As FANGORIA celebrates it’s 30th Anniversary this year, some longtime friends of the magazine are celebrating their own anniversary. On May 12th, Megaforce Records will be celebrating the 25th Anniversary of FISTFUL OF METAL, the 1984 debut from ANTHRAX. Rock and Horror are a match made in heaven hell, and few bands have quite the association with the genre (and FANGORIA) as Anthrax.

As the special-edition release of their first album approaches, and with their first studio album in six years, WORSHIP MUSIC (their first with vocalist Dan Nelson) due out this Fall, Fango caught up with members of the band to talk music, and of course, talk horror.

In the first part of FANGORIA MUSICK’s exclusive interviews, James Zahn talks with Anthrax guitarist and lyricist Scott Ian.

FANGORIA: You guys have a long history with horror, and with Fango, going back to our original editor Bob Martin appearing in the video for “Madhouse”. Continuing that tradition, rumor has it that the new album has some vampire and zombie action going on.

SCOTT IAN: (laughs) Yeah, some of my inspirations were definitely horror-related and zombie-related, and it’s funny because people will certainly look at the lyrics and think something different. It’s not like the lyrics are actually that. I’m not actually writing about a zombie holocaust line-by-line. People will probably read it and they’ll take what they want out of it. Some will think that I’m writing about Politics or whatever, but much of the initial inspiration for this record was definitely based in zombie ideas, or zombie stories that I’ve had in my head.

FANGORIA: How about the track “Vampires?”

IAN: If you want that to be about actual vampires, it certainly can be, but that one was definitely more about our World, and the previous Administration. It’s not specifically a Bush-bashing song, because I felt that everyone had really done that to death already, and now he’s not even the President anymore. I didn’t want that to come out 10 months after he was out of the office, and seem like “Hey wait a minute! Let me get a kick in too!” I definitely didn’t want that to be the situation, so I started using the “vampire” metaphor to symbolize bloodsuckers in general and things that I don’t like about the world.

FANGORIA: It was looking like WORSHIP MUSIC was going to hit this summer, but now that’s not the case. Is there a set release date yet?

IAN: It’s not officially locked in yet, but it looks like it will be October. Perfect for Halloween!



FANGORIA: Right on. A lot of our readers know you as someone that’s really been into comics, with the JUDGE DREAD imagery and the work that Alex Ross does for you - what horror comics have you been into lately?

IAN: Probably my favorite comic of the last couple years has been Robert Kirkman’s WALKING DEAD.

FANGORIA: In the cinematic realm, which horror films have really jumped out and scared you?

IAN: The first one that comes to mind is ROSEMARY’S BABY. It’s hard, but the second movie is John Carpenter’s THE THING, followed by the original HALLOWEEN. More recently, the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake that Zack Snyder did. I know a lot of people think that’s blasphemous - and of course, I love the original - but there’s just something about the first ten minutes of this new one that I think is just the fucking best ten minutes that I’ve ever sat in a movie theatre.

FANGORIA: I’m one of the people that also loves both the original and the remake for different reasons.

IAN: Exactly. The other, and I can’t pick just one, so I’ll say THE EVIL DEAD and EVIL DEAD II.

FANGORIA: A lot of FANGORIA readers that aren’t necessarily metal fans, have certainly been exposed to the music of Anthrax through horror soundtracks going back many years.

IAN: We always put that out there for the label and publishing company to get us involved in that kind of stuff. You’re not going to see an Anthrax song in a Julia Roberts romantic comedy, but we always feel that for horror, or extreme action films, our music would work. We haven’t really gotten to do as many films as we’d like to, and the ones we’ve been involved with haven’t necessarily been of the quality level we’d like. I can’t say I’m a fan of that stupid movie with Dennis Miller and Angie Everhart that we did. I can’t even remember the name of it.

FANGORIA: BORDELLO OF BLOOD, the second TALES FROM THE CRYPT film.

IAN: Yeah, that one. It sucked. But, I will say just being involved is great. The shit we did with Carpenter was a whole different experience.

FANGORIA: GHOSTS OF MARS.

IAN: I’d have to say that was one of the coolest phone calls I’d ever received in my life! “Hey, John Carpenter is in L.A. at Cherokee Studios, and he wants to know if you could come down and meet with him, because he’d like Anthrax to score a bunch of the movie.” That’s one of those calls where you’re like, “Yeah, OK and Santa Claus is coming over.” So I say ok, and they ask “Can you go now?” That’s one of those situations where you say “Holy shit!” and then you’re sitting there with John Carpenter and he’s showing scenes from the movie asking if you can come up with things in the right tempo and to fit the vibe. That was a real “Holy shit!” moment, and he showed us about twenty minutes of the movie. Again, not the greatest Carpenter movie of all time, but for us it was an absolutely amazing experience to get to work with John, and just spend four or five days in the studio with him. It was mind-blowing.

FANGORIA: Anything new coming up on the film front?

IAN: After we’re done mixing the album we’ll give the bonus tracks to the label and publisher to start sending out again, but more importantly for me I’d like to get more involved on the scoring end of films. They always try to just wedge our songs into these movies, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. It would be different if we’d actually written these songs for horror movies.

Sam Raimi has this new movie coming out called DRAG ME TO HELL, which looks like a lot of fun from the trailer I saw. That would’ve been my dream thing if Sam Raimi would’ve called up and said “I’m doing a new movie called DRAG ME TO HELL and I need a brutal metal sequence, would you like to come down and write something for it?”

I’d be way more into something like that, where you’re being shown the footage and being influenced by the visuals. That would be great if we could do something like that for a movie that’s actually really killer.

FANGORIA: Well, maybe getting that out there through Fango will help open that door.

IAN: Well, I just read that they’re remaking A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, which is a bummer, because outside of DAWN OF THE DEAD, all of these other remakes have completely sucked. I was really, really bummed when I heard that Platinum Dunes was remaking NIGHTMARE, and then I heard that Jackie Earle Haley was playing Freddy Krueger and I got really, really, excited! He’ll be really good, and I’d love nothing more that to write some music for that movie. (laughs) We did “Freddy Krueger” on the S.O.D. record from ‘85, so we already have a history with Freddy!

FANGORIA: They’re set to start filming here in Chicago next month, and you guys still spend a lot of time here, right?

IAN: We base ourselves out of Chicago because that’s where Charlie, our drummer lives. He has a studio in his house, and that’s where we do all of our writing and tracking. Right now, we’re well past that process as we’re getting ready to mix the new record, so we’re not in Chicago right now, but we will be again soon when we start rehearsing for the tour.

FANGORIA: Giving you the floor, is there anything you’d like to get out to the FANGORIA readership?

IAN: Wow, well first off, if you haven’t checked out an Anthrax album, by all means, please do. I think you’ll be really happy about it.

Second, go out and support good horror movies. Go get the DVD of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, and check out that movie before they go and do the American remake and completely ruin it.

FANGORIA: They’re already working on that.

IAN: I know, it’s a complete bummer.



FANGORIA: For one final question, we have a running tradition of talking with bands about real-life horror, due to the vast experiences you have on the road. Worst experience as a member of Anthrax?

IAN: That’s an easy one. Back when we were on tour with Metallica in Europe back in ‘86 and the bus accident happened. Cliff Burton was killed, and that was the be-all end-all for me, not just in the context of touring with my band, but just for life experiences and to have that happen to a friend was just brutal.

FANGORIA: ‘Nuff said.

Check back later this week when we’ll be catching up with Anthrax Drummer Charlie Benante, who in addition to his work with the band, also appears in the long-awaited documentary on JAWS, THE SHARK IS STILL WORKING.

Anthrax will be kicking off their 25th Anniversary in style when Megaforce Records issues a limited-edition vinyl edition of FISTFUL OF METAL on May 12th. Pre-order yours here.

Anthrax’ new release, WORSHIP MUSIC will be released later this year through Megaforce, and in the meantime you can follow the band through their official site and myspace.

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