Anthrax

Music
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No Anthrax thread yet?

Thread for talking about how much Anthrax slam.

Paging @midnightpunk

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Let me get involved. Criminally underrated band who have 3 of the best thrash albums of all time
State of Euphoria is just the best. :heart_eyes:

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I like Anthrax.

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Arguably they invented rap metal which negates all of their achievements.
Although I quite liked the Judge Dredd song.

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prefer the greater of two evils versions to (most of) the originals, apologies if this is sacrilegious

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Saw Anthrax play Among The Living in full about six years ago and it was one of the most fun shows Iā€™ve ever been to. Big fan.

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Had the Public Enemy colab on 7ā€ picture disc

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When Metallica and Slayer released Master Of Puppets and Reign In Blood, in that order from memory it brought me straight back to my Metal roots. For years Iā€™d neglected it, listening to New Order, The Cure and the like. Iā€™d loved the original first and second wave of Punk, both from the U.K. and the States.

What them 2 albums did (Master and Reign) was bring the energy of Punk into Metal. Simple as that. I was all in. I had already heard Madhouse and knew it was Anthrax but news was that their forthcoming album was an equal to Master and Reign, which is impossible, right? Nope.

My cousin read 2000AD from the very early 80ā€™s and I always read his copy but never started buying it until Halo Jones and Chopper, about 1985? When I saw the sleeve to I Am The Law it was magnetic. The following album, their third is one of my all-time favourite albums. Whilst not quite as perfect as Reign In Blood it is the party Thrash album in contrast to Metallicaā€™s near Classical Thrash and Slayerā€™s unique twisted devilish perfect sound.

Among The Living came at the right time and delivered the perfect sound welding genres together and the main ingredient is fun, loud fast fun. I saw them on the Among The Living Tour and they wouldnā€™t stop playing until the plug was pulled on them, nearly missed the last bus home. That show had it all, mayhem and again that mix in the audience. Punk and Metal are so close and Anthrax blur that line with speed and a lot of talent.

Then, thatā€™s it for me. I heard their next album and it felt like the boat had sailed already. I have tried over the years but itā€™s just Among The Living for me. A 10/10 album that goes toe-to-toe with both Metallica and Slayer at their absolute finest.

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I was watching a 2000AD documentary last night and Scott Ian popped up. Took me back a bit for a moment and then I remembered I Am The Law.

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I love Anthrax. Metallica will always be my favourites, but thereā€™s something about Anthrax that puts them apart from the other thrash bands. The New York hardcore influence probably. They just seemed more focussed on the ā€˜grooveā€™ than the rest. Spreading The Disease is great, as is Among The Living but I reckon Persistence Of Time is my favourite. Absolutely love the grinding riffs and tempo changes in this

Scott Ian seems like a good dude too

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Agreed, tbh.
Itā€™s only quite recently Iā€™ve gotten into the original albums at all.

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Given how much I ended up loving Rust in Peace and given how in Music League I learned that they may have essentially invented 311 via Bring the Noise, think Iā€™m going to have to finally listen to Anthrax soon. Best album to start?

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Among The Living is hands down their best album.

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I went to one of these shows. Superb. Love Anthrax.

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Yeah this. Brutal Truth go some way to making up for it though

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Persistence of Time is the album that got me into them, and I had no idea Got the Time was a cover until pretty recently. I really like Among the Living and State of Euphoria too once I started digging back, and I think Spreading the Disease but donā€™t remember having played it that much. I even liked Sound of White Noise, having come into them when I did it was in heavy rotation even though I didnā€™t like then-new singer John Bush as much as Joey Belladonna. But in hindsight last time I listened to any of it it wasnā€™t great. Never listened to anything beyond that.

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Agree that S.O.D. is unforgivable lyrically. I have never worked out what was going on on that album. Yet, at the time of release the album made a big impact and influenced so many bands. Not just the music but the (short) length of songs. Musically it is incredible. I just cannot believe the Anthrax members involved would do anything pro-actively right wing. Iā€™m scrambling here and not looking for a backlash, but the vibe I get from Scott Ian, Lilker and Benate are left of centre to me, which underlines that it was a very ill thought out joke. Milano is the problem and I just have never understood why they let him use them lyrics. I believe the S.O.D. album pushed the U.K. Hardcore scene on fast and you can see it in the imagery on so many records from that time (Napalm Death, etc).

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Think itā€™s possibly because I hate it so much, but think its influence is massively overstated too tbh. Loads of bands were playing that short fast hardcore style way before SOD (Bad Brains, Siege, Asocial, DRI, Suicidal Tendencies to name just the big ones) and Cro-Mags, Cyanamid and Agnostic Front were playing the early crossover style in New York before SOD too. Itā€™s not like they invented anything. Reckon I could name at least 10 way better pure 80s crossover albums without thinking too much about it as well. Genuinely think itā€™s absolutely bog standard musically before you even get to the lyrics.

Itā€™s absolutely Milano thatā€™s the problem for sure. Guy is a fucking stain. Know enough about Dan Lilker in particular to know that heā€™s a solid dude and agree itā€™s a total mystery why the Anthrax guys would even hang around with Milano, let alone make an album with the dick.

Not sure Iā€™d give it that much credit for pushing UK hardcore forward either tbh. My impression was that it was always seen as a bit of a joke. Didnā€™t Sore Throat and ENT write songs specifically taking the piss out of it?

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Solid reply and I agree, pretty much whole heartedly. I can only reflect on that album making waves as I saw it at the time. There where other albums but I didnā€™t know about them, nor did anyone I knew. Tapes of that album exchanged hands at rapid pace, the album made an impression. I think it is an important record. Flawed, without saying for the abomination of lyrics. If Lilker, Ian and Benate were on board that suggests it was a joke, a very bad one I know. I just donā€™t get it, I think I never willā€¦

Sore Throat did ape the album, but in doing so they are kind of acknowledging its style, which they copy. Napalm Death pre SEOD were playing to 10 people, including me, Napalm Death post SEOD were selling tens of thousand of records.

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The Anthrax guys pretty much ditched Milano after this record didnā€™t they? He made the M.O.D. record without them, which manages to be 100 times worse both lyrically and musically than the S.O.D record, which is really going some. Think it was just a misjudgement more than anything, but yeah, pretty fucking big one.

Really donā€™t agree that Sore Throat copied anything relating to SEOD at all. Sore Throat were out on their own. What they were doing was about 1000 times more original than S.O.D. Only contemporary band that got close to them was Fear Of God imo (possibly VNA and Seven Minutes of Nausea too). Have a hard time linking Napalm Deathā€™s popularity to S.O.D too tbh, but I was far too young to know what was going on at the time, so happy to defer to you on that one. Just seems like a totally different crowd, and like we discussed, most of the UK bands seemed to be more interested in taking the piss out of S.O.D than copying them :woman_shrugging: