Anthrax Guitarist Scott Ian Talks Zombies, 'Night of the Living Dead'

For the next month leading up to the Big Four show at Yankee Stadium on September 14, Guitar World and Revolver are teaming up to bring you exclusive Big Four content every day for four weeks -- the "Big Four Weeks," if you will. For the first two weeks, Revolver will be rolling out portions of their roundtable discussion with the members of the Big Four every day.

Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian -- who can be seen at left in his Zombie makeup for his appearance on an upcoming episode of the TV series Walking Dead -- recently talked to Revolver magazine about his favorite zombie movies, books and TV shows. You can check out the full chat here, and read an excerpt with Scott talking about Night of the Living Dead below.

“I think I first saw it in the early ’70s—I was into horror movies since I was a little kid. You gotta remember, when Night of the Living Dead came out, ’68, you didn’t have special effects like we came to know later, but the subject matter at the time was extremely graphic. Night of the Living Dead and Texas Chainsaw MassacreNight of the Living Dead looks extremely tame. But at the same time, think about the subject matter: Here comes the relentless undead who are never gonna stop. That’s it—our way of life is over. Even though it doesn’t look as gory and as bloody as other movies that came after, it was the first film to really explore that subject matter of a future that is nothing but bleak.”

Anthrax will release their first studio album in 8 years, Worship Music, on September 13. You can listen to the track "The Devil You Know" here, and check out a track-by-track breakdown of the album with lead guitarist Rob Caggiano here.

For the latest Big Four news and features, keep an eye on our Big Four hub page here and Revolver's here.

Josh Hart

Josh Hart is a former web producer and staff writer for Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado magazines (2010–2012). He has since pursued writing fiction under various pseudonyms while exploring the technical underpinnings of journalism, now serving as a senior software engineer for The Seattle Times.