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...

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..."

*********************************************************

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"..

=

God bless the eternal 90's metalhead bedroom...An undisturbed island of time where the gaudy T-Shirt designs cover every inch of the fabric...

\

 May your Crazypants never fade..

Fly the Dot Matrix banners high...

Long live this headbanging idyll that rises from the mists of time whenever an Anthrax cassette is invoked...

Here's "Imitation of Life" by Anthrax..Enjoy...

Anthrax: I'm the Man

Anthrax: I'm the Man

1987

Island Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. I'm the Man (Censored Radio Version)  2. I'm the Man (Def Uncensored Version)  3. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath  4. I'm the Man (Live)  5. Caught in a Mosh (Live)  6. I Am the Law  (Live)

Welcome to Metalhead theater...Today's episode is Anthrax...The "I'm the Man E.P"...

"Dude! Look what I scored!" 

"Woahhh!"

"The 'I'm the Man' EP! Where did you get that?" 

"I did a trade...I swapped some guy a Savatage CD for this and a King's X cassette..."

"You got ripped off dude...King's X sucks..."

"I like some of their stuff...They've actually got some pretty heavy shit in there..." 

"They suck..."

"Yea, but Anthrax is cool...This one's hard to get..."

"Yea, but it's not even a full album...I maintain a strict two full-length cassettes-per-CD trade policy..."

"An EP and a full-length cassette for a CD makes a lot of economic sense, actually...Cos a CD costs $16.99 and each full-length tape is $9.99...EP's usually only cost about $6.99..."

"Still, that only equals $16.98...I would have at least made him toss in a penny, man..."

"I'm cool with it...Although the guy's starting to run low on EP's...They only made so many of them...After 'Maiden Japan' and 'Haunting the Chapel' what else have you got?"

"Metallica, 'Garage Days,' dude..."

"Yea, but Metallica sucks..."

"Yea, but they used to rule, dude..."

 

"They used to, but ever since Cliff died, they suck..."

 

"Nuh-uh...They were good until the Black Album...That's when they sucked...'...And Justice for All' fucken ripped, dude..."

 

"Naw, man...It had a power ballad on it...Can you imagine? Metallica doing a power ballad?"

"Yea, but it was about war and shit and some dude who got his arms blasted off in war...War is fucken badass, dude..."

 

"Yea, but it's still a power ballad..."

 

"Wasn't 'Fade to Black' a power ballad?"

 

"Yea, but that was different...That was about killing yourself, dude...Killing yourself is fucken badass...Can you imagine? Just taking a gun and...BOOM! You're just dead at that point...There's no turning back...That's badass!"

 

"Yea, dude! We should totally make a suicide pact and kill ourselves...That would be metal..."

"Totally fucken metal, dude..."

"Yea..."

"But first, let's check out this Anthrax EP..."

 

(Rewinds tape and pushes play)...

"THUMP THA-THUMP THA-THUMP...NOT! THUMP THA-THUMP THA-THUMP... NOT!" (wacky record scratching)

 

"What the fuck dude? This Anthrax tape is rap?"

 

"Yea, but not all rap is bad...The Beastie Boys are alright..."

♪  "WE'RE ANTHRAX AND WE TAKE NO SHIT..." ♪

 "DUDE! TURN IT DOWN! I don't want my Mom to hear this..."

"Haha...You're afraid of your Mom...Not me...I'll say 'fuck you' and 'asshole' and 'poop butthole' in front of my Mom...I don't care...My Mom let's me play with Machetes..."

"My Mom's cool...She likes Metal and stuff...She just doesn't like swearing...But she'll listen to Metallica 'Fade to Black' and Steelheart and some of the slower stuff by Kick Tracee...

"Steelheart isn't metal, dude!"

 

"Some of it is!"

♪ "THE ONLY THING HARDER IS THE SMELL OF MY FEE-EET..." ♪

"That's fucken hilarious, dude...I'm gonna start saying that at school all the time..."

 "See?!?! I told you some rap was good..."

  "Woah! They're covering Sabbath now!"

 

"Joey sounds just like Ozzy!"

 

"I know...That's the only way I like covers...If they're exactly like the original...No difference...Otherwise, what's the point?"

"I totally agree, dude...I mean, you can make the guitar heavier, but that's it..That's the only difference I'll accept..."

"Woah!  Did you hear him cough at the end and go into 'Sweet Leaf'? That's hilarious..."

"Yea, I bet we're the only people who'll get that..."

"Even though it's mostly just re-runs of the rap song and live versions, it's a pretty good tape..."

"See, I told you, dude...Now you have to suck my dick..."

"What?!"

"Yea, remember earlier when you said if it didn't suck, then you would agree to suck my dick? Well, you just admitted that it didn't suck, start, so..." 

(unzips pants)

"I never said that!"

"Dude, you totally did!"

"No, I didn't! I'm not gay, dude!"

"Yea, me neither..."

 (zips pants back up)

******************************************************

I hope you all enjoyed Metalhead Theater....Alright, a couple of thoughts on this record...Sometimes I'm amazed at the shit I'll listen to in the name of "Nostalgia" (also see M.O.D)...But I saw this on vinyl, took one look at the cover and was instantly transported to my Junior High days, holed up in my bedroom, playing this on cassette and laughing at the dumb jokes...It's hard to imagine anybody getting much out of it these days...It's essentially a Beastie Boys pastiche, and it's beyond dopey, still I can't help but feel a twinge of warmth towards it...Maybe it has some historical import due to it being arguably the first rap-metal song, although I can't imagine anybody being too quick to claim credit when your offspring looks like this:

So this is only strictly recommended to folks who were there and even they'll probably be vaguely irritated by it...New kids won't recognize it as either rap or metal, due to the lack of blast beats and bragging about bags of money...Although it would be great if there was still some dumb, dorky kid sitting on the monkey bars with a boombox repeatedly rewinding "I'm the Man" to show the other kids the swear words...

Anyway, here's the Def Uncensored version of "I'm the Man" by Anthrax...Enjoy...