Get A Dose

"Just a little bit of that, a little bit of this, you know?” comments the 52-year-old Joey Belladonna on his pre-Soundwave downtime. As the oldest current member of any 'Big 4' band (which also includes Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth, just in case you didn't know), he has performed on five of Anthrax's ten studio albums, most recently 2011's Worship Music. He tells that even when not touring, he's playing and rehearsing regularly with his covers band Chief Big Way.

Anthrax have been “getting geared up to go back out again”, with the departure of lead guitarist Rob Caggiano having been announced in early January. The 36-year-old, who first joined the band in 2001, left in order to focus on producing records and having a more stable lifestyle than the one lived regularly touring the globe. Just shy of 30 musicians have featured among the ranks of Anthrax since their formation in 1981, but it hasn't once stopped the band in their tracks. Did Belladonna and the rest of the current line-up, which features rhythm guitarist and sole founding member Scott Ian, drummer Charlie Benante, and bassist Frank Bello (all of whom apart from Ian have left and rejoined the group multiple times) see this one coming?

“I've talked with Rob quite a few times, and you know... at any time people may change their mind about things,” he continues. “I know he liked to produce and stuff, but there wasn't really any discussion that we saw coming, like we weren't sure if he would or not. I mean, I wasn't surprised, but it's all for the good for him to do whatever he needs to do. I totally get it. As you see, we pretty much move forward. As far as I'm concerned we'll move on... I'm going to miss a friend. You get to know people when you travel a lot; you get used to each other's ways and you get a bond going. But somebody new will come along, and you might get to know them and feel good about playing with them too. In one way it's a neat new venture, on the other hand you're sad that someone's leaving. You just get used to the format, you know?”

Opting for introducing some even younger blood into the fold, it was soon after revealed that Jon Donais of modern metalcore/thrash act Shadows Fall would be stepping up to the plate. It doesn't seem like Belladonna is even really sure how Donais was chosen, but he seems quite relaxed and satisfied with the decision. “We had plenty of people inquiring about doing the gig once they found out, so, it's just one of those things,” he says. “I didn't take the initial call with Jon, I didn't speak to him... Someone else may already have. The transition for him – I guess he knew a lot about the band, he's known us for a while. Shadows Fall have come out on the road with us and we've done things together, so I think it was a little bit easier to move forward. He was free and wanting to do it and completely ready. He's prepared for it.”

Does Belladonna suspect Donais will be looking to join Anthrax in a full-time capacity? “I'm not sure about Shadows Fall or what's going on with them, or the inside workings of that. I'm not even sure if Jon knows that. The saying goes for us: we'll play, we'll do the shows, and if things lend themselves to go that route then I think it'd be certainly welcomed. I'm not really sure. I don't know how that stuff works sometimes until you really get together, and people become who they are, and you get used to each other, and just play it by ear. There's no pressure on anybody.”

Anthrax were birthed in the glory days of the music industry, long before the internet allowed tape trading to go to the next level, and even achieved gold sales status with many of their albums. Having originally departed the band in 1992, Belladonna rejoined briefly in 2005 before locking it in again in 2010. Has he noticed much of a difference in the way the band have to operate now in order to stay afloat as they did back in the '80s and '90s?

“Not too much,” he says. “Before I even got back in the band I was already experiencing most of it anyhow on my own, when it came to labels and all that stuff. It didn't faze me. At the same time while you're doing it, money isn't the main goal; the main goal is to make good music and enjoy it with the people that you are playing with, and then the rest kind of plays itself out. You've gotta push to try and make a living out of it because it's what you do all the time. It comes to mind that if you're going to continue then you're going to have to find a way to do it, and that's what we do. Everyone just has to be a little more cautious. We have to make adjustments.”

During his years away from Anthrax, Belladonna released four 'solo' records (often cited as such due to an ever-changing backing line-up) to a moderate response. He comments that he has new material up his sleeve, and that he loves writing music and hopes to do it again, but reveals that there are no immediate plans. “Since coming back I realise that there's a lot more at stake, a lot more things going on. I've got material that I had since before I got back in, but I haven't really been bothered with it so much, because I don't want to dilute what I'm doing with Anthrax. I'm just trying to keep busy but I don't need a lot of projects to keep focused. You don't want to get too tied up.”

And what of another Anthrax album in the near future? “People have ideas, but we haven't really shared them as a group or anything like that at the moment,” he says. “There hasn't been any specific talks on when or where we're going to do anything yet. We have one where we did something on the road that we put together that's new [and] may surface, but at the moment there's nothing concrete as far as another record.”

The vocalist reveals that the band are booked to intensely tour up until August, and shares his festival philosophy: ignorance towards their accompanying line-up apparently lends itself to more enjoyment. “Sometimes I don't even know who's there until I get there,” he says. “I don't pay attention to it too much, because it's more fun to just show up and be, 'Holy cow, I didn't know so-and-so was here today! What time are they on? Can we go see them?' You just get into that mode – a more fan mode – and that's what's fun about doing those kind of shows.”

Anthrax will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 21 February - The Hi-Fi, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 23 February - Soundwave, Brisbane QLD
Sunday 24 February - Soundwave, Sydney NSW
Monday 25 February - Big Top Luna Park, Sydney NSW
Thursday 28 February - The Hi-Fi, Melbourne VIC
Friday 1 March - Soundwave, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 2 March - Soundwave, Adelaide SA
Monday 4 March - Soundwave, Perth WA