By all the accounts I read, thrash metal group Anthrax should
\nhave been dead. After dismissing two key members over the course of
\ntwo albums (singer Joey Belladonna and lead guitarist Dan Spitz),
\nsome thought that Anthrax had lost their edge. I personally had not
\nliked
\nSound Of White Noise<\/i>, their first outing with new singer
\nJohn Bush (ex-Armored Saint), and I never bothered to buy
\nStomp 442<\/i>.
\n(Editor’s note: I’ve since picked up<\/i> Stomp 442
\n… and have yet to listen to it as of June 2001. Some things
\nnever change.)<\/i><\/p>\n
But Anthrax, contrary to popular reports, was nowhere near dead
\n– to paraphrase Monty Python, they were just resting. Their latest
\nrelease,
\nVolume 8 – The Threat Is Real<\/i>, shows the band altering their
\nsound a bit to adapt to modern times, but it also features some of
\nthe band’s best work in a long time.<\/p>\n
Drummer Charlie Benante, who has been writing or co-writing the
\nband’s songs for the longest time, adds a new credit to his already
\nimpressive resume: lead guitar (duties he shares with co-producer
\nPaul Crook and rhythm guitarist Scott Ian). Of course, this
\nshouldn’t be any shock to people who have followed the band for a
\nlong time. Bush finally sounds at home in his role as lead throat;
\nthis is his best work yet with Anthrax, and it almost sounds like
\nhe’s been with them since the beginning.<\/p>\n
Most of the thrash of Anthrax’s earlier days is long gone,
\nreplaced with more powerful, crunching riffs that form the backbone
\nof the song. (There are still two flashes of Anthrax’s old days;
\n“604” and “cupajoe” easily could have been leftovers from Ian’s
\nside project S.O.D.) From the thunder of bass drums and tom-toms on
\nthe disc’s opening song “Crush,” Anthrax quickly lets the listener
\nknow that they are back, and open for business.<\/p>\n
And while the long-time fans might miss the balls-out thrash
\ndays of
\nSpreading The Disease<\/i> or
\nAmong The Living<\/i>,
\nVolume 8 – The Threat Is Real<\/i> holds its own with
\nwell-written songs that capture all of the energy of the old days.
\nSongs like “Catharsis” and “Inside Out” coyly grab the listener’s
\nears and pummels them with catchy riffs and well-written
\nlyrics.<\/p>\n
There are some strange moments on
\nVolume 8 – The Threat Is Real<\/i>, that might leave some fans
\nscratching their heads. “Toast To The Extras” almost has a
\ncountry-shuffle feel to it, and is very much out of character for
\nthe band. It’s not a bad track, just one you never would have
\nthought a band like Anthrax would have tackled. “Harms Way” builds
\nup from an acoustic guitar open to a more powerful number, but this
\nis one that will require a little patience from the older fans.<\/p>\n
The best track on this album, surprisingly, is one that is not
\ncredited. After “Stealing From A Thief” finishes, don’t turn off
\nthe disc; about 15 seconds after the track fades out, an uncredited
\ntrack, “Pieces,” kicks in. It is undoubtedly the least likely kind
\nof song anyone would have expected from Anthrax (a ballad?!? Who
\nwoulda thunk it?). However, the song, sung by bassist Frank Bello,
\nis a moving remembrance to his brother Anthony, who was killed in
\n1996. Bello proves without a doubt here that he is not only a
\ncapable songwriter, but is a helluva singer as well.<\/p>\n
Oh, the cries of “sellout” are sure to be uttered by the
\nleather-clad headbangers longing for the days of old. Two words:
\n
\nShut up<\/i>
\n<\/b> . Sure, I loved a lot of Anthrax’s older work as well
\n(somewhere in the Pierce Memorial Archives I have a copy of the
\nimport-only EP
\nPenikufesin<\/i>), but with this release Anthrax demonstrate
\ntheir ability to modernize their sound without losing any of the
\npower they’ve had in their prime.<\/p>\n
Interestingly enough, “Dimebag” Darrell and Phil Anselmo of
\nPantera make guest appearances on this album, but their efforts are
\nalmost unnoticeable without the liner notes in front of you. Now
\nthat’s<\/i> seamless!<\/p>\n
\nVolume 8 – The Threat Is Real<\/i> is a disc that takes some time
\nto adjust to (I listened to this disc about 10 times before I
\nfinally felt comfortable enough to review it), but it proves that
\nAnthrax is still very much a power to deal with in the world of
\nheavy metal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5959],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35958","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-anthrax","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35958"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35958"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}