In a major update for thrash fans, Anthrax bassist Frank Bello has confirmed that the band’s long-awaited new album is officially in the mixing phase and that the band is “very, very hungry” for fans to hear it. The record, tentatively due in early 2026, will be their first full-length studio release in nearly a decade, following 2016’s For All Kings.
Speaking in a new interview with Thomann’s Guitars & Basses on Monday, Bello shared his immense excitement as he begins to hear the final, polished tracks.
“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,” Bello said. “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… as a fan of the band, it’s, like, ‘F**k yeah!’ You get hungry and you’re ready and you know you have the goods. So we’re pretty psyched.”
Bello explained that his perspective as a genuine fan of his own band is the ultimate quality control.
“I think you never stop being a fan. Never stop being a fan, because that’s where the gut is,” he stated. “I’m an Anthrax fan, so I wanna hear the best of the best… 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.”
He also offered a glimpse into the band’s modern writing process, which takes place across the country before the members unite to finalize the music.
“It’s all [about exchanging] demos at this point. It’s all digital stuff, so we send each other stuff,” Bello detailed. “Charlie‘s [Benante] in Chicago, Scott‘s [Ian] in L.A., I’m in New York… 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.”
Bello‘s update that the album is now mixing aligns with the timeline drummer Charlie Benante provided in a July interview. At that time, Benante told the “Talk Is Jericho” podcast that the band would likely “release a song at the end of this year, to give people a taste of what’s to come.” He also revealed that the album’s artwork was complete, describing it as “f**king trippy as hell.”
