Following a number of music industry battles in the late 1990s and early 2000s and a number of personnel changes, the New York band were invited to join a series of European shows alongside Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth.
“Getting to do those Big Four shows would be a real boost for us,” says Scott Ian. “To share that stage with our friends and those bands, and be in front of those audiences; the idea of The Big Four and doing shows with the other three bands … the four bands that all came up together ..it really got us thinking that we’d be crazy not to ask Joey (Belladonna) to be a part of this because that was the band, from that era, that put Anthrax on the map.”
With Belladonna back in the lineup, the seven-date Sonisphere Festival series featured The Big Four of American thrash metal, and produced the home video release of “The Big Four: Live from Sofia, Bulgaria.”
The series resumed in the spring of 2011 with its first US date in California before hosting more events in Europe and the UK that summer, and wrapping up in the fall at New York’s Yankee Stadium before more than 41,000 fans; Anthrax released their tenth studio album, “Worship Music”, via Megaforce Records just days before the finale.
The record delivered Anthrax their highest US chart position in almost two decades when it reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200.
Anthrax recently celebrated their 40th anniversary with a special livestream performance that saw the band deliver a deep cuts set featuring tracks from their entire career-spanning catalog.
See also:
Anthrax share The Devil You Know from 40th anniversary livestream
Anthrax rebuild momentum with 2003’s We’ve Come For You All
Anthrax regroup for the 2000s as 40th anniversary series continues
Anthrax end the 1990s with new manager and record label
Search Anthrax at hennemusic
