ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante has issued the following update:

"We have 13 brand new ANTHRAX songs, we have four (maybe five) b-sides. The b-sides will be 'Brain Of J' (PEARL JAM), 'Big Eyes' (CHEAP TRICK), 'New Noise' (THE REFUSED), 'Running Down A Dream' (TOM PETTY) and maybe an ANVIL cover — 'Jackhammer'?? Or maybe an ALICE COOPER cover — 'We Die Young'?

"The new tunes are very strong. We have some old-school thrash and some stuff that is like 'We've Come For You All' meets 'Sound Of White Noise'. This record is not forced — it is a very organic and honest representation of where we are as a band and as writers.

"I hear many things nowadays that sound forced, I ain't digging that. There is a six-minute tune called 'Down Goes The Sun', I believe it is one of my favorite songs. The music itself is epic, it sends chills up my spine. 'Face with No Name', 'The Devil You Know', 'Earth On Hell' — all killer.

"'Worship Music' should be out in May.

"We enter the studio on November 4th, the day that change comes, hahahahaha!"

"GO VOTE!!

"Take this country back from these thieves that put us in this situation.

"Anyone selling a black hybrid Escalade? I want one!"

Video footage of ANTHRAX performing a brand new song called "Fight 'Em Til You Can't" on May 28, 2008 at Double Door in Chicago, Illinois can be viewed below (clip filmed and uploaded by Thraxx a.k.a. Ted). The Chicago concert was the group's first with new singer Dan Nelson, who officially joined ANTHRAX in December 2007 as the replacement for Joey Belladonna.

An audience recording of the other two new ANTHRAX songs that were performed at the Chicago show can be heard by following these links:

"Revolution Screams": Audio
"Vampyres": Audio

In a recent interview with Metal Maniacs magazine, ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian stated about Dan Nelson's singing style, "I've compared him to John Bush on steroids because he definitely comes from more of that tone, but also because he's only 31 or 32 years old. He listens to the more extreme side of heavy metal. He was in a lot of bands that were certainly more extreme than ANTHRAX so he's able to take what he has a lot further. That's not to say you're going to hear an ANTHRAX record with death metal or hardcore vocals or anything like that. The guy's a singer and a great singer at that. I'm just saying that he's already got this really powerful singing voice and he's able to take it to a level we've never explored before. We have a bunch of spots on this record where it really works."

When asked if all the music and vocal melodies/lyrics for the new songs had already been "pre-written" for Nelson prior to the singer joining the band, Ian said, "Before Dan, we had ideas for maybe two songs and not even any lyrics yet. Once Dan got involved, that's when the light bulb went off over my head. I wasn't writing anything because I had no focus as far as who was actually going to be singing this stuff. Once I had Dan's voice in my brain it totally opened the door for me writing-wise. It's been really collaborative since then. We all get together, listen to the music and work on the melody lines until everybody is happy. We have two songs done. There's a song called 'Revolution Screams' which is a straight-up thrash tune. There's another called 'Fight 'Em Til You Can't' which sounds like ANTHRAX from 1987 but in 2008. It's total old-school thrash. I'm totally stoked on them!"