Anthrax‘s latest thrashterpiece ‘Worship Music’ went through lots of trials and tribulations before it arrived in stores, including an unknown singer and the return of Joey Belladonna, who fronted the band during its most commercially successful period.

Guitarist and producer Rob Caggiano is ultimately happy with the end result, despite the long, hard road the band hoed to get there. “I’m really happy with the way the record came out and the way it sounds,” the guitarist told Geeks of Doom. “We went through a lot of different stages on ‘Worship Music.’ We started recording in 2007 and I think we counted it up at one point how many different studios we used I think it was like 17!”

Whoa, 17 studios? That’s a lot to manage, yet Caggiano feels that he was able to pull it all together and fashion it into a solid, seamless unit. “I think one of my biggest challenges as producer was trying to make everything sound cohesive in the end,” he said. “I think we definitely hit the mark. I think the end result is what we all envisioned it to be.” Then that’s all that really matters.

Despite three decades of togetherness and an ardent fanbase, Anthrax still finds underdog status ascribed to it. It’s a tag that Caggiano belives in unfairly attached to the band. He said, “Anthrax always seems to have this weird underdog thing that I think is f—ing ridiculous to be honest. I don’t think the band deserves that, I think the band is better than that.” We’re not going to argue with him there. But this whole “underdog” image merely serves as inspiration for them to prove that they’re not.

The guitarist said, “It’s the kind of thing where Anthrax always proves everyone wrong. Any of the naysayers can say whatever they want, but the band always proves all that s— wrong. And our fans are always with us and that’s the bottom line.”

Amen to that.

More From KLAQ El Paso