Charlie Benante, drummer of Anthrax, is going to release a covers album, due out on May 14 via Megaforce Records. “Silver Linings”, as it will be called, features 14 covers and an all-star cast of metal and rock musicians, picked from Benante’s acclaimed “quarantine jam” video series. Some of the proceeds will be provided to the Neal Casal Music Foundation, an organization that provides musical instruments and lessons to students and makes donations to much-needed mental health organizations that support musicians in need.
The famous drummer remembers: “Back in February of last year with COVID and all the other bullshit that was going on, I was glued to the 24-hour news cycle on the TV and my phone, and I started to get really depressed. My girlfriend said I needed to turn off the news and suggested I do something creative, whether it was art or drumming or writing new songs, and she was right”.
Benante set up his electric drum kit at home in his art room and started playing along with music he had grown up listening to. It pulled him out of his depression and reignited his creative drive. “I knew a lot of my musician friends were going through the same thing I had been, so I started asking them if they wanted to get involved, play some songs with me, maybe make a video. That’s how it all started.”
Throughout the quarantine video series, Benante worked on jams with fellow Anthrax bandmates Frank Bello, Scott Ian and Jon Donais, his girlfriend Carla Harvey (Butcher Babies), Corey Taylor (Slipknot), Ra Diaz (Suicidal Tendencies), Mark Osegueda (Death Angel), John 5 (Rob Zombie) and Alex Skolnick (Testament), among many more. Some of Charlie’s favorite songs by Rush, Tom Petty, Beastie Boys, Stormtroopers of Death, King’s X, RUN-DMC, Massive Attack, U2, Fugazi, Chemical Brothers and Billie Eilish were covered.
