Anthrax have announced that they will tour the UK in 2017 and on that tour will play their 1987 album, ‘Among The Living’, in full.
It is more than ten years since the band last toured the UK, and guitarist Scott Ian has spoken, via Loudwire.com, of his excitement to be back, ‘Finally! We’ve been looking forward to headlining in the U.K. for so long!!! We have a killer set planned, new stuff, old faves, deep tracks and ‘Among The Living’ front to back. You’d better start getting in shape now for the epic wardance! See you soon my friends.’
Those ‘old faves’ will include tracks ‘Caught in a Mosh’, ‘I Am the Law’ and ‘Indians’, all of which feature on the album, ‘Among The Living.’ The tour will mark 30 years since the release of the album and the band have been reflecting on the making of the record. It was actually the band’s third album and marked a real shift for the band, with Guitarist Scott Ian commenting, per Team Rock, ‘It is a classic. Of course, I know what it meant to the scene – but more importantly, I appreciate what it did for us,’ and more forcefully, ‘What did the album mean to Anthrax? Everything. It wasn’t just an important moment in our career. It gave us a career!’ In Blabbermouth, Ian reflected on what made the album so special, concluding, ‘I feel like the energy just really jumps off that record; you fucking hear how pissed off we are playing our instruments on that record. There’s a brutality on that album that you don’t hear on the two records before ‘Among The Living’. It was just the record of its time; it really was.’ In fact, Ian seems to think the album could have been even better if the band had pushed themselves, stating, ‘I’m not criticising what’s on Among The Living, but we may have benefited from being a little less hasty in finishing up the writing side’ (per Team Rock).
As for the ‘new stuff’, this will presumably include tracks from the band’s latest album, ‘For All Kings’, which was released in February 2016 and was generally well reviewed as well as commercially successful, debuting at number 9 on the Billboard 200.
Anthrax will not be the only attraction for metal fans on this tour, as the band will be supported by English metal outfit, The Raven Age. The Raven Age were co-founded by George Harris, son of Iron Maiden bassist, Steve Harris. In a way, this will bring the band full circle as Scott Ian has previously remarked, via Team Rock, that, ‘Musically, of course, Anthrax owe a lot to Maiden.’ The Raven Age are primed to release their debut album ‘Darkness Will Rise’ in December 2016.
The UK tour will take in 8 cities and the full schedule can be found below:
09/02 – O2 Institute – Birmingham, UK
10/02 – O2 Forum Kentish Town – London, UK
11/02 – O2 Academy – Bristol, UK
13/02 – Rock City – Nottingham, UK
14/02 – Academy – Manchester, UK
15/02 – Barrowlands – Glasgow, UK
16/02 – Northumbria University – Newcastle, UK
17/02– UEA – Norwich, UK
