Anthrax didn’t have time to start a new song for the upcoming Game Of Thrones mixtape – so they sacrificed one that had been pencilled in for their upcoming album.
But the thrash giants, who are currently tracking the follow-up to 2011’s Worship Music, made sure the lyrics were based on the award-winning TV show.
Guitarist Scott Ian tells Kaaos: “We didn’t have time to start writing something from scratch. We listened to the material we had, and we all thought the same thing – this one demo just sounded like it should be the song for Game Of Thrones.
“They said, ‘You have to pick something about the show to write about.’ I’m not going to give it away now, but I got to write exactly what I wanted, so I was very happy about that.”
He and bandmates Charlie Benante and Frank Bello are big fans of the series, and even tried to arrange a recording session on the Westeros throne room set. Ian says: “A lot of times you get calls for things and it’s like, ‘Nah, just say no.’ But this, we were all very excited about.”
Meanwhile, Killswitch Engage frontman Jessie Leach has admitted he wasn’t a Game Of Thrones follower when his band were invited to record for the mixtape – but he’s now an addict.
He tells Triple M: “I’d heard of the show but I don’t watch a lot of TV. While I was writing I didn’t really know what I was talking about. They give you a concept, keywords and a storyline, and they had a lot of cool trigger words.
“Once we were done I watched the entire four seasons in, like, a week. I became completely addicted and enthralled in it.”
He adds of the track: “It’s one of our better songs. We’re going to start playing it live, I think, because we’re all pretty stoked on it.”
The mixtape is expected to launch in April. UK metallers Malefice have just released their powered-up version of the Game Of Thrones theme music.
