Thrash metal legends Anthrax are steadily gearing up to release their highly anticipated new studio album later this year. The forthcoming record, which serves as the official follow-up to 2016’s For All Kings, is tentatively scheduled for a May release in North America via Megaforce Records and in Europe through Nuclear Blast.
The band once again enlisted the expertise of producer Jay Ruston—who previously helmed both For All Kings and 2011’s Worship Music. Recording and mixing sessions for the new LP partially took place at Studio 606, the legendary Northridge, California facility owned by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl.
In a recent interview with Andrew Slaidins on The Rockpit‘s “50 Shades Of Slaids“, guitarist Scott Ian expressed his excitement to finally share the new material with the fans.
“The album’s coming out this year. I am not going to tell you when, but I will say there’s an announcement coming soon… But, yeah, we want the album to come out this year… The fact that we’re putting out our first record since 2016 and we feel really good about it, that’s the focus and that’s the plan [for the rest of 2026], totally,” Scott revealed (as transcribey by Blabbermouth).
Addressing the massive ten-year gap between albums, the guitarist clarified that the lengthy delay was never intentional.
“We weren’t planning on [taking] 10 years [to release a new album]. In actual time, ’cause if you take out the time we were on tour for For All Kings, ’cause that record came out in ’16, and we didn’t finish the touring cycle till November of ’19 on that album. We had already started writing at that point for a new record. And we thought we were just gonna take off for Christmas and New Year’s at ’19 going into ’20 and then get back together in ’20 and make a record. And then, of course, the world had other plans for everybody. So it wasn’t until some point later in ’21 that that started picking up again. Really, if you look at actual time we spent writing and recording the record, it’s probably about three years, which, I think, that’s pretty average these days, certainly for a band [like ours].”
Fans recently caught a brief glimpse of the new music when Anthrax played a short snippet over the PA system during their Canadian tour alongside Megadeth and Exodus. When asked if attendees at the band’s four upcoming Australian shows in late March will hear any new material, Ian remained tight-lipped but highly enthusiastic:
“Well, I am [able to tell you more about that song snippet], but I’m not going to, because, like all these things, there’s a plan, there’s a timeline. We’ve got lots of exciting s**t up our sleeve. It’s so hard not to talk about s**t. It’s so hard to not wanna just spill the beans and just f**king play the record for everybody already.”
Ian continued: “I think people don’t understand that. I see comments online of people [saying], ‘Where’s the f**king record?’ How do you think we feel? We’re the guys in the band. Granted, I’ve heard the record, of course, but who cares if I’ve heard it? That doesn’t matter. I want everyone else to hear it. I’m so f**king excited. Eight people have heard this f**king album. So I can’t wait for people to hear it. I can’t wait. And I know what we have. It’s like having just the most powerful weapon in the world at your disposal, but you’re missing this one little thing and you can’t use it.”
He added: “I can’t wait for people to hear it. And I’m excited. And we will probably play a piece of something when we’re down [in Australia], I’m sure. And it’ll sound way better live than the little snippet you hear on YouTube through somebody’s phone. And, yeah, soon enough the first song will be out.”
Historically, Anthrax has frequently recorded cover songs during their album sessions, but the guitarist confirmed that this tradition was skipped for the new record.
“We didn’t record any covers, which is funny ’cause I don’t think I realized that. I think at some point during the process we talked about it and I don’t know why we ended up not, but until you just mentioned it, I hadn’t thought about that. I remember Charlie [Benante, Anthrax drummer] recorded drums to [a song by] Van Halen. ‘Romeo Delight‘. I can’t even remember now. [It was] so many years. I remember Charlie cut drums, ’cause we were f**king around with the Van Halen song, but we never finished it. The closest we came, I guess, was when we did [Black Sabbath‘s] ‘Into The Void‘ at [Ozzy Osbourne‘s final concert] ‘Back To The Beginning‘ [in July 2025]. But, of course, that’s not on the record, and it’s not ours to put out. I think that’s gonna come out on the DVD or whatever they’re doing with ‘Back To The Beginning‘. So people will get to hear that. But no, we don’t have a cover.”
However, he did tease that there is additional original material waiting in the wings.
“There are a bunch of other songs. There’s one or two others that are finished that we held, and there’s one or two that are close that still needed some work. So over the next couple years, it might be cool. We could have some other new s**t come out over the next few years while we’re on tour too.”
