ANTHRAX stands as one of the legendary “Big Four” of thrash, a band whose breakneck riffs and mosh-pit anthems have shaped heavy music for over four decades.
On their 2026 Australian tour, Anthrax will ignite stages in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, performing a career-spanning arsenal of classics. Fans can expect a high-octane set packed with fan favourites, deep cuts and new-era highlights as Anthrax once again prove why they remain one of metal’s most vital live forces.
Of course Anthrax are never short of fans in Australian and as I sit down to talk to Scott Ian about the tour he begins by telling me about how excited the band are to once again come and play in front of those fans.
“Oh man. I love coming to Australia,” he says with a big laugh. “You know, it’s one of those things you don’t get to go every year, you know what I mean, and it’s always really special. We’ve been coming down there since 1990 and it’s never lost that luster. It’s never lost the specialness of getting to come and visit down there, and not only just playing the shows but you know getting to spend time in your country and eating your food and drinking your coffee and drinking your beer and just experiencing it because it’s just it’s such a different experience for a bunch of guys from New York.”
As our discussion goes one we start to talk about how the bands of the 1980s and 1990s seem to still growing in popularity – especially amongst the youth of today. So, I ask Scott why he thinks music from 40 years ago still has such a pull with music lovers of today.
“It’s because it is just really fucking good!” he says again with a great big laugh. “I mean… Look, I don’t know how or why somebody connects to something that they hear but I’m a huge fan of all kinds of music, and if I could explain what it was in a song that… makes me like it would be good. For me though it has nothing to do with genre – I’m open to any genre and I’m open to all styles – but it just has to move me in a certain way. Obviously over the years stuff that we’ve done has moved quite a lot of people in a way where they just want more and more of it and the fact that people connect with us in that way it means everything to me.”
So what keeps him going?
“It’s just we just love what we do and the bottom line is it’s fun,” he explains. “If it wasn’t fun there’d be really no point to do it anymore, because if you’re playing in a band and that’s your job and you’re not having fun doing that then there’s really something wrong with that that scenario. I love being in a band. I love playing guitar in my band with my friends. I love getting to be a part of songwriting and making albums. I love playing shows – it’s all of that. If I didn’t love it and it wasn’t fun, I certainly wouldn’t be doing it anymore. That’s really the only motivating factor.”
When Anthrax hit Australia they will be coming straight off the back of tours with Megadeth and Exodus and the reports from those shows are the band has been running hot. Scott admits that is true but says they haven’t thought too much so far about what they will be playing to Australian audiences just yet.
“To be honest I haven’t even thought about it yet,” he says. “When we get down there we’ll probably look and see what we did last time we headlined and, you know, try not to repeat everything. But bottom line is… there’s always going to be a dozen songs that are going to get played because if you don’t play them then you hear the shit that you didn’t play the hits. We’ve done sets where we’ve played deep tracks and all that and I know some fans really want to hear deep tracks. I get it I am a fan of many bands that don’t play songs that I want to hear too and I understand why because when you go to the deep tracks 95%, and I’m being generous because it’s probably higher than that, but 95% of the audience doesn’t fucking get it.
“And I know for a fact, because we’ve done it,” he says continuing. “When we’ve played songs off Among The Living that aren’t Among the Living or Indians or I Am the Law or NFL or Caught In A Mosh… any other song off Among The Living you’d think people love all those songs Scott just mentioned they must know One World and Imitation Of Life and Skeleton In The Closet and so on and so on. So we decided, yeah, let’s play some of these deeper cuts that we haven’t played anymore. We might as well have been playing new songs that nobody had ever heard. It’s crazy the difference between the songs that are quote-unquote hits and the songs that aren’t and it’s kind of tough sometimes when you’re you’ve got all this energy and a groove and a flow going in a concert and then you play a song and it’s like 5 000 people have never heard it before and they just stand there staring at you and it just ruins all the momentum. That’s why fans are always asking about bands playing the deep cuts that’s generally why they don’t because that’s what happens – and ask any band and they’ll tell you.”
“We still, even in the face of that, we will still try and play songs that are deeper cuts here and there because we get it,” he says with a serious tone in his voice. “And I would be bored as fuck if I just was going out and playing the same 15 to 20 songs every fucking show of my life. That would not be fun! Soon we’ll have a new record so of course I get to play new material which is the best scenario…. for me, anyway. There’s even a lot of fans who are like, fuck, don’t play new shit we only want to hear the old stuff, which, of course, I would say, well, tough shit we’re playing new stuff. But we get it so we try to have a few songs in the set that maybe we didn’t play the last few times we played somewhere.”
Seeing he brought up about the new album I thought I would be cheeky and finish off the interview by asking if he can tell us when it will be released.
“Well, we know exactly when it’s coming out but we have an announcement that will come that will tell you exactly when it’s coming out but I can’t tell you that today,” he says with that big laugh once again returning. “But yes, there is a timeline and there is a plan and everything is set in place and it will be this year… that’s for sure.”
Anthrax are currently on tour in Australia.
