Anthrax Whips Fans Into a State of Euphoria

Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante has done a fantastic job of curating the band’s anniversary reissues of its classic albums. The most recent, “State of Euphoria 30th Anniversary Edition," takes listeners on an enthralling trip back in time to 1988 to revisit this superb, vibrant, high-energy thrash masterpiece.

The remastered album is stocked with muscular, infectious riffs courtesy of guitarist Scott Ian, thunderous rhythms by Benante, fluid bass work from Frank Bello and memorable vocal melodies courtesy of Joey Belladonna. “State of Euphoria 30th Anniversary Edition" is out now on double CD, vinyl, and special red and yellow colored vinyl.

“State of Euphoria” was a landmark album for Anthrax. It was the follow-up to the band’s breakthrough third disc, “Among the Living,” so fans and critics were eagerly waiting to see how it would measure up. They would not be disappointed. From tour de force album opener “Be All, End All” to closing thrasher “Finale” and all points in-between, “State of Euphoria” was and remains an absolute triumph.

In addition to its bookend highlights, the disc also features the socially conscious “Who Cares Wins,” about the plight of the homeless in New York City; the Stephen King influenced “Misery Loves Company”; and “Now It’s Dark,” inspired by the David Lynch film, “Blue Velvet.” Then, of course, there’s “Antisocial.” The dynamic tune, a staple of Anthrax’s set list, may be a cover originally performed by the French band Trust, but Anthrax has truly made it their own anthem.

The first disc of the set features the entire album plus associated B-sides including an excellent cover of Kiss' "Parasite," a metal take on the surf-rock classic, "Pipeline," and a live version of "Antisocial from 1989."

In addition to the original album, the 30th Anniversary edition contains a second disc, "Charlie's Archives," that gives insight into Anthrax’s creative process and the evolution of the songs. You can hear the band in the rehearsal studio shaping together the tunes as well as instrumental demos. The package is completed by extensive liner notes, artwork and fan messages.

The tour for “State of Euphoria” included Anthrax’s first American arena run, opening for Ozzy Osbourne. In all it was a monumental era for the band.

We recently had the pleasure of speaking to Charlie Benante about all things “State of Euphoria.”

When you began working on the “State of Euphoria 30th Anniversary Edition" what kind of memories did you have?

It completely opened up my memory banks, especially the demos and rehearsals and riff tapes. It took me back to where I was. I was still living in my mom's house in my room and pushing record and play and coming up with riffs. I remember I would always take stuff out with me on the road. I used to have a hotel case and I’d have a little four track and do demos on days off.

Was there a lot of pressure on the band to produce a stellar album given the breakthrough success of your previous effort, “Among the Living.”

The thing that happened that was a complete accident - let's even put “Among the Living” the album aside for a second - the thing that happened was that the “I’m The Man” EP completely took off beyond our control. It was never meant to be that huge. So not only did we have to follow-up “Among the Living,” we had to follow up “I’m The Man.” We didn't have another rap style song to do. We're a metal band and we just went to work on our next album. There was a lot of pressure plus there was a time constraint. There was a tour that was booked that we could not pass up. We worked really hard to make “State of Euphoria.”

How do you think “State of Euphoria” holds up 30 years later?

It’s a great record. I think the energy level of the record is top-notch. When I was putting this package together it was like listening to the record with a different set of ears and from a different perspective. I was just enjoying it, with no stress. A lot of my friends love this record and I think I got to appreciate it from their point of view.

“Antisocial” is the most popular song on “State of Euphoria.” It’s a cover song that has been part of your set since the album came out. How did the idea come about to record “Antisocial”?

I loved the band Trust since I heard them on the soundtrack to the movie “Heavy Metal” in 1981 (the band’s song “Prefabricated” was included on the album). I remember going to Bleeker Bob’s in Manhattan to buy their albums. “Antisocial” is a great, great song. I told the band, ‘we have to do a cover of it.’ It’s one of those songs that never reached people and it deserves to. At the same time, we also made the song our own.

The video for “Who Cares Wins” was a very powerful clip that raised awareness of the plight of the homeless in New York City and appealed for donations to help them.

The people who grew up in New York or even New Jersey around that time were aware of it. At 12th Avenue under the West Side Highway there would be encampments of homeless people. It was terrible. We would see it all the time. We wrote a song about it and filmed a video and made some donations and asked people to bring food donations to shows to do our part.

The songs “Misery Loves Company” and “Now It’s Dark” were inspired by the Stephen King novel, “Misery” and the David Lynch film, “Blue Velvet,” respectively. Do a lot of fans tell you that they read the book and watched the movie as a result of the songs?

All the time. People say, ‘you guys turned me onto this and I never knew it existed.’ Not only to David Lynch and Stephen King but Trust and Public Enemy and other things. It’s always cool to expose people to new things, to open people’s minds to things they may not have explored.

Hearing the songs come together through rehearsals and demo versions is especially cool for the fans.

That's a big thing. I wanted to do something that was really cool in the way that The Beatles did with their Anthology series. They would give you Take 3 of a song and then Take 33 and you’d hear how the song evolved from the beginning to the finished version. I wanted to give somewhat of a taste of that. It’s a big plus to add that to the record.

Before “State of Euphoria” Anthrax had played festivals and arenas in Europe. The touring for “State of Euphoria” included your first American arena run, opening for Ozzy Osbourne. What do you remember about that tour?

That was something very, very special. We were completely in awe of Ozzy because we’re huge Black Sabbath fans. To be in the same building as Ozzy was so special, and now we’re going to play a show too? It was a complete pinch me moment.

How would you sum up the “State of Euphoria” era for Anthrax?

We were so caught up in this whirlwind. Our first album came out in 1984. What we achieved in four years was amazing. Today sometimes it takes us that long to make a record. It was a special time. It was really a state of euphoria.