While continuing to tour in support of We’ve Come For You All, Anthrax has reissued their 1998 opus, Volume 8 – The Threat Is Real. Concurrently, work is underway on a box set, DVD and further rereleases.

Drummer Charlie Benante checks in with BW&BK; from the confines of a comfy Quebec hotel. Volume 8 was originally released on Ignition Records five years ago. Now Sanctuary/EMI have rereleased this classic as an enhanced CD with the video for ‘Inside Out’ as well as three bonus tracks: ‘Giving The Horns’ (an Anthrax original), ‘The Bends’ (RADIOHEAD) and ‘Snap/I’d Rather Be Sleeping’ (DRI).

Was there a huge demand for this disc? “Yeah because the initial pressing was pretty much sold out,” responds Charlie. “The only way people could get it was to pay a lot of money on eBay or get it imported from Japan, which is also expensive.”

Covering Radiohead is unexpected to say the least. “That was in ‘97/’98 and Radiohead were a different band. I’m not saying they were extreme metal back then but nowadays they’re more experimental. I’m not really into them as much as I used to be. But they did this record called The Bends and it’s probably one of the best records that ever came out. We just wanted to do it as a B-side.”

Besides the bonus tracks, another difference exists between the initial Vol. 8 and the rerelease. “We put the cursing back in. The original has no swearing on it. The one that was originally released was edited. There are two or three songs that have a few words and the record company at the time thought we would get into the bigger chains like Wal Mart if we took the cursing out. In hindsight, it didn’t do anything.”

Concert dates run until the end of October. After Halloween, Anthrax may not be sweating under stage lights, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be busy. “We’re hopefully going to shoot a video for ‘What Doesn’t Die’. It’s going to be a very, very scary horror theme with zombies.”

The much-talked-about and often delayed live album is finally going to come to fruition. “It’s something we’ve just got to do. We had the idea of calling it Thraximus Maximus Liveus. We may keep that title or we may dump it; I don’t know.”

Will it be a single or double live disc? “That’s a good question. It depends on how much we put on it. I’d like to include as much as we possibly could but we may save stuff for the box set.”

The box set! A sure sign of a band’s long-standing significance, and Anthrax are about to have their own. “We’re shooting for four discs. The title I have for it is Caught In A Box. My whole thing is giving people more

value for their money. We’re going to re-record some older songs with John (Bush) singing. We want to make the box set as special as possible. We might record them in the studio or actually live.”

When might the box be available in stores? “It could take awhile. I’ve heard that box sets can take up to a year to actually put together. So, who knows? We’ll see.”

An Anthrax DVD is also on the drawing board. “We want to release some of the older videos that were out. We may just compile them together into one DVD. We filmed last night [10/10] in Montreal. Actually, we shot some stuff in Europe this summer on festivals. We may take some of that footage and use it.”

If that wasn’t enough to satisfy the appetite of even the craziest Anthrax fan, the band’s beginnings are about to be brought into the light once again. “After this box set comes out, then we’re going to rerelease the old albums; re-mastered as a special edition. Fistful, Spreading, Among - all that stuff. They haven’t been re-mastered since CDs first came out in the mid ‘80s [when they were recorded on analog equipment]. They need to be beefed up a bit for today’s standards.”

As extensive as they are, these plans will not interfere with Anthrax playing live. “I think we’re going to do another run through the States from the end of November into December. We may even stop over in Toronto again. Then we have to go to Japan. We were there once in July to do a festival but we haven’t done a proper tour.”

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