Despite the hardships and various legal entanglements regarding who had the rights to certain albums, Anthrax managed to continue. In 2001, new lead guitarist Rob Caggiano joined, and two years later, the band released We’ve Come for You All, through Sanctuary Records—an album hailed by the metal press as a return to form.
In early 2004, the band returned to the studio to record The Greater of Two Evils—a “live in the studio” re-recording of the band’s early work with the then-current lineup. Shortly afterward, bassist Frank Bello announced he was leaving the band to join Helmet and was replaced for touring purposes by Fates Warning and Armored Saint member Joey Vera. In late 2009, John Bush made a brief return to perform with Anthrax at various shows, but as he ultimately decided he did not want to commit to the band full time; Bush was again out of Anthrax in early 2010.
Among The Living reunion (2005–2007)
On April 1, 2005, the band announced that the “classic” lineup of Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, Dan Spitz, Joey Belladonna, and Frank Bello would be reforming. On some dates of the resultant tour, they performed Among the Living in its entirety for the first time. At the conclusion of the tour, it was expected the reformed line-up would begin a new album, but on January 24, 2007, Scott Ian posted a message to Blabbermouth.net,[6]
Finally, we’re going back to work. We’re going to Chicago to work our asses off and write a record. [...] One problem… no singer. We were offered a direct support slot on a major tour this spring and Joey [Belladonna] decided he did not want to move forward. The reunion is over. We tried to make it work but I guess that’s the problem, you can’t ‘make’ something work. [...] My curiosity was piqued by the idea of what Anthrax would sound like now with Joey singing. Over the last few months we’ve discussed this endlessly to no avail. The problems that were there could not be fixed no matter how hard we tried and in the end Joey made the decision.
Following that announcement, speculation was cast over whether John Bush would return. Bush had stated on February 7 that he was not ready to commit to Anthrax again.[7] In May 2007, Scott Ian said that the announcement of who will be singing for Anthrax would be made at the end of June, though the actual announcement did not come until December.
In June 2007, Bush was interviewed by Rock Hard about being asked to return to Anthrax, and whether or not he was bitter about the reunion. He replied:
“No. Bitter is not the way I wanna be about anything. I’m not bitter at all. There was probably not a perfect way to do that, what they did. It was like, how are they gonna say…? I mean, they asked me to do it—the tour with Joey—and it just wasn’t right for me, I couldn’t do it. So, whatever…if they felt they had to do that, I understand. It wasn’t like I was going, ‘Yeah, do it. That’s great.’ But once it happened, I was like, ‘okay.’ It was like a book ended. It’s okay. I mean, it’s much better to look at it that way than to be angry or frustrated, ’cause I really don’t feel that way.”
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