Anthrax drummer and main songwriter Charlie Benante said the band is getting started on a new album, with ideas being gathered together for the follow-up to 2016’s For All Kings.

There’s no completion or release date in mind yet for what will be the band’s 12th studio album.

“I’m happy to say that I’ve demoed lots of songs,” Benante told Metal Wani (via Blabbermouth). “I’m already pretty much on our way to the start of making another record. It's just gonna take a little time to all get together and start to arrange and start really crafting the tunes. But, yes, I have started writing songs, and it sounds really good.”

Benante added that he had “probably around seven or eight ideas” recorded. “It's probably gonna be another goal of mine to have 20 songs to choose from, like with the last album," he said. "I just wanna have as much as possible so we can say, 'Those are great. Okay, we need to work on those a little more.' Just have a variety."

Still, he doubted that material left over from For All Kings would appear on the new LP. “I always scrap it," he explained. "It's, like, 'Nah. The newer stuff is better than that stuff.' But sometimes a little piece of a song will come into play, so I wouldn't rule that out.”

Benante recently said the announcement of Slayer’s farewell tour got him thinking about his own band’s future. “I actually got a feeling of putting a timestamp on things,” he recalled. “I never look at age; the only time I look at age is when someone brings it to my attention. … It kind of hit me … ‘Fuck, man, this ride – maybe we’re all coming to end of our ride here, a bit.’ I think it probably startled a lot of people. I think life is starting to catch up on all of us.”

 

 

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