Anthrax, the Big Four thrash band behind Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, and Frank Bello's gear

Anthrax is the New York thrash metal institution that never got the arena-headliner run its "Big Four" partners did, and mostly seems fine with that. Formed in Queens on July 18, 1981, by rhythm guitarist Scott Ian and bassist Dan Lilker, the band spent its first few years cycling through singers and lead guitarists before Frank Bello and Charlie Benante locked into place alongside Ian, giving Anthrax the rhythm section it still has more than four decades later.

Anthrax is one of thrash's "Big Four", alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer, the bands most credited with defining the genre in the 1980s. Unlike the other three, Anthrax leaned into hardcore punk, hip-hop crossover (a Grammy-nominated collaboration with Public Enemy on "Bring the Noise"), and a sense of humor that shows up in song titles and stage banter as much as riffs.

After ten years of false starts, the band's twelfth studio album, Cursum Perficio, arrives September 18, 2026, its first new record since 2016's For All Kings. This page is the band-level reference: formation, the classic lineup's rise, the catalog, and the documented gear behind the current lineup's sound. Full profiles for Benante and Bello live on their own pages, linked throughout; Scott Ian's rig is documented below from D'Addario's and Jackson's own artist pages.

Ian and Lilker named the band after the disease, which Ian had seen in a biology textbook and thought "sounded sufficiently evil," according to the band's own account of its history. The earliest lineup burned through a singer, two lead guitarists, and a drummer before Charlie Benante joined in September 1983 after months of courtship from Ian. Around the same time, Ian and Lilker connected with New Jersey record store owner Jon Zazula, whose new label Megaforce Records had just broken Metallica's debut. Zazula signed Anthrax, and the band released its debut, Fistful of Metal, in January 1984 with singer Neil Turbin.

1984 was the hinge year. Turbin left in August after long-running friction with the band; Lilker was fired by Turbin without the rest of the band's knowledge and went on to found Nuclear Assault. Frank Bello, Benante's nephew and the band's roadie, took over on bass, and singer Joey Belladonna joined a few months later. That lineup, Ian, Benante, Bello, Belladonna, and lead guitarist Dan Spitz, is the one most fans mean by "classic Anthrax." Belladonna was fired from the band in 1992, ending that era.

Among the Living (1987) is the record that made Anthrax's name: widely regarded as one of the defining thrash metal albums, and the first to bring the band mainstream attention. State of Euphoria (1988) followed it into the Top 40 (No. 30 on the Billboard 200), and Persistence of Time (1990) earned the band its first Grammy nomination.

Anthrax has never won a Grammy despite six nominations across nearly 25 years, all in metal-performance categories, per Grammy.com's own record: Persistence of Time (1991), Attack of the Killer B's (1992), "Bring the Noise" with Public Enemy (1995), "I'm Alive" (2013), "T.N.T." (2014), and "Neon Knights" (2015). The band's own Grammy.com bio quotes Scott Ian on the band's writing process: "I think the best riffs and the best songs come when you're jamming and having a good time."

Benante is one of two members (with Ian) to appear on every Anthrax album, and since December 2022 he has also drummed for Pantera's reunion lineup, filling in for the late Vinnie Paul alongside his ongoing Anthrax seat.

Cursum Perficio arrives September 18, 2026, ten years after For All Kings, the longest gap between two Anthrax albums in the band's career. It's also the first Anthrax album since 1998's Volume 8: The Threat Is Real not to feature a single lineup change from the record before it, the same five people, Ian, Benante, Bello, Belladonna, and lead guitarist Jonathan Donais, who made For All Kings.

Producer Jay Ruston, who also helmed Worship Music (2011) and For All Kings (2016), worked the album with the band across several years of stop-and-start sessions, some of it at Dave Grohl's Studio 606 in Northridge, California. Recording began in spring 2023; Belladonna started tracking vocals that November. The first single, "It's for the Kids," landed May 15, 2026. The full record runs 11 tracks and 53 minutes, 43 seconds, opening with the 1:07 "Persistence of Memory" and closing with "My Victory."

Talking to The Rockpit in March 2026, Ian put the long wait plainly: "The fact that we're putting out our first record since 2016 and we feel really good about it, that's the focus and that's the plan, totally." Bello, in a separate interview with Long & McQuade, was just as direct about the material: "It's so heavy. Some parts are really hard to play, really hard to play, which I'm happy to say, 'cause I like the challenge of it all."