Anthrax are mixing their upcoming album

Frank Bello, the bassist for Anthrax, provided an update on the long-awaited follow-up to the band’s 2016 album “For All Kings” in a recent interview with Thomann’s Guitars & Basses. The album is provisionally scheduled for release in early 2026, as reported by blabbermouth.net.

I think it’s been almost 10 years since the last Anthrax record, which is insane. We all are very, very hungry, ’cause we’re in mixing right now. The new Anthrax record, I’m proud to say, I’m very psyched about this, that it’s mixing, and now we get to hear the whole thing of it. And just to hear them really come to life now after all that, and, really, the parts are all done. Everything’s locked in. And to hear what they’re gonna sound like for when people hear it, as a fan of the band, it’s, like, ‘Fuck yeah!’ You get hungry and you’re ready and you know you have the goods. So we’re pretty psyched.

He also spoke about the band’s sentiments about the release.

You know what it is, man? I think you never stop being a fan. Never stop being a fan, because that’s where the gut is. It comes from your gut, and you are hungry. I’m an Anthrax fan, so I wanna hear the best of the best. What do we have? When you hear a bad riff, it’s out. Something’s gotta work and it’s gotta be good enough for us. That’s why we know if it’s good enough for us, everybody will like it. And that’s the way we’ve always worked.

Bello revealed some more insights about the creative process too.

It’s all [about exchanging] demos at this point. It’s all digital stuff, so we send each other stuff. Charlie’s in Chicago, Scott’s in L.A., I’m in New York. So imagine traveling like that. The three of us get together after we have a collection that we think are strong enough, and we’ll bat them down and really put ’em together and make sure they work.

Some reviews referred to “For All Kings” as Anthrax’s best album to date. Its arrival came after a five-year period in which the group had a type of rebirth, starting with the publication of their return album “Worship Music” and ending with Anthrax’s inclusion on the “Big Four” tour. On October 12, 2024, Frank performed with Anthrax for the first time in about a year and a half at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California. Due to bad weather, Bello and Anthrax’s scheduled performance at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky on September 27, 2024, was canceled. Bello last performed with Anthrax in May 2023 at the Milwaukee Metal Fest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, before Aftershock.

Bello missed two U.S. festival appearances and Anthrax’s South American tour in April and early May 2024 for “personal reasons.” Dan Lilker, the original bassist and founding member of Anthrax, filled in on those performances, his first time playing with the band in forty years. Along with Benante and Ian, Lilker was a member of Stormtroopers Of Death and co-wrote and performed on Anthrax’s debut album, “Fistful Of Metal.”