After the release of its 10th studio album, “Worship Music,” in September, Anthrax hit the road with fellow acts Testament and Death Angel. Touring since October, the band has made its way to Columbus during the second leg of its tour.

The thrash metal icons will invade the LC Pavilion at 7 p.m. Friday.

The band is celebrating its 30th anniversary after coming off of a busy 2011 during which it played as part of “The Big 4” with Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica.

Charlie Benante, drummer for Anthrax, explained that the band sought more with its most recent production.

“The mission is to really reach these other people who … buy, let’s say a Metallica record,” Benante said. “They know about Metallica, but don’t really know about Anthrax, don’t really know that much about even Megadeth or Slayer, so that’s the goal, to reach those people.”

Benante said it is extremely important to have meaning behind the music. He said he fears that a lot of today’s artists have lost sight of this fact.

“This is my issue with a lot of the things that have happened over the last 10 or 15 years,” Benante said. “Like, can you sit there and say ‘Oh yeah, Britney Spears, she was huge?’ Only really one song that comes to mind when you talk about her and that’s the first song she had. Everything else is just whatever. … It doesn’t hold the test of time.”

It’s not just some of the current artists that he said he finds aggravating; some of the listeners tend to disregard what real music is.

“That’s the one thing that bothers me about our current society, the way they want to make you an icon before you’ve even had your second or third out,” Benante said. “That to me, just, it inflates the ego on that person and then usually when they go to follow up something, it’s a bomb.”

Anthrax’s career has already spanned three decades. Some fans appreciate the authenticity and dedication of the band.

“They’re one of the originators of the thrash scene, I think,” said T.J. Menzies, bass player for the Galloway-based thrash band Domestic Terror. “They definitely paved the way for bands like us and for a lot of bands out there,”

Bandmate, guitarist and vocalist for Domestic Terror, Tobias Funk, agrees.

“They’re just one of the pure original bands, unlike one of the bands like Metallica where they kind of just sold out, Anthrax is still doing their own thing,” Funk said. “I guess I just respect them more because they’re the forefathers that stayed true to what they like.”

Doors open at 7 p.m., tickets are $27.50 in advance through Ticketmaster and $29 day of show.