Speaking with San Antonio Metal Music Examiner / AXS.com’s Jay Nanda on May 24th at River City Rockfest in San Antonio, Texas, Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante talks about the band’s forthcoming follow-up to their 2011 album, Worship Music.

"It's a good thing to say that we have so many songs that that's why it's taken a bit longer than usual. Like, if we just went it and had eleven, twelve songs, we'd probably be done by now, but we have over 20 songs, so… You know, we just wanna make sure each one of them is great, even though we're not gonna put twenty songs out right away. You know what I mean, we just wanna make sure it's good, because we feel so strongly about the last one, we don't just wanna rush something, we wanna make it great, so that when people hear it, they'll be like, ‘I love this, this is killer, what a great follow-up’. So… a little bit of pressure, but, you know, I think we have some really good tunes."

Watch the interview below:

On May 17th, Charlie Benante rejoined Anthrax for their performance at Rock On The Range in Columbus, OH. Benante missed the first few weeks of his band's spring North American tour with Volbeat to undergo physical therapy for the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome he had surgery for nearly two years ago. Jon Dette (Slayer, Testament, Iced Earth) filled in Benante on the first batch of shows. Enjoy the following video of Benante bashing the skins at Rock On The Range.

"This was a difficult decision to make," said Benante, "especially as I had to miss dates on the last cycle because of my hand surgery. But the fact is, playing a show five or more times a week just isn’t realistic right now, I found that out when we were making our new album, and I don’t want to let the fans down by not being able to give it everything I have at every show. I was driving the other day and my hand went numb, so unfortunately, it's just not 100% yet. I figure I can play for maybe three weeks at a time but then I have to let it rest."
"The guys in the band have been incredibly understanding and supportive, and I hope the fans will be as well. The positive side is that I plan to use the time off the road constructively and focus on our upcoming album, continue to work on the package artwork and develop a number of other ideas I've got for the campaign."

Remaining Anthrax concerts include:

May

28 - Houston, TX - Bayou Music Center
31 - St. Louis, MO - Outdoors at Pop's

June

2 - New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom