The Violent Hour is the fresh new project from Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante and former Butcher Babies vocalist Carla Harvey. Following parting ways with Butcher Babies,The Violent Hour became a liberating creative outlet for Harvey, reconnecting her with her musical roots and showcasing a more melodic, emotionally vulnerable side. Set for release on July 25 via Megaforce Records, the five-song EP blends old-school rock, heavy metal, and indie directions. Carla wrote all lyrics and performed vocals, while Charlie composed the music and played every instrument. The EP also features guest appearances from John 5 and Zakk Wylde. Metal Insider caught up with Carla and Charlie to discuss the project, their upcoming EP, balancing their creative partnership, and what’s next for The Violent Hour.

Let’s start from the beginning. How did The Violent Hour come together?

Carla: Well, gosh, I mean, so Charlie and I, during the pandemic, we had started working on music together, but in the form of covers, and we’d always wanted to write music together. Then, with me leaving Butcher Babies, it was just the perfect time to get it going. I think Charlie saw that I was in a depression over the whole situation. He started writing songs and saying, “Let’s make something out of this.” It really helped me through that time and gave me a goal to work on.

The songs were smoking. So it became this really exciting thing. We’d be sitting next to each other on the couch, and he’d be playing guitar, and I’m like, “Is that one for me? Or is that something for Anthrax? What is that for? I want it.” It just became more and more exciting. Like I said, it really pulled me out of a dark place into this place of really fluid creativity and excitement about music again.

I see the video of “Sick Ones” looked like you guys had a fun time creating. What was the overall experience like from writing the song to making the video?

Carla: So the song itself is about getting rid of toxic energy in your life, whether it’s a partner or a boss or whatever it is. It’s funny, I’ve had so many people write to me and say, “Oh my God, I needed that song today. I’m going through this situation. It gave me the strength to get through it,” which I absolutely love.

While the song is written about getting out of a toxic environment, I wanted to flip the idea on its head for the video and talk about sometimes you have to also cut the toxic parts of yourself out. Or at least, as the video demonstrates in the very end, learn how to live with those parts of yourself a little bit more peacefully.

So I play myself in five different characters throughout the music video. I was also tasked with, for the first time, making a video without an actual band. Right now, I’m in the process of putting together my band, my touring band, but writing these songs, it was just me and Charlie. So there’s no live performance thing. So I thought the idea that I had for it was pretty cool, and it was neat to see it all come together and battle myself, battle my own demons.

It was nice seeing you act in it and all the different characters. It was great.

Carla: Yeah, no, and actually I did get to act, which was really, really fun. I got to let all my crazies out, which was, it’s always a good time when you get to do that, right?

Charlie, what inspired your approach to composing the music for this project?

Charlie: I mean, I was in between, I had written the bulk of the Anthrax album, and then I had some things that were leftover, little pieces here and there. In between making that record and doing the Pantera tour, I just started writing these songs. The thing that motivated me the most was Carla, because she was going through something, and I took it really personal, just the way things went down. I wanted to do something for her that would raise her spirits and make her see that the one door closed, but now a big door is opening for you.

These songs just started to come out. The crazy thing about the way I write music is when I know the singer’s voice, things just start to flow and they just come out. It was amazing how these songs are just coming out. I didn’t want to stop it. I just kept going and going. Right now, to this day, I’m still writing songs for the next EP because that was the plan, to do five songs. Then the next EP would come out and do another five, maybe six songs, and then put out the two EPs as a full record.

Were there any songs more challenging to write?

Charlie: The last song, which was entitled The Violent Hour, I already had the song in my head. I already knew how it was going to go, but just didn’t know how it was going to be executed. That to me is probably the most personal song on the record because the music, especially for me, is very, it comes from an emotional side. When you hear it, you may be able to relate to it. I just think it had to be the last song of the EP, and it had to be titled The Violent Hour, because that’s how I heard it. Once Carla got involved in it, she just understood it, and the lyrics just poured out.

Carla: The lyrics to that song are really special, and they’re part of a concept project that I’ve dreamed about my whole life. So it’s really special. The song is a very marked ending lyrically, but the beginning of a whole new world for this character that I’ve created that’s very much like myself, but it’s such a beautiful, probably it’s the darkest, most emotional song I think that I’ve ever written. It’s just so beautiful and I think people are going to really love it.

So that one, and I’ll say all of these songs… The first EP is very different from anything that I’ve ever done, with the exception of “Sick Ones.” So when I first started singing again and I was singing on my own for the first time without a band in 15 years, I almost felt like I was getting, my throat was closing up. I couldn’t get the words out. I couldn’t do the things that I wanted to do, almost like I had been held back in a way, just my voice wasn’t there. I really had to free myself of a mental block that I had.

Once I released that, once I released myself, I was able to just do all of these new things and it became easy and again, so enjoyable. So it was just a period of extreme growth and falling back in love with music for me. Writing the songs and singing the songs and learning how to write new lyrics and melodies over songs that were so different.

When you get in the habit of doing the same stuff for years and years and years, you feel tied to performing things one way. I felt very tied to just doing guttural vocals because that’s what everybody wants to hear from me. I wanted to be free to really create music that I wanted to create for a change, not just what I think everybody wants to hear.

Charlie: Yeah. The one thing about this first EP that’s coming out, I feel this is more reflected of the songs that Carla loved and the bands that she loved growing up. It reflects that kind of style, whereas the next EP is going to reflect more of that heavier side.

Yeah, I was going to ask that too. It has a lot of the old school influences that definitely come out from this. I was going to see where you guys want to go in your next direction. Do you want to go back to guttural vocals, or do you want to try something else? Do you want to explore in some operatic singing? Where do you want to go next?

Carla: Operatic singing is something, although when I was a kid, I took my grandfather was an Italian opera singer, so I did take some little operetta lessons when I was a kid. I don’t think that’s going to fit into The Violent Hour at all. I want to do whatever the song is going to call for. So I think that I will do some… Over the years, I found it so much fun to do gutturals and to perform gutturals on stage, especially. It’s a very powerful feeling when you do it. It comes straight from your gut, and I love doing it.

So I think that, of course, we’ll throw some really heavy gutturals and stuff on the next EP. In the meantime, I’m really enjoying just playing with my voice and singing again. It’s been really special to be able to do that. We’ve got some of the heaviest stuff I’ve ever written on the next EP. So we go from this very kind of, I almost think of it as a summer EP. It’s very light and airy, and then we go into a much more brutal one the next stuff. It’s all exciting. Like I said, to have all sides of myself be able to be shown and be out there is awesome.

Charlie: That’s the one thing. There’s no way that Carla or this band is going to be painted into a corner because there’s a song on the next EP, too, that is not anything that she’s ever done. That song is, I can’t wait for people to hear that song, The Other Side of You, that’s on the next EP. That’s a different side of her, too.

Carla: That’s a pretty light song. Like I said, I think people are so much more open nowadays to hearing all different sides of a singer and of a band. I think it used to be more so you can’t try new things. I think that people are accepting. You know what? Even if they’re not, what I’ve come to realize is that you only live once.

If you are doing things for other people your whole life, that does nothing for your soul. So, for me, at this time, I am going to release things that fill my soul and make me happy. If people love it, fucking awesome. If they don’t, if I’m proud of what I do, that’s the best that I can hope for, you know what I mean, sometimes.

Charlie: Yeah. Growth is, especially in music or if you’re an artist, if you’re an actor or whatever, you do your one project and then the next project that comes, you hope to have some growth. That’s the thing, because there’s a song on, like this EP, a song like Sick Ones, that to me was a punk rock song. It became a new wave of British heavy metal song after it got filtered through us. It just has a cool motorhead and modern vibe to it. Carla sings great on it.

Carla: I think songs like that, before I would’ve just instinctively done it all guttural. I was like, no, I don’t want to do that for this song. It’s like, I could do it like that, but it wouldn’t be anything different. So I wanted to try to sing it in a different way and think outside the box of what I would normally do with a song like that.

I do think that it’s nice to see this side of Carla. A lot of fans just get used to seeing the Butcher Babies chapter, but now that chapter is closed and this door, as Charlie mentioned, a new door opens. We get to see different types of styles that you want to do as an artist, and it’s incredible. Then you’ve got the gig with the Lords of Acid being their new singer too. So there are a lot of great things happening, and it’s great to see what else you can do with your career.

Carla: Yeah, it’s been really fun to grow, and the Lords of Acid is, you’re not the acid queen for a long time. It’s just a fun gig. I loved them growing up. I think it’s going to be fun to be a diva on stage for a change. The singing in Lords of Acid is completely different than anything that I’ve ever done.

Although I did use elements of Lords of Acid in some of the Butcher Babies stuff that I wrote too. Our song Yorktown was very much inspired by Lords of Acid type of verses. It’s fun to get to go and perform a different way and sing a different way. With The Violent Hour being my project, mine and Charlie’s, it’s been just incredible to really think about, you have this great open canvas in front of you, and what am I going to do with this? What am I going to do next with it? It’s awesome.

Could your listeners expect a live version of The Violent Hour? Or is it intended to stay more of a studio project?

Carla: I’m looking for the perfect bandmates right now. I have a vision of having an all-female band. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do ever since the Riot Grrrl movement in the ’90s. I’ve always loved that kind of vibe, and so that’s what I’m looking for. So if anyone out there plays a mean guitar and can do the solos that Zakk Wylde and John 5 have laid down on my EP, I need you. Yeah, I am really excited to play these songs live. I definitely want to take The Violent Hour on tour.

Carla, how is it balancing your roles as a musician, a grief specialist, and artist? How do you balance your schedule out to fit all of that in?

Carla: Yeah, people always think I’m crazy and that I do way too much, but for me, it’s very balanced. Unfortunately, I wish that I lived a life or I had a life where I could just create art all day long. Isn’t that the dream? It’s hard for bands, even bands that were the size of my last band, to be able to live comfortably off that kind of work.

So I’m lucky in that I am super passionate about my day job. I love what I do. I’m a grief specialist. I’ve helped people all over the world, veterans, young adults who were very disenfranchised, and terminally ill people. I work with this incredible company that makes stones out of cremated remains. I get to go train funeral homes and inspire young morticians.

So it’s a dream for me to be able to do something else that I’m passionate about and be financially stable as well, because a lot of musicians come home from a tour and have to scramble and do something. So I’m lucky that I have something I love. I work my day job, and then as soon as I’m done, I’m creating.

Charlie sees I’m creating something on the couch all night. If we’re sitting there until we go to bed at night, I’ve got my iPad out drawing or I’m writing lyrics or creating something. So for me, it doesn’t feel overwhelming. I just do it. I honestly really like being busy and working. It’s just how I’m wired. I never sit still. I’m always creating, doing something.

For the both of you, Charlie, I see you in Pantera because I follow Metallica everywhere and I’ve see Carla coming in the pit area, and you can see how you guys really have a great support network for each other. I think it’s fantastic that now you two are making music together. So how is it for both of you to finally create music together?

Carla: Yeah, I mean, Charlie, you want to answer first?

Charlie: Oh, I mean, I’m a firm believer in fate, where there’s a reason for everything. There’s a reason why Anthrax were playing Knotfest in California on this day, and Carla’s band was also on the bill. There’s a reason why I was introduced to her that night. It was just meant to be. I think about these things, and it’s like sometimes the universe just does these things for you.

It turns out that this beautiful girl was a nerd. We started to talk and we bonded over things like comic books and horror movies and fucking Elvira and weird shit, and that was it. I think we were both hooked. Then once the pandemic hit and Carla moved here to Chicago, that’s when it became real. It became serious and it became real because I was testing the water with the pandemic songs that I was doing.

It was pretty hard on her to sing these two songs. A Massive Attack song and a Tom Petty song. The Tom Petty song was easy, but I think it showed her that, oh wow, I could also sing this stuff. It became very natural for her. When I saw that, I knew that I could do more music, original music with her.

That’s basically how it all happened. The thing that happened between her and her band, it just ran its course with them. This was the opportunity. Like I say, things happen. It’s fate.

Carla: Yeah. I mean, when living with Charlie, when I live with one of the most prolific musicians I’ve ever met, and he’s just a natural musician and he’s always writing. It’s like, it’s easy to be inspired by that. It’s easy to want to be involved in writing with him, when you wake up next to someone who’s always creative. It makes for a very nice home and household when you’re both so inclined and you understand what it looks like to be a musician.

I understand when he is in the garage, beating on the drums in our studio. It’s like, I understand when he is listening to music, we give each other the space to create, but we also sit and create next to each other. It’s really awesome. When I met him, I always say it to people that when I talked to him the first time, it was like there was no one else around us. I still feel that way to this day. That just we’re very in sync with each other and it was just meant to be.

People kind of, “Why are you always at his shows? Why are you always side stage?” Well, why wouldn’t I be? That’s my man. You know what I mean? I love being his biggest fan, and I love creating with him. I think that the older you get, and especially when you work in death care like I have, you realize what’s important in life. Those small moments in being with each other and supporting each other, we don’t like to be a part at all.

Charlie: I mean, why would you?

Carla: Yeah.

Charlie: I mean, sometimes, I don’t know if this has ever happened to you or it has happened to you, but do you ever realize, holy shit, 10 years just flew by?

I understand how 10 years can go by fast.

Charlie: You know what I’m saying? It’s just like, shit, it just blows by really quick. So I always feel like, man, you better put as many ingredients into this thing and do as much as you possibly can and leave your stamp, because that to me is… This whole thing, this whole business that we’re in, this music business, this art business, people always ask me, “How do you stay so young?” Blah, blah, blah. I’m like, because I do this.

I don’t think about, I try not to think about bullshit, but the music keeps you young. I’m going to tell you a quick story about last summer. We went to see the Rolling Stones here in Chicago at the stadium. We were right up to the stage and we were watching. Then they play this one song, Midnight Rambler, and it has this big jam in the middle of it.

There was a moment when Mick walks right past us, and he’s 81 years old, and this motherfucker looks like he’s 40-year-old, just what he’s doing. My friend Chris Jericho said to me, “See what’s going on, man? The music is just taking him over.” That’s exactly what happened. He was just like a vessel, and the music was inside of him, and this 81-year-old man was moving like a 40-year-old, maybe even a 30-year-old. It was so inspiring.

That’s what music does. So all these assholes who don’t know what music is, and they’re quick to criticize people, they have no idea what they’re missing. They’ll never understand it.

Well said. I can’t believe he’s still doing all that in his 80s.

Charlie: 81 years old. They’re going to go out this summer and do it again.

What should listeners expect for The Violent Hour moving forward?

Carla: Don’t expect what you think you’re going to hear, I guess, is a big takeaway. Also expect authenticity, expect pores. I don’t know. It’s an interesting question. What do you think, Charlie?

Charlie: I think you could expect good songs. I think you could expect good choruses. I think you could expect music that once made you move, but now everything that comes out, I don’t even have to listen to a band when I see… If I’m scrolling and it’s like, oh, this band has a new record. Just the way they look, I can tell you exactly the way the song is going to start and what it’s going to sound like.

It’s become so contrived. They’re just helping to kill heavy metal even more. They’re not taking any chances. They’re just repeating what the last band did, and that’s it. So with this, there’s fucking music, there’s songs, and that’s it.