To prepare myself for reviewing this CD, the latest effort from
one of the thrash metal genre’s leaders, I spent a lot of time with
their greatest hits release
Return Of The Killer A’s, which chronicles the band’s
career. I introduced my children to the song “Indians” as well as
the frantic pace of their cover of the Joe Jackson tune “Got the
Time.” I also enjoyed their more recent tracks like “Only,”
realizing that the band has progressed from their early releases
like
Fistful Of Metal and
Armed And Dangerous. More recently, the band has found out
that you don’t have to play 100 MPH to be a heavy band, a la
Metallica.
Listening to their greatest hits gave me the perspective to
conclude
We’ve Come For You All is a stellar release. Anthrax
continues what worked on their last release,
Volume 8 – The Threat Is Real, and throws enough references
to their early thrash roots to satisfy veteran and newbie fans.
It’s at the 1:41 mark of “What Doesn’t Die” that the band sounds
like the old days of thrash metal. The crescendo is one that makes
you imagine the band playing this song live. And that’s a major
thrust of this release. While there are some overdubs and special
effects, the bulk of this material sounds like four guys that set
up their instruments and started jamming. Vocalist John Bush sounds
excellent, especially during “Nobody Knows Anything,” which is also
a stellar track for drummer Charlie Benante, who constructs a
frantic drumbeat. The single “Safe Home” could serve as a suitable
introduction to the band, who has still, despite Metallica’s radio
success, never really made a splash on the radio.
The song that I would think would make more of an impact is
“Think About An End,” a Charlie Benante-driven mid-tempo stomp.
After multiple listens, this is the song I come back to as
personifying the progress Anthrax has made on this release. It has
the trademark Benante drumming, which relies more on tom-tom
rhythms than a straight rock beat between hi-hat and snare.
At the 2:20 mark, Benante’s bass drum stomp helps introduce a
retro ’80s riff, upon which Bush gives his best performance on this
release. At the end of the day, Anthrax is continues the theme the
theme of their song “I’m the Man,” when they declared “We like to
be different and not cliche.”
In 2003, that is true. They are in the midst of a credible tour,
sharing the stage with bands like Lamb of God, Lacuna Coil and
E-Town Concrete. Chances are Anthrax mainstream fans, the ones that
only introduced the band through “Safe Home,” are not familiar with
any of those bands. I must admit I’ve heard of all these bands, but
I couldn’t name a single song they recorded without looking up the
band on the internet. My ignorance of these supposedly stellar
bands holds up as an example of why Anthrax continues to be
important in the music scene of 2003.
