Friday Night Record Party : Anthrax: Among the Living

Here are the previous random Anthrax posts I've done in the last couple of years:

A Bunch of Rando Anthrax albums that I wrote in 2014.

A post on "I'm the Man" that I wrote in 2015.

Anthrax: Among the Living

1987

	Megaforce/Island Records		Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Among the Living 2. Caught in a Mosh 3. I Am the Law 4. Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.) 5. A Skeleton in the Closet 6. Indians 7. One World 8. A.D.I./Horror of It All 9. Imitation of Life

Come to think of it, Anthrax is kind of an Oprah's Book Club for headbangers...Once every two years or so, the band invites us into the mosh pit to discuss their literary picks, which mostly consist of Stephen King novels, Belushi biographies and Judge Dredd comics...

And this is quintessential Anthrax book club meeting. It's the reason why Anthrax fans love Anthrax so much. Just 9 tracks of ass-kicking technical thrash with no unnecessary or unwanted experimentation. No one has ever skipped a track while playing "Among the Living," because there is neither a single dud nor a single track that shines above all others. If a metalhead was forced to pick a single favorite song from this album, my guess is that it would be nothing less than a 3-way tie...

"Dude. If you had to pick one song from 'Among the Living' as being the best one, which one would you pick?"

That's too hard, Man...So many choice cuts...'Caught in a Mosh' cos it's about fucken moshing...Or 'Indians' maybe...

"Yea, dude. I can totally relate to 'Indians.' I'm 1/8th Indian..."

"No way, Dude."

"Yuh huh. I could go to college for free and get a big fat check that I could spend on dope and beer every month, but I turned it down...The government is broke enough as it is..."

"Fucken Obama, dude!"

"Yea, fucken Obama..."

"I also like 'I Am the Law'. That's bad-ass, dude....Judge Dredd is a comic, but it's not like a pussy comic like Superman or something...It's got, like, swear words and stuff in it...And Judge Dredd actually kills people..."

"My cousin Jimmy is a cop...He gets to bring home the drugs he confiscates...I went to his house last weekend and he had a bale of marijuana that he kept from a drug bust in Mexico...We smoked it all and then we took a ride in his cop car and beat up some bums...He says he can get me on the police force when I graduate..."

"You ain't never gonna graduate, man..."

"Yuh huh. I would have graduated three years ago if Mr. Rice didn't hate me...I banged Mrs. Rice in the Equipment Room and now Mr. Rice won't let me graduate."

"Mrs. Rice has some big-ass titties, Dude..."

"Yea, can you imagine if the school threw a wet T-Shirt contest and Mrs. Rice and Ms. Fletcher were in it?"

"Fuck yea, Dude. And they started dykin' out?"

"But yea...But when Mr. Rice finally retires and I get to graduate, then I'm gonna be a cop. Except I'm gonna be a cool cop, cos I won't bust people for drugs. And right before I shoot a criminal, I'm gonna tell them, 'I Am the Law...' then blow their fucken head off..."

"That would be badass..."

"Only you and I would get that joke..."

"Hey, waitaminnit...Your cousin Jimmy? Jimmy Camaro? Dude ain't a cop!"

"Well, he's the security guard at the Alpena Mall, so that means he's pretty much a cop...I mean, his gun only shoots Nerf discs, but it's still a gun..."

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I hope you all enjoyed Metalhead Theater....Yea, I totally worshiped this album circa '90-'92. 1...If I only had to pick one track from "Among the Living"? Impossible...At least a three-way tie...The epic title track is a no-brainer, but I might have to go with "Horror of It All" and "Imitation of Life" which are the type of perfect closers that make you wish the album wouldn't end...Whenever I hear it, I turn back into one of those slobbering metalheads shown above, playing "Altered Beast" on the Sega Genesis and rocking out to "Among the Living"..