Charlie Benante’s first solo album is a product of the pandemic. Stir-crazy during lockdown, the Anthrax drummer and songwriter started playing covers during “quarantine jam session” video conferences with his bandmates and other musician friends. “I was losing my mind a little bit and needed to focus on something more positive and creative,” he tells Apple Music. “Doing the jam sessions and this album got me out of the depressive funk I was in.” Featuring covers of his longtime favorites from Kiss, Iron Maiden, and Run-DMC alongside unexpected versions of songs by Billie Eilish, Massive Attack, and proto-grunge shooting stars Mother Love Bone, Silver Linings boasts collaborations with Benante’s girlfriend Carla Harvey (Butcher Babies), Death Angel vocalist Mark Osegueda, Suicidal Tendencies bassist Ra Díaz, and many more. Below, Benante discusses each track. “City of Blinding Lights” (feat. Frank Bello and Mark Osegueda) “This is one of my favorite U2 songs. It’s not obscure, but it’s definitely not ‘With or Without You’ or ‘Bullet the Blue Sky.’ Every time I hear it, it makes me so happy. The hardest part for me with this song was The Edge’s guitar tone and delay. It's not one delay that's going on—it's two. One is doing one millisecond, but the other’s not in sync. It’s hard to put together, but once you do, that’s the sound.” “Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns” (feat. Mark Menghi and Mark Osegueda) “Mark and I, we were on tour a lot together. We'd have those nights on the bus where we would just be having some drinks and listening to our favorite songs, and this was one of the songs that bonded us. We always loved Mother Love Bone and Andrew Wood. When we did the Metal Allegiance show, I pulled out a keyboard and we played the first half of the song live. I always wanted to do the rest of it, so when it came time to do these quarantine jams I felt confident enough.” “Teardrop” (feat. Carla Harvey & Ra Díaz) “I was on tour in Europe when our record company A&R person gave me an advance of [Massive Attack’s] Mezzanine. I listened to it on the bus every night and I was taken away to another place. That record, to me, is one of the best records to come out of the ’90s. I always wanted to do a cover of ‘Teardrop,’ but it wasn’t easy because there’s a lot of textures. I really had to push Carla to do this because it was out of her comfort zone. Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins, who sang on the original, sings like a fucking angel. But Carla did a wonderful job.” “Run-DMC Medley” (feat. DMC, Rob Caggiano & Ra Díaz) “To me, Run-DMC were larger than life. I remember seeing them back in the day—when the whole arena took off their shoes and held them in the air for ‘My Adidas,’ I was like, ‘This is fucking awesome!’ I had this arrangement in my head to do three Run-DMC songs. I put it together as if I was a DJ, and I recorded it on the fly. I sent it to Ra, and he put the bass on it. Then I asked Rob to play some leads—he tore it up. Then I gave it to D and he put his voice on top. It was perfect. It was like, ‘Wow—I just did a fucking mash-up of a Run-DMC song, and DMC is on it!’” “Rhiannon” (feat. Mark Menghi, Jennifer Cella & Randy McStine) “My friend Mark Menghi, who put together the Metal Allegiance group, hit me up when I started doing the quarantine videos. His mom had passed away recently and her favorite song was ‘Rhiannon’ by Fleetwood Mac. I was really nitpicking it because I wanted it to sound really authentic and very '70s-like, so the drum sound is very Mick Fleetwood—very dead and loose-sounding on drums. Jennifer Cella, who sings with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, did such an awesome job. I was blown away when I heard her tracks.” “Yer So Bad” (feat. Carla Harvey & Ra Díaz) “The Full Moon Fever record has so many great songs. A couple of years back I tried to get Anthrax to do ‘Runnin’ Down a Dream,’ but it never happened. Carla sang ‘Yer So Bad,’ and it’s so weird hearing your girl singing that song, because you’re used to Tom Petty singing it. But she has this rasp to her voice, and it works. I loved doing it, because you can’t beat a Tom Petty song. I don’t think we’re ever going to have an artist again like Tom Petty, and it makes me sad.” “Transylvania” (feat. Snake Sabo, Frank Bello & Jon Donais) “When I started doing the quarantine jams, Snake called me up and said he wanted to do a Maiden song. He made it easier because we didn't have to get a singer—this is an instrumental. Plus, it’s a song that we all grew up loving and learning. It's on the first Maiden album, and it's such an awesome song—every part of it is just Maiden. We had fun with it, too. I wanted to do more with Snake, but it never happened. I blame him.” “Presto Vivace” (feat. Ra Díaz, Alex Skolnick & Jordan Rudess) “Not everyone knows the band U.K., but Alex, Ra, Jordan from Dream Theater, and myself all love them. Some of the guys were in Asia, and then Terry Bozzio came in later on. They’re a musician’s band, but they had songs as well. It wasn’t easy pulling this one off, but I’m so happy we did it. Jordan really stepped it up, because the keyboard part on this song is unbelievable. And the timing on this song is crazy. But we did it.” “Bad Guy” (feat. Ra Díaz) “I have a teenage daughter, and a few years ago she would play the Billie Eilish song ‘Ocean Eyes’ all the time. When her new album came out, she was playing that all the time, too. I just started to like these songs because I was hearing them every day, taking her to school and stuff like that. This song is so hooky and has such a memorable melody, and I just wanted to funk it up a little bit. I added some heavy guitar and Ra was on bass. We just vibed it out.” “Jimmy James Jam” (feat. Ra Díaz) “God, I love the Beastie Boys. Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head and Hello Nasty—those three records are so awesome. One of my favorite tracks on Check Your Head is ‘Jimmy James.’ I love the Hendrix sample in the intro. That lick right there is just so awesome. Again, Ra and I just jammed it out as if we were two DJs going back and forth.” “All the Way” (feat. PJ Farley, Joe McGinness & John 5) “Everybody knows I'm a huge diehard Kiss fan from back in the day. What they meant to me from '73 to '79, I still have that in me, that love for them. I wanted to do two deep cuts. ‘All the Way’ is one of those songs off of Hotter Than Hell that I wished was on Alive! I would love to hear that song played on that record and have that sound to it—that would’ve been awesome.” “Mr. Speed” (feat. Joe McGinness & PJ Farley) “‘Mr. Speed’ is on Rock and Roll Over, which is my favorite Kiss album, and I always felt that the song gets overlooked. I think it’s one of the best Paul Stanley songs. A couple of my friends from a band called Klassik ’78, who do Kiss-type songs, helped out. And then PJ just fucking nails the Gene Simmons parts on bass. I told the guys, ‘I don’t want any modernized guitar tones or anything. I want it to sound exactly like Kiss.’” “Public Image” (feat. Hank Von Hell, Dave Brownsound & Cone McCaslin) “When I was a kid, my sister worked at a salon in Manhattan, and sometimes she would take me to work. Right below the salon was a record store called Disc-o-Mat. One day I was in there and saw Johnny Rotten. When I ran up to him, he put his finger to his lips and says, ‘Shh…’ I immediately froze. He wanted his time, his privacy. When he was paying for some records, he calls me over and starts talking to me. I asked him what he was doing in New York, and he said he was working on a new project called Public Image. I didn't even know the Sex Pistols had broken up. Then he took a Disc-o-Mat card, turned it over, and signed his name for me. I still have that card.” “Funny Vibe” (feat. Ra Díaz, Corey Glover & Henry Flury) “Living Colour put out one of my favorite first albums by a band—I don’t think there’s a bad song on the record. When I was talking to Ra about it, he suggested we do ‘Funny Vibe.’ I asked Henry, who plays guitar for the Butcher Babies, to be a part of it. He’s a fucking awesome guitar player. Then I contacted Corey, who sings his ass off. The funny thing is, he didn’t even record it to a tape. He recorded a video of himself just sitting at a table and singing it. So we had to mix it from a video, which was even funnier.”