The song is from Anthems, the band’s new eight-song EP that pays tribute to classic songs by some of Anthrax’s favorite bands from the 1970s. Anthems will be released in North America March 19 by MRI/Megaforce and March 22 in Europe via Nuclear Blast.
The EP includes covers of Rush’s “Anthem,” Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak,” “TNT” by AC/DC, Boston’s “Smokin’,” “Big Eyes” by Cheap Trick, Journey’s “Keep on Runnin,” plus the album version and a special remix of Anthrax’s “Crawl” from the band’s 2011 album, Worship Music.
“We were toying around with the idea of doing a Cheap Trick song, and ‘Big Eyes’ was one of our favorites,” drummer Charlie Benante told Revolver. “We recorded it, but then got busy with other things, so we never finished it. What happened was, Joey was out in LA doing vocals for the EP and Jay Ruston [co-producer] pulled ‘Big Eyes’ up and had Joey do the vocals, something we didn’t know he was going to do. But it turned out so great. Joey’s vocals are so amazing, so we knew we wanted the song on the EP.
Anthrax — Belladonna, Benate (drums), Scott Ian (guitar) and Frank Bello (bass) — hit the road last month in support of Anthems. They'll return to North America to headline the Metal Alliance Tour, which kicks off March 22. For all of these dates, Anthrax will be joined by Shadows Fall guitarist Jon Donais.
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