ANTHRAX‘s “Madhouse” got a mention in legendary master of horror Stephen King‘s latest collection of stories, “You Like It Darker”.
According to ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian, the song from the band’s second album, 1985’s “Spreading The Disease” was brought up in “a rather brutal tale” called “Finn”, which is the fifth of a dozen short works found within “You Like It Darker”. The story was first published on Scribd on May 25, 2022 as an ebook exclusive, but received a wider release in physical form this past May through the Simon & Schuster imprint Scribner.
Ian took to his Instagram to write: “Stephen King name checks us again in his new collection of stories ‘You Like It Darker’!!! I was reading on the flight home from Europe yesterday. In the fifth story in the book, a rather brutal tale called ‘Finn’, Steve uses our song ‘Madhouse’ as a torture device. Perfect! I apologize if the sound of my head exploding when I saw ANTHRAX mentioned woke anyone up on the plane.
“If you haven’t read ‘You Like It Darker’ I recommend you do. It’s a vicious summer read!”
ANTHRAX‘s third studio album, “Among The Living”, was so heavily inspired by Stephen King‘s epic “The Stand” that Ian was asked to write a foreword for one edition of the book. The album track “A Skeleton In The Closet” is also inspired by the novella “Apt Pupil” which was part of the “Different Seasons” collection.
King previously referenced ANTHRAX in “The Dark Tower”‘s third book, “The Waste Lands”. ANTHRAX‘s cover of TRUST‘s “Antisocial” was also featured in a fight scene in 2017’s “It” adaptation.
In a 2011 interview with The Atlantic, King was asked what kind of music he prefers putting on while working. He said: “METALLICA, ANTHRAX, I still listen to those guys . . . There’s a band called the LIVING THINGS that I like a lot. Very loud group. I never cared for Ozzy [Osbourne] very much . . . [BLACK SABBATH] don’t really work for me.”
King famously tapped AC/DC to assemble “Who Made Who”, the 1986 soundtrack album to the film version of his novel “Maximum Overdrive”.
