WEB-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: ANTHRAX’S CHARLIE BENANTE ON THE ‘AMONG THE LIVING’ REISSUE, THE BAND’S FUTURE, AND CREATING THRASH

Thrash icons Anthrax are reissuing their classic 1987 album, Among the Living, as a deluxe double CD on November 10, via Island/Megaforce/UMe. It contains bonus tracks like alternate versions of songs and B-sides and includes a DVD of the Oidivnikufesin: N.F.V. concert film. The album was produced by the band and legendary producer and engineer Eddie Kramer, who previously worked with Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, KISS, and others. The album would produce such classics as the title track, “Caught in a Mosh,” “I Am the Law,” “Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.),” and “Indians.” In anticipation of the release, Revolver caught up with Anthrax drummer and songwriter Charlie Benante to discuss the reissue and the band’s future.

REVOLVER Why did you choose Among the Living out of all the albums from your catalog to get the deluxe treatment?
CHARLIE BENANTE For a while now, I’ve been wanting to remaster our back catalog, and that was one of the records that really needed it. Let’s face it, it’s going back to 1987. It needed to have that low end the mids, the highs brought back into it to make it sound like it originally did. So we contacted Island/Universal, and then it got bumped up to a deluxe edition, which I was so happy about because I have some stuff in the archives that I would like to incorporate into this: some alternate versions and stuff like that. Just make it really, really you know cool.

What sorts of things did you find in your archives?
There was alternate leads, some alternate vocal takes, alternate takes of songs, and I was like, Wow, I don’t even remember doing this, but we did. And then I had some live stuff, too, that was kinda cool and some B-sides that never made it on to a full CD, so decided to make it as interesting as possible.

I have a lot of the old 12-inches, but even so it’s nice to hear the funny things like “Bud E. Luvbomb and Satan’s Lounge Band” on a CD.
You know what, it’s funny you mention that because I haven’t heard that, probably since maybe we recorded it and I put it on and I’m like, Oh, my God. It totally just brought back so many memories for me.
I was telling somebody just the other day, I’m such a fan of, like, the Beatles and Led Zeppelin and I collect whatever, like, alternate versions of songs or mixes. To me that is so interesting to find, if you can find, just these types of tings. So when I stumbled on like a different version of “Indians” with a different lead, I was like, Wow, I totally forgot about this. The one that made the record was the one that we’re all used to, so of course that’s the one we like, but the other one is really interesting, as well.

What’s your fondest memory of recording that album?

Wow, there was many, many things about that record that was pleasant and unpleasant. I remember wanting Eddie Kramer to do that record because of, me personally, my love of the Led Zeppelin stuff and the KISS stuff that he did. He just created this sound, and it’s exactly what we wanted. But the record that we wanted to make and the record that he wanted to make were two different records.

How so?

Well, the first thing that Eddie did, we were just, “No, no, no. We don’t want it to sound like that.” He was trying to do a ’90s version of a record, where it had a lot of polish on it, you know. We wanted the opposite. We wanted it as dry a s possible. There was a vibe that we were trying to create, and, you know, I guess he had a different take on the whole thing where he was adding a lot of reverb to things. We didn’t want that; we wanted that totally pulled back. And then we settled on what we thought was the right mix… But there were moments where it just kind of got a little weird because for me especially I was like, Well, this is Eddie Kramer. How could I tell Eddie Kramer, “No,” because I have so much respect for him? He’s a legend. And at the end of the day, it came out good. I have nothing bad to say.

Some funny stories about making that record, that’s a whole other issue. We went down to Compass Point [Studios] in the Bahamas to mix it, and this is where U2 would go and Iron Maiden were there a few years back. We rented this town home and we all slept there and right next door to where that was, was this huge house, and [“Addicted to Love” singer] Robert Palmer lived there. And we would see Robert Palmer at last three times a week coming out on his boat and waving, “Hi. Hey guys, how you doing? Blah, blah, blah.” And one funny story about the studio is they have these interns—like, Island people who worked at the studio. And our manager at the time, he had a rental car and he loaned it to one of the workers there to go get some stuff…and he never came back. [Laughs] Never came back. Took the car, took the cash that he gave him to get the stuff. Never came back. They eventually found the car and they found him, too. But that was pretty funny, and I remember him giving him, like, the list of stuff that he had to get, and he’s probably thinking to himself, Yeah, yeah, just keep writing the bullshit down. I’m not coming back, so….

What a jerk.

Yeah, totally. But it was interesting. It was definitely an interesting time for us, you know, because we were on the verge kind of breaking out and we had no idea.

Going back to the Bahamas, is that when you started wearing shorts? You wore big colorful shorts in the ’80s.

The shorts were already implemented into the whole look. It started to blow up a little bigger after; the seed was planted. That was just because of our love of the whole skateboarding culture and stuff. That’s the weird thing about it, and I guess we just kind of took advantage of it a bit, and people would come to the show dressed up like that, too, so it had this total fan-band relationship.