Anthrax have set a March 19th North American and a March 22nd European release date for their new covers EP. The EP, entitled Anthems, features the bands take on their favorite hard rock songs from the 1970s.
The release will feature the band's new versions of Rush's "Anthem," Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak," "TNT" by AC/DC, Boston's "Smokin'," "Big Eyes" by Cheap Trick, Journey's "Keep on Runnin."
The disc will also include a new remix of the song "Crawl" from Anthrax's 2011 album release, Worship Music.
Anthrax frontman Joey Belladonna had this to say, "These are all bands I grew up with and have listened to forever. It's just great music. I had fun singing these songs and I was happy recording together with Anthrax, doing classic rock songs. Fun stuff!"
Since the band does not have a keyboard player they recruited Fred Mandel, who has played with Alice Cooper, Queen, Elton John, Cheap Trick, Supertramp and on Pink Floyd's The Wall, as a special guest on their recording of Boston's "Smokin'."
Charlie Benante says of the song, "If ever there were a perfect first album, it's Boston's first album. The harmony leads they did would later be heard by Iron Maiden, which of course would lead to thrash metal."
The EP was produced by Anthrax along with Jay Ruston and Rob Caggiano, and was recorded all over the world including at Benante's home studio, in Ruston's New York studio, on the band's tour bus while on last summer's Mayhem Tour, in hotel rooms, and backstage at their Berlin show last December.
