ROB CAGGIANO IS BACK IN ANTHRAX. NO BIG WHOOP.
So just the other day I was wondered aloud, “Who will play lead guitar on the new Anthrax album?” Now the band has a released a press statement officially announcing virtual unknown Dan Nelson as their new singer (actually, it’s the second official announcement), and while the release is full of the usual hype – “I can’t wait for all these people who think Anthrax is done to be proven wrong,” “The naysayers are gonna be shut down,” “My cock is much bigger than yours,” yadda yadda – the following two sections did provoke my interest:
“I was actually looking for a band,” commented Nelson. “Long Island, NY is a pretty dead scene. I was in Unbroken, and through that I met Rob a couple
years ago. I had gone through some stuff on a personal side where I took
time off from the music. When I got back to the scene, I couldn’t find a
band, so I contacted Rob through MySpace and offered my services. We sent
music back and forth, got together, and jammed for 10 hours straight. After 10 hours, he said, ‘I think you’d be right for Anthrax.’”
AND:
“Anthrax, featuring Nelson on vocals, guitarists Ian and Rob Caggiano,
bassist Frankie Bello, and drummer Benante, is currently working on all-new
material.”
Say WHAT? Caggiano has re-joined Anthrax, and is even the man responsible for the band finding its new front man, and this is how they tell the public – by burying that info in a press release with no fanfare, as though Caggiano had never left the band? Doesn’t that seem a little, y’know, weird? I understand Caggiano’s no Zakk Wylde or whatever, but let’s show the dude some respect: he was kicked out of the band to make way for some crappy reunion, just like John Bush.
Still, just the fact that Caggiano is back in the fold makes me wonder: is there a snowball’s chance in hell that this album will actually be good? We’ve got 4/5ths of the We’ve Come for You All line-up back together; as far as I can tell, this Nelson dude just needs not to turn out to be a total tool for this thing to work.
-AR
