JOHN BUSH, who fronted ANTHRAX from 1992 to 2005, is eyeing a return to European stages and has confirmed plans for a second album with his supergroup CATEGORY 7. Bush laid out his ambitions during a June 3 appearance on SiriusXM, expressing particular enthusiasm for bringing his ANTHRAX-era celebration to international audiences.
"I would like to do some stuff, especially in Europe," Bush said. "It would be a shame not to go there and at least play a handful of shows." He and CATEGORY 7 performed three American concerts in December 2025, playing material from all four of the albums he recorded with ANTHRAX — Sound of White Noise, Stomp 442, Volume 8, and We've Come for You All — to strong audience response. Bush is scheduled to perform at Milwaukee Metal Fest on June 7, 2026, playing material from both ANTHRAX and ARMORED SAINT.
On the subject of CATEGORY 7's sophomore album, Bush confirmed the wheels are in motion, though the timeline remains relaxed. "We talked about making a record. I think it would be cool just to make it seem like it wasn't just a 'one and done,'" he explained. After completing a new ARMORED SAINT record, he needed a creative reset: "I needed a break a little bit because I didn't wanna go right into writing heavy metal music after writing the SAINT record." He plans to develop demos during late June and July 2026.
CATEGORY 7's self-titled debut arrived in 2024 and was warmly received among fans of traditional heavy metal. The lineup features some of the genre's most respected heavy hitters, and Bush's voice — one of the most powerful and versatile in metal — remains in exceptional form.
An announcement of European dates in the coming months would be welcome news for an entire generation of ANTHRAX fans who never got to experience that era of the band live.