For All Kings

I mean-

Was it 10 years since For All Kings?

Yes.

Yeah.

And I'm trying to figure, I don't know this, I don't remember, is this your first studio record? Were you on-

Second.

So you were on For All Kings.

Yeah.

No.

But I think Worship Music and For All Kings, I thought those were really just-

Yeah, I thought those were great.

Mm-hmm

Mm-hmm.

No, but I think Worship Music and For All Kings, I thought those were really-

Yeah, I know.

Those were great

I al- felt they sounded the most dated.

Uh, I wasn't a massive fan of For All Kings.

It was okay.

Which came out probably 10 years ago now.

You know, mo' money, mo' problems, momentum.

You had momentum coming off of 2011 up to For All Kings.

You take a decade off? Not the wisest thing to do in the twilight of your career.

Well, Charlie was busy,

This has more kind of a proggy...

I like kinda how they sort of put some proggy elements into their- Later stuff like this, and For All Kings, and worship music.

[yawns]

Wake up, son.

Uh, yeah.

But he's been with them since 14, so he was on the last album, wasn't he?

For All Kings?

Yeah.

The result worked well enough to establish that Anthrax could again function as a contemporary band rather than a nostalgia act, earning another Grammy nomination and giving the group a stable direction after years of vocalist uncertainty.

Guitarist Jonathan Dinesh joined after Caggiano's departure, and that lineup made For All Kings in 2016.

This is where the reunion era finally felt less like a reunion.

unlike worship music anthrax knew belladonna was a singer while the new material was being written and frank bello described the band as having rediscovered a comfortable understanding of who they were as writers we liked for all kings by god it sounded recognizably like anthrax without pretending that the previous 20 years had never happened Belladonna's melodic voice over heavier modern production, plenty of thrash, but also broader, more deliberate songwriting, the band had developed over time.

We did not treat it as another among the living or sound of white noise.

It was simply a good, confident Anthrax record made by musicians who no longer seem particularly confused about what Anthrax was supposed to be.

That may be the most useful way to understand the band's history.

Anthrax began by discovering an identity, spent part of the 1990s trying to adapt that identity for a rapidly changing market, endured years of lineup instability, and eventually reached the point where adaptations stopped meeting, chasing whatever was happening around them.

It kind of has that Madhouse vibe.

The Edge of Perfection has, sounds to me like there's echoes of Breathing Lightning from For All Kings.

People compare it.

There's a lot going on in just the space of those two songs.