Baroness: Purple

Baroness: Purple

2015

Abraxan Hymns Records


Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Morningstar  2. Shock Me  3. Try to Disappear  4. Kerosene   5. Fugue  6. Chlorine & Wine  7. The Iron Bell  8. Desperation Burns  9. If I Have to Wake Up (Would You Stop the Rain?)  10. Crossroads of Infinity



Oh, man...This is soooo stupid, but it's absolutely true...On Friday night I did the usual hanging out, getting blasted and listening to records...I finally crashed out at about 2 am, but at around 5:30 AM I began to severely toss and turn...I can't explain the feeling, but I'll try...Imagine trying to sleep while a drop of water repeatedly crashes against your forehead at regular intervals...Something was slowly pounding at my hippocampus...Finally, it was too much to take and something compelled me to wake up, filled with dread and horror! "NOOOOO!!!!!," I screamed

And what had haunted me so? What had dragged me kicking and screaming from my drunken hibernation?

None other than the fucking virulent "Puppy Monkey Baby"...

I know it's so cliche to hate on this thing and pussily describe the ad as "nightmare fuel" but this time it was actually true...It wasn't really a nightmare though, but a nagging sensation... A part of my brain couldn't turn it off the chant...Not even in my sleep...Bizarre...

Alright...Enough with the monkey baby thing...Y'know what I like to do? Irritate the fuck out of myself with listicles...Especially music-based ones...I love reading other people's rankings and getting pissed off with their inexplicable tastes...

But the one that really got me lately was this: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/20-best-metal-albums-of-2015-20151210

Rolling Stone's list of the 20 Best Heavy Metal Albums of 2015. Now, Rolling Stone's tastes have been extremely questionable for a looooong time now...(Any boyband or auto-tuned pop star automatically gets a top rating...As do a handful of grandfathered "important" rock stars  who still put out new albums (who have put out their best album since (insert name of historic album) that you'll only end up listening to once) (Springsteen, U2, Paul McCartney fall into this category) and any other good, working band who actually plays an instrument and has put out more than one album (remember the magic debut syndrome...A band can come out of nowhere with a good album but nowadays for some reason if you're unfortunate enough to put out a second album then you're automatically get points for existing past your debut) gets three stars at best and are treading water...Famous blinged out rappers automatically get 4-5 stars, a lesser know rapper who puts out the exact same shit gets 2...)

(SISQO! BEANIE SIGEL! JOHN LENNON!!

"N Sync are paving a new high road for teen pop's future. Who else will join them?")

 So, I was a little intrigued by their metal rankings, since I haven't been able to crack their code on the genre...They usually sorta look down on heavy metal in the general reviews section, but can still come up with 20 good albums at the end of the year...Anyway, I should have been discouraged by the Marilyn Manson graphic at the top of the page...I figured it was a fluke and Manson was a sort of generic comedic shorthand for "heavy metal"or something...

Now the list was pretty solid...Albums I love for sure...Ghost, Clutch, Slayer...All good records this year...Then I get to the bottom and who put out the best heavy metal album this year? None other than MARILYN MANSON! And there was a write up talking about how much he's changed and what a breakthrough this album was, etc, etc...So I was like, "I haven't heard it...I'll give it a chance...I'll support artistic growth...etc. etc." So I listened to it on youtube and...

IT WAS LITERALLY THE SAME OLD SHIT!!! It seriously gave me '93 flashbacks...Oh, well...

The point is...I guess music is in the ear of the beholder...

 And the beholder doesn't have ears, so let bad taste reign...

Wait, wait! My other point is Baroness' fantastic new album "Purple" is number 7 on this list...6 whole notches below Marilyn Mason...Now ain't that some shit!

In the very early days of the Friday Night Record Party blog, I kinda gave a middling review of Baroness' then-new "Yellow & Green" album...I recently re-read my post and its weird how much my musical tastes have changed...I was moaning about the current state of heavy metal, but nowadays it's probably the only genre of new music that I actually get excited about...There's tons of amazing new metal shit coming out now...At the time metal seemed to be emerging from decades of nu-metal/death metal/groove metal/black metal/active rock shit that drove me from the genre for a great many years...Bu I'm so happy to have metal back (still waiting on punk to become listenable again)...

Baroness was one of the band's that signaled the return of metal for me...Still, I found "Yellow and Green" to be only partially successful...There was some astounding shit on there ("Board Up the House," "Take My Bones Away") and stuff on there I could still care less about ("Twinkler", various  "Themes") and was a little too Mastodon-biting...

But this "Purple"was exactly what I was looking for...To me, they totally beat the radio-ready era of Mastodon at their own game...This is some mighty shit that manages to stay accessible...All the dank balladeering and fucking around is stripped away (or better yet, the dank balladeering and experimentation is absorbed into the perfectly-balanced songs) and they bust out one of the strongest, most melodic, inventively played albums in modern metal...One of those albums where every-single-song-rules...

In the "Why oh why is this stuff not on the radio" category we have "Shock Me" and " Kerosene" which all feature such huge melodies and great harmonies that I can't imagine they wouldn't knock out any fan of heavy music...Perhaps its the delicate guitar interplay or the inherent sense of subtlety (even among the grand singalongs) that work against the radio format...Oh, well...The world's loss I guess...

 (I don't have this pretty purple vinyl shown above...My copy is on a lowly compact disc...Yes, I'm aware there's  a big chunk of Beatles related text across the picture...I can't figure out how to get rid of it...Maybe if we ignore it, it'll go away...)

Pretty much every review of this album that anybody's ever done makes reference to the band's near-fatal tour bus accident that resulted in a long period of physical rehabilitation (explaining the long period between the release of the "Yellow and Green" and the "Purple" albums) but you really can't help it. I think it is an unavoidable subject when discussing the bruised majesty of "Purple"...It has such a dazed, adrenalized, edge-of-consciousness feeling to it...The rush of pure survival...I think this is best exemplified in "Chlorine & Wine" which goes from woozy to world-toppling in six and a half minutes...It would probably get my vote as 2015's best metal song if Ghost's damn "Cerice" wasn't such an instant classic...

Greatness at every turn...I can't recommend this higher...So much better than anything Marilyn Manson is capable of...This is gonna be a hard one to top...

Here's "Chlorine & Wine" by Baroness...Enjoy...

The Beatles: Hey Jude

The Beatles: Hey Jude

1970

Capitol Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Da Track Listin': 1. Can't Buy Me Love  2. I Should Have Known Better  3. Paperback Writer  4. Rain  5. Lady Madonna  6. Revolution  7. Hey Jude  8. Old Brown Shoe  9. Don't Let Me Down   10. The Ballad of John and Yoko      


 Oh shit! It's been a whole 3 months since the Beatles have put out an album! Quick! Put something together! HURRY!!!!

 Another Beatles comp (released shortly after "Abbey Road") that I find super interesting...It consists entirely of material that hadn't appeared on a US album..Mostly single-only releases and a couple of early songs that must have been overlooked in the mind-bending jumble of US Beatles album releases, where up is down, left is right, and "Rubber Soul" is partially "Help!"

This stuff is great though.. Some of my favorite Beatles material is contained here...Like the "Hey Jude/Revolution" single, which I almost consider (along with the "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever" single) the quintessential Beatles release...The Beatles in miniature...Paul delivers some fluffy, hyper-catchy piano pop while John rocks the fried fuck out...

  I've also always had a soft spot for George's bizarre "Old Brown Shoe," which is the sort of odd thing that only the Beatles could have pulled off as a hit...A bizarrely mixed, lumpy, dry, shuffly blues pop thingy with George's vague, scratchy vocals...Such a great song, that we've propelled it to the top of the "Most Played" section at the local bar we frequent...It sounds especially great when blasted at an dark, dank, empty dive...

The only track I don't care too much for is "Lady Madonna" where Paul gets over-blustery on some ugly boogie woogie...Although I know a lot of people who swear by this song, I'm just not getting it...Everything else is magic, though...

If  you like dry statistics as much as I do, then check this out...At this point there were still 5 songs that hadn't yet made it to a Capitol Beatles album at the time of "Hey Jude"'s release: "There's a Place," "Misery," "From Me to You," "The Inner Light," "I'm Down."  I guess if you wanted to be a nazi about it, you could make it 6 and add "Sie Liebt Dich"...

Again, you're not allowed to have Beatles videos on youtube so watch this instead:

“There’s a Place,” “From Me to You” and “Misery” — were omitted, as were a couple of B-sides, “I’m Down” and “The Inner Light,” plus the German version of “She Loves You,” “Sie Liebt Dich.” With Hey Jude‘s

Read More: 45 Years Ago: The Beatles Clean Their Closet With 'Hey Jude' LP | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/beatles-hey-jude-album/?trackback=tsmclip

“There’s a Place,” “From Me to You” and “Misery” — were omitted, as were a couple of B-sides, “I’m Down” and “The Inner Light,” plus the German version of “She Loves You,” “Sie Liebt Dich.” With Hey Jude‘s

Read More: 45 Years Ago: The Beatles Clean Their Closet With 'Hey Jude' LP | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/beatles-hey-jude-album/?trackback=tsmclip

The Beatles: A Collections of Beatles Oldies (But Goldies!)

The Beatles: A Collections of Beatles Oldies (But Goldies!)

1966

Parlophone Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. She Loves You  2. From Me to You  3. We Can Work It Out  4. Help!  5. Michelle  6. Yesterday  7. I Feel Fine  8. Yellow Submarine  9. Can't Buy Me Love  10. Bad Boy  11.             Day Tripper  12. A Hard Day's Night  13. Ticket to Ride  14. Paperback Writer  15. Eleanor Rigby  16. I Want to Hold Your Hand    


I have a  soft spot for Beatles comps...I've listened to the Beatles back catalog so extensively that I have every song, every word, every track listing, even the lengths of silence between the tracks (!) totally memorized...As a result, listening to a Beatles album can seem a bit rote to me nowadays...

So to keep the relationship fresh, I'll play Beatles albums with the tracks out of order or I'll pick up a compilation...The more non-chronological, the better for me...Y'see, "Day Tripper" suddenly regains its psychedelic shimmer again when it's juxtaposed with the bread n' butter "Bad Boy." "I Want to Hold Your Hand" regains its pop headrush when it follows "I Want to Hold Your Hand"...

You might ask yourself what the point of this album was? It was a rushed compilation released in the UK for the holidays..It was notable for including a cover of Larry Williams' "Bad Boy" which had previously only been issued on a wonky US album...There were also a handful of exclusive stereo mixes of mono singles included...And it must have been a fairly popular import in the US, since this isn't the first time I've run across a copy...Truthfully, the old-timey, subtly psychedelic art sold me immediately...Beautiful cover...

Y'know, for the longest time I saw this album title as "A Collection of Oldies (But Goodies)" and would endlessly repeat that title and no one ever corrected me! When I pointed this out to my wife she was surprised because she had always read it as "Oldies But Goodies" too! I wonder exactly how widespread this misreading is...Or am I my own small island of ignorance?

Oh yea...You can't put up videos of the Beatles on youtube (trust me, I've tried and gotten notices to remove them), so instead let's watch some baseball player slide face first into another dude's ass...Enjoy...

Bad Brains: Spirit Electricity

Bad Brains: Spirit Electricity

1991

SST Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Return to Heaven  2. Let Me Help  3.  Day Tripper/She's a Rainbow  4. Banned in D.C  5. Attitude  6. Youth Are Getting Restless



The Bad Brains "I Against I" tour must be one of the most well-documented punk tours ever...Three official live albums from that tour ("Live," "The Youth Are Getting Restless" and this one)...Most classic punk acts only get one posthumous live album if they're lucky. The Brains get three from one tour! This one is pretty much just a 10-inch, 20-minute, mini-live album, though..

So what does this one have that the other two don't? Well, "Return to Heaven" and "Attitude" is the short answer. Some different and more specific politicizing in HR's spoken sections. So yea, nothing to replace the "The Youth Are Getting Restless" live album, which is a much longer and more exciting album (livelier, while "Spirit Electricity" has a sort of cleanliness that somewhat de-rocks some of the material...But not too much...Bad Brains have a lot of rock to spare, so if they lose a little it's not a deal-breaker)....

 Still, if you're as rabid a Bad Brains fan as I am there's no way you're not going to see this pretty little 10-inch on the wall and not buy it (I got the translucent green vinyl copy, btw)...Still, objectively I can see that this would be a pretty pointless release to most people. Especially if they own the other two full length albums from this tour...But I can't find anything wrong with it...It's a well-recorded, well-performed live EP from the band's late 80's heyday...So cool...

Here's "Attitude" by the Bad Brains...Enjoy...

Bad Brains: Black Dots/Pay to Cum

Bad Brains: Black Dots

1996

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Don't Need It  2. At the Atlantis  3. Pay to Cum  4. Supertouch/Shitfit  5. Regulator  6. You're a Migraine  7. Don't Bother Me  8. Banned in D.C. 9. Why'd You Have to Go?  10. The Man Won't Annoy Ya  11. Redbone in the City  12. Black Dots  13. How Low Can a Punk Get?  14. Just Another Damn Song  15. Attitude  16. Send You No Flowers


Apparently, somewhere in the late 90's someone discovered a Bad Brains album that nobody put out...Wha huh?!? Recorded in 1979, this predates the ROIR album and features some overlap but probably less than you might think...There's like, what? 8 utterly unheard compositions here in addition to the 8 classics presented here in completely different versions...

The '79 Bad Brains were a click slower than the '81-'82 Bad Brains of ROIR, which you would think would hinder the enjoyment of the songs, but it doesn't...They're just as entertaining played at any speed...The average Bad Brains song is so damn fast that some of the details can come across as a blur, but on this album you get a chance to step back and get a good look at the moving parts, which is interesting (except the title track which is odd and fast as fuck)...

Not to mention,  you get some insight into HR...Prior to hearing this, I had no idea whatsoever what HR's infuences were...His blend of singing, screeching, spasming, and jabbering is so unique that I didn't know how he could have possibly arrived at the delivery...Turns out, you can hear a very pronounced Johnny Rotten influence on some of HR's vocals here...Huh. Who knew? "Redbone in the City" is a great example of the Bad Brains/Sex Pistols hybrid...

 What's even more mind-boggling is that, in the liner notes, this album comprises all the material the band wrote in the first month of its existence....Which explains song titles such as "Just Another Damn Song"...Oh yea, the liner notes also inform me that HR was a waiter at a steakhouse?!?!?! This record is really just blowing my mind on all levels at this point...

So happy that someone finally got around to putting this out...I've been trying to find a copy for yeeeeaaaars....I remember seeing a CD version of it at a Circuit City back in the early 90's but I passed over it for something else that I'm sure was nowhere near as awesome as this...Then I spent a couple decades trying ot find it again to no avail until I ran across a vinyl copy hanging on the wall at Eastside Records...Sold!

Here's   "Don't Bother Me" by the Bad Brains...Enjoy...

Bad Brains!: Pay to Cum/Stay Close to Me

1980

Bad Brain Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. c  2. Stay Close to Me


"Pay to Cum" is to hardcore what "Blitzkrieg Bop" is to punk. The original text. A genre codified. The how-to manual. The first and still the best. There's a cosmic consciousness contained within that very few (if any) other hardcore bands ever obtained...

Recorded about 6 months after the "Black Dots" version, while they share a similar arrangement (keeping what is quite possibly the fastest cowbell playing ever recorded) the differences are striking.The single take is faster and more furious...Darryl Jennifer and Earl Hudson (the rhythm section) run the five minute mile in roughly a minute thirty...

And look! Lyrics! I had no idea that "Pay to Cum" had real lyrics. I just figured HR was always singing, "Numma numma numma numma numma numma numma numma NO!" But here, in black and white, are actual words...Although only extreme speed readers will be able to read along with the song playing...

 The B-Side is interesting too...How do you follow a light-speed hardcore classic? Why, with a laid-back, doo-woppy love song! With big, punk power chords in the chorus! These guys were so far ahead of everybody else at this point that it's ridiculous...No one else ever pushed hardcore as far as these guys did...Not even close...

This single is a straight-up classic and I think every punk enthusiast owes it to themselves to sit down and listen to the original "Pay to Cum/Stay Close to Me" single...To experience a pivitol  moment in music history in its original form...

Here's "Pay to Cum" by the Bad Brains...Enjoy...

Against All Authority/ The Pist split 7-inch

Against All Authority/ The Pist split 7-inch

1996

Records of Rebellion

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Against All Authority- Sacco & Vanzette   2. Against All Authority-Threat  3. Against All Authority - Alba  4. The Pist-Wrong 5.The Pist- Walking Revolution   6. The Pist-Sedate


This is one of those punk split 7-inches where the respective bands cover each others songs...I picked this up for dirt-ass cheap cos I had remembered enjoying Against All Authority's "All Fall Down" album back in the day...

For those unfamiliar with the band, AAA was (is? I'm not sure if they're still around) a ska-punk band that leaned towards the crustier side of things...Lots of ramshackle energy and shouty politics about turn of the century anarchists, but the real draw for me is their consistently out of tune, Tower of Sour horn section...In this soulless, auto-tuned wold of ours, it always does my heart good to hear some good, brown honk...

There are two AAA originals: "Sacco & Vanzette" about some anarchist bankrobbers...

..and "Alba," which I'm assuming is about Jessica Alba...

And then they do a cover of "Threat" by the Pist, which is cool cos it was the only Pist song I knew (since I heard it on that old "Punk USA" comp that Lookout put out in the 90's..). So if you're into anarchic ska crust (and who isn't?) then you'll probably like to skank to this...

 On the flip side of the record has three tracks by the Connecticut punk band, The Pist. And it's not false advertising. These guys do sound genuinely pissed.  Like I said, I was only aware of The Pist, via "Punk USA" and I didn't quite know what to make of it back then...They were much more classic hardcore than the pop-punk bands surrounding them, but on the other hand, they sounded somewhat clean compared to real-deal 80's hardcore...

Now I understand they were attempting to bring back some of that old sound and spirit to a scene that was somewhat lacking in it while avoiding the self-conscious "retro" routine of making a new recording sound old...It sounds like if an early 80's HC band (before all the tough-guy metal seeped into the sound) used 90's recording technology...If you like short, manageable blasts of unadorned punk, then check them out...Their best song on here, by far, is their cover of AAA's "Walking Revolution" which ends up stealing the record...They do a better AAA than AAA...

This record is a fun way to make 10 minutes of your life a bit more exciting (oh, and even though it's not on this album, the Pist song, "The Customer is Always Right" rules...)

Here's "Walking Revolution" by the Pist..Enjoy...

Avail: Live at the Kings Head Inn

Avail: Live at the Kings Head Inn

1993

Old Glory Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Sidewalk  2. Stride  3. Song  4. Observations  5. Predictable   6. Forgotten  7. Pinned Up  8. Violent Femmes  9. Connection



A 10-inch live album by Avail. It mostly features "Satiate"-era material with a couple of tracks from the not-yet-released "Dixie" album filling things out...

A live album by Avail is always welcome, since they were one of the best live bands of the whole 90's punk scene...I've seen them a few times and can attest to how sweaty and slamming those 90's shows were...They never ever gave anything less than 100%, therefore any live album by Avail is going to rule...

However, this is a very, very raw recording...It sounds like an audience mic, capturing the blast of sound from the stage and PA's...So yea...Not exactly a studio-quality soundboard recording...This falls more in the category of those noisy "V.M.Live Presents" releases...If you can take those, you can take this..

Still, this is a great companion to "Satiate"...It kicks all the ass that "Satiate" only gently caressed...Every single one of these songs are improved in a live setting...My God, "Predictable" is a fucking force of nature here and "Pinned Up" sounds like it could explode any second...Oh yea, the track labelled, "Violent Femmes" is actually a cover of the song "Kiss Off" which is welcome since it's probably my favorite Violent Femmes song and they do a pretty good version of it...

The album closes with "Connection" which is another one of those songs that's perfectly suited to a crowded punk show with its big chants and universal message...Man, if anything makes me want to leave the computer and hoist my fist in the air at some 160 degree punk club, it's this...So good...

If you don't mind crispy sound and muddled mixing, check this out...If the rawness is too much, check out the "Live at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco" CD Lookout Records put out a few years after this...It's also a killer show and is much more clearly recorded...Still, there's something about this unhinged performance that I like...

Here, you can check out the whole thing here...It's only 20-something minutes...Enjoy...

Avail: Satiate

Avail: Satiate

1992

Catheter-Assembly Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. March  2. All About It  3. Forgotten  4. Bob's Crew  5. Observations  6. Upward Grind  7. Stride  8. Timeframe  9. Pinned Up  10. Predictable  11. Twisted  12. Hope 


I'd been looking for a copy of this album forever (which was a favorite of my high school/college years)  and recently found it on vinyl...I used to have it on CD, which had a couple of bonus tracks that this vinyl version doesn't have...

So no "Connection" or "Mr. Morgan" for me...Which is really sad! I love "Connection" and its catchy "No one turned your rally of peace! Into a! Into a!" chant..."Mr. Morgan" is also interesting for its overt Fugazi-ness and for hearing Tim Barry rap! The CD also had that cute cartoon drawing of the band...My vinyl copy has some xerox-y photo...
 

 

To be honest, "Satiate" isn't even close to being one of my favorite Avail albums...Whereas most punk bands start off harder and more fierce and end up softening with age, Avail's first full-length is much calmer than their subsequent albums...It all sounds like classic Avail, but it just seems to have  a softer touch...There's also the matter of two songs on the album that are so staggeringly awesome that they almost invalidate everything that follows:

"March" is such a perfectly anthemic album opener that nothing else on the album could ever possibly live up to it...It has everything: Militaristic drums, punchy guitars, soulful female backing vocals, about a hundred different vocal hooks...If this one song was the only thing the band had ever released, their place in punk history would have still been assured...Flawless in every way and captures that hard-earned, positive spirit that you can sometimes find at a particularly transcendent punk rock show...

The other towering moment is "Pinned Up" which is just so much more ferocious than anything else here...This, more than anything else points the way to the direction the band was heading...Blasting, melodic hardcore with a hook so sharp that I could still sing along to every word despite not having heard it in 15 years...

The rest of the album isn't bad by any stretch...Lots of good, gut-punching, emotional punk rock like "Bob's Crew" and "Stride"...The pair of ballads that close the album often cause me to check out early though..."Twisted" is interesting, since it's a surging, 5-minute plus monster but by the time they bust out the acoustic guitar for "Hope" the mosh pit is empty and the lights are on...Avail would quickly learn how to better incorporate melancholy into their sound, but they haven't quite nailed it yet...Oh, well...

For all its flaws, it's still a huge cut above most 90's pop-punk and my college playlist would have been a much emptier place without "Satiate"...

Here's "March" by Avail...Enjoy...

Anthrax: Sound of White Noise

Anthrax: Sound of White Noise

1993

Elektra

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Potters Field  2. Only  3. Room for One More  4. Packaged Rebellion  5. Hy Pro Glo  6. Invisible  7. 1000 Points of Hate  8. Black Lodge  9. C₁₁ H₁₇ N₂ O₂ S Na  10. Burst  11. This Is Not an Exit

.SAY IT AIN'T SO, RIP MAGAZINE! SAY IT AIN'T SO!!!

Joey Belladonna leaving Anthrax?!?! Details on page 32??!?!?!!  I think this was the Zayn Malik leaves One Direction of my jean-jacketed generation..Joey was the golden-voiced everyman! There was no other Thrash vocalist even remotely like him! Who could possibly replace him? WHO?!?!?!?

As someone who followed this saga closely back in '92, I can tell you in all certainty that no one knew what to make of the news that John Bush was going to be the new Anthrax vocalist...Sure,we all liked Armored Saint's "Symbol of Salvation" but outside of them both being metal vocalists, Joey and John had nothing in common...Would Anthrax return to a more "Fistful of Metal" power-metal approach? Add to this, interviews from the era featured Scott Ian talking about how the new Anthrax album would be influenced by Depeche Mode and shit...Uh oh...

Turns out the direction they took was a fairly obvious one...Since the grunge movement was in full swing, the band decided to look to that scene for inspiration, particularly the slower, narcotic drawl of
Alice in Chains...I actually hear a lot of "Symbol of Salvation" in this too...Yea, think "Symbol of Salvation" stripped of its remaining metal ham...Alice in Chains with some bombast...I can still catch a faint whiff of "Persistence of Time"-era Anthrax on a couple of tracks ("Packaged Rebellion" in particular) but I'd say there's very little classic Anthrax left in this, which I actually consider to be a smart move...You just can't compare this to previous Anthrax material...It's apples and oranges...You cannot imagine Joey getting all moody and Twin Peaks-y on "Black Lodge"...You can't imagine Joey yarling his way through the creeping "This is Not an Exit"...You cannot imagine Joey riding the tidal wave of grunge on "Only"...

Trouble was, Anthrax tried so hard to outdo themselves on this one that they were never able to recapture this high...

I remember hearing the Stomp 442 album by Manasses and being so underwhelmed by its boring dryness that I swore off Anthrax for a great many years...Friends would occasionally show me the latest Anthrax which similarly fell flat to me...I hear Joey came back in recent years, but I haven't gotten around to any of those albums yet...

So, I'll continue to remember "Sound of White Noise" where it seemed for a moment that Anthrax would be able to successfully navigate the 90's and all its unwashed flannel-ness...A band reinventing itself to keep up with the trends and actually pulling it off...I'm docking a star for the use of that overused, "This is a Juhhhh-ney into sound..." sample, but I still say it's a far cut above most other post '91 metal, which to me, was one of the saddest, most barren landscapes in pop music history...I still have nightmares about this stuff...

BLAHH!!!

BLAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, let's not dwell on what lied ahead...Let's take "Sound of White Noise" on its own merits...Here's "Packaged Rebellion" by Aunt Thracks...Enjoy...

Anthrax: Attack of the Killer B's

Anthrax: Attack of the Killer B's

1991

Island Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Milk (Ode to Billy)  2. Bring the Noise  3. Keep It in the Family (Live)  4. Startin' Up a Posse  5. Protest and Survive  6. Chromatic Death  7. I'm the Man '91  8. Parasite  9.   Pipeline  10.  Sects  11. Belly of the Beast  12. N.F.B. (Dallabnikufesin)

Oh, Man...I still remember  the day I bought this album...I went up to the Drug Store (which doubled as the CD and Cassette store in my small town) and was half-assedly looking through the cassettes when I noticed an unfamiliar Anthrax title..

 My eyes just about popped out of my head... I was not expecting this...I promptly bought it and I can still recall scanning the lyric sheet and liner notes on the ride home (as I sat in the back of the truck)...

I played that tape within an inch of its life that summer...Not only was it new Anthrax (well, new to me anyway) but the album was perhaps their most fun and interesting release...As I recall it, Anthrax were known for their sense of humor, but this was mostly relegated to television appearances, interviews and merchandising...There was actually very little in the way of humor in their discography at this point...The album is basically broken down in the following categories:

Cover Songs: The majority of the album consists of covers, and these are probably the most entertaining portion of the album. It functions as a pretty good breakdown of the various elements that constitute the band's sound: Metal (a cover of Trust's "Sects"), punk (Discharge's "Protest and Survive"), hard rock (Kiss' "Parasite") and rap in the form of a collaborative cover of "Bring the Noise" with Public Enemy that was a huuuuge hit, as I recall...The only wild card is a cover of the surf instrumental "Pipeline"...I guess you could argue that instrumental surf shares some DNA with metal shred...I dunno...

 Originals: To be honest, this is the spottiest part of the album...There's a beyond pointless remake of "I'm the Man."  We also have "Startin' Up a Posse," which is one of those old anti-PMRC tirades that (along with anti-televangelist tracks) were mandatory back in the day...I recall thinking it was beyond hilarious when I was a zit-faced teenager, but nowadays I can't even take 30 seconds of it...That orgasming chick has a horrible wheeze that makes me want to claw my ears out when I listen to this on headphones..."N.F.B"  highlights how great Joey Belladonna would have made a great hair balladeer in the mold of Jani Lane. He's so good at it, it's probably my favorite original on the album...

S.O.D Covers: I don't know if I should classify the two S.O.D tracks as covers or originals, since  Scott Ian and Charlie Benante wrote the songs...I really don't like these any more or less than the originals honestly...They're a bit more presentable, so I feel like I should hold that against them, but I don't...

Live Stuff: There's also a couple of live tracks from the then-recent "Persistence of Time" tour...These are nice, I guess..."P.OT." is still my personal favorite Anthrax album, but the band isn't exactly known for their radically different live interpretations...So I can't really imagine someone going out of their way to search these out over the studio versions...

I still consider this a really entertaining listen...Due to all the different approaches, the 45 minutes fly right by...Despite (or because of) its flaws, I'm saying get this and "Among the Living" for a shorthand overview of what Anthrax was all about..."Among the Living" for the serious side and "Attack of the Killer B's" which elucidates their humor and their influences...

Let's listen to some heavy ass metal...Here's "Sect" by Anthrax...