genre barriers when they collaborated with Public Enemy on "Bring The Noise”. They were the first metal band to have their music played on Mars when NASA played "Got The Time" to wake up the Mars Rover, Curiosity.  Author and big Anthrax fan Stephen King included an Anthrax concert in one of his Dark Tower series books, and comic book artist Alex Ross has created several Anthrax album covers and t-shirt designs.

(Photo -Travis Shinn)