Anthrax taps Darby Todd for Athens show with Iron Maiden

Anthrax handed the kit to Darby Todd for a high-pressure night in Athens, Greece, where the band opened for Iron Maiden at the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens on Saturday, May 23. Fan-shot video quickly made the change visible to the wider metal crowd, but the bigger story for drummers was the assignment itself: Todd was asked to cover Charlie Benante’s parts for one of thrash metal’s most exacting live bands.

Setlist records for the show place the concert on Anthrax’s Cursum Perficio tour and show a compact 7:00 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. set. That is not a friendly stretch for a substitute player. Anthrax packed the Athens slot with “Among the Living,” “Madhouse,” “Caught in a Mosh,” “Metal Thrashing Mad,” “I Am the Law,” “Antisocial,” “Got the Time,” and “Indians,” a run that demands speed, stamina, click-tight transitions, and a right hand that can keep the whole band locked while the guitars and vocals push forward.

Todd was a logical call. His website describes him as a UK-based drummer who works across styles and is currently touring the world with Devin Townsend. His credits also include The Darkness, Martin Barre, Alan Price, Gary Moore, Kee Marcello, Joe Lynn Turner, Carl Verheyen, Robert Plant, Disney’s The Lion King, Robben Ford, and Paul Gilbert, a list that points to the kind of adaptability and reading of a room that matter when a major metal act needs a dependable stand-in fast.

The Athens appearance fit into a bigger Iron Maiden package as well. Anthrax were part of the support bill for the opening stop of Maiden’s 2026 European “Run For Your Lives” run, which gave Todd’s cameo an arena-scale audience rather than a one-off club gig. Later reporting linked Benante’s absence to his touring commitments with Pantera, making Todd’s role look less like a casual favor and more like a real touring solution.

For one night in Athens, Anthrax showed how the top level of metal survives disruption: not by lowering the bar, but by finding a drummer who could step into Charlie Benante’s chair and make a 45-minute support set feel intact from the first crash to the last downbeat.