Anthrax fans in Europe will be treated to a different face behind the drum kit on the band’s upcoming tour with Iron Maiden. The Big Four thrash band has had to temporarily replace drummer Charlie Benante due to a hand injury.
In a June 20 social media “ouch post,” Benante himself explained the situation. “I wanted to let everyone know that I unfortunately injured my right hand,” he shared. “Following my doctor’s orders, I’ll be sitting out a handful of shows from June 20 through July 4 to give it the proper time to heal.”
Benante then revealed that drummer Darby Todd would be filling in. Todd is a UK-based session drummer who previously played a handful of shows with Anthrax in Europe, according to Blabbermouth.
“I’m incredibly grateful that Darby Todd will be stepping in behind the kit for these dates and helping keep the shows rolling while I recover,” he said. “I’m already focused on getting healthy and look forward to being back on the road soon. Thank you all for the support and understanding.”
Anthrax will release their new album, ‘Cursum Perficio’, in September
Following their shows overseas, Anthrax will drop their new record, Cursum Perficio. Slated to be released on Sept. 18, the project marks the band’s twelfth full-length studio album. It has been a full decade since they released their eleventh album, For All Kings, in 2016.
The way Anthrax’s founding bassist, Scott Ian, tells it, they never meant to wait so long between records. “We weren’t planning on [going] 10 years [without a new album],” Ian told The Rockpit. “In actual time, ‘cause if you take out the time we were on tour for For All Kings, ‘cause that record came out in ’16, and we didn’t finish the touring cycle till November of ’19 on that album.”
“We had already started writing at that point for a new record,” he continued. “And we thought we were just gonna take off for Christmas and New Year’s at ’19 going into ’20 and then get back together in ’20 and make a record.”
Ian added, “And then, of course, the world had other plans for everybody. So it wasn’t until some point later in ’21 that that started picking up again. Really, if you look at actual time we spent writing and recording the record, it’s probably about three years, which, I think, that’s pretty average these days, certainly for a band [like ours].”
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