Anthrax Vocalist John Bush Jumpstarts Armored Saint

04/14/1999 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(4/14/99, 1 p.m. PDT) - Anthrax vocalist John Bush will return to former band Armored Saint for an album due out next year on Metal Blade Records. The veteran hard rock act, which disbanded in 1992 after Bush replaced Joey Belladonna in Anthrax, doesn't want to call it a reunion; the band is just "getting together again," Bush says.

"Technically, there is no difference [between a 'reunion' and 'getting together again']," Bush admits. "It's just my own egotistical way of trying to distance myself from all the other reunions."

Whatever you want to call it, Bush wants to assure fans that this doesn't mean that the end is near for Anthrax, which is approaching its 18th anniversary. He also doesn't think the extracurricular activities, which include guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Charlie Bentante's side project S.O.D., hurt Anthrax. (S.O.D.'s new album, Bigger Than The Devil, is due out on Nuclear Blast in May.)

"As a matter of fact, I think an S.O.D. record and an Armored Saint record should help Anthrax...because people need to express themselves and sometimes one band isn't enough for them," Bush says. He admits that "there can be scheduling conflicts, but you work them out. I hope that when I do my project, it's a complete down time for Anthrax."

Armored Saint's lineup remains unchanged from its last album, 1991's Symbol Of Salvation, with Bush, Joey Vera (also of Fates Warning), Gonzo (also of Monster G), Jeff Duncan (also of the non-metal DC4), and Phil Sandoval.

Bush and Vera have already written plenty of new material and have also dug up four unrecorded tracks from the old days, including two written by late guitarist, Dave Prichard, who passed away in 1990 from leukemia.

Recording is tentatively scheduled to begin in July. Though tour plans haven't even been discussed, there are plans for a live Armored Saint video and B-sides collection.

As if that wasn't all enough for Bush, he's also one of the primary partners in the just-opened heavy metal nightclub, Black Lodge, happening every Wednesday at Club Lingerie in Hollywood, Calif. Anthrax cohort Scott Ian has already served as a guest DJ at the nightspot. Bush envisions the club as "a place where people can hang out and converse and hear some cool music. I don't necessarily want the music to be the focal point...but there is a void of places playing harder music and so we're trying to do that."

In fact, Black Lodge flyers promise that patrons will not be forced to endure "the nuisance of having lame, streamlined rap/ dance music violating their eardrums." We would assume that doesn't include Public Enemy, the legendary rap act that Anthrax once covered.

To read an Anthrax feature, click here.

-- Sabrina Kaleta, Los Angeles

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