Anthrax cancelled European tour dates due to spiralling costs

The band Anthrax against a cream background
(Image credit: Press)

Anthrax bassist Frank Bello has explained the band's decision to cancel 20 shows in Europe.

The financial climate on the continent meant the band's costs has spiralled to three times the original budget, making the shows financially impossible.

The thrash icons had planned a 40th anniversary UK/European tour for September, October and November of 2022. But they later pulled all dates apart from the eight UK shows.

Bello tells TotalRock: "When I saw the numbers, they were literally triple what they originally started at. We would be coming home at such a loss. You don't mind a little bit of a loss just to play to the fans, but such a loss — we would have been really bad off for a while. So it didn't make sense.

"We did a great UK run. I felt it was a little short, even though we did a lot of places. But I wanna come back and just play the way we should be playing.

"I know we're gonna be back, and with a vengeance. So it's gonna be a lot of fun the next time around. I look forward to playing to all UK and Europe."

Before the UK shows, Anthrax had wrapped up a North American run with Hatebreed and Black Label Society.

Drummer Charlie Benante then shared a teaser of a new Anthrax riff and confirmed the band were working on a new album. The new record will be the band's 12th, following on from 2016's For All Kings.

Of the new material, Benante said: "We have some good riffage in our new tunes."

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.