The writing on the wall was there for fans of Anthrax in 1991.
\nAll the signs of imminent change and possible disaster were right
\nthere in front of our faces. Why we didn’t recognize it, I don’t
\nknow.<\/p>\n
\nAttack Of The Killer B’s<\/i> – great, just the graphics someone
\nwho is deathly afraid (no joke) of the little stinging bastards
\nneeds to see – was admittedly a stop-gap release that bought the
\nband time to work on their follow-up to
\nPersistence Of Time<\/i> but also gave the diehard fans one
\nsource for the rare, collectible songs. Of course, not long after
\nthe album’s release, lead singer Joey Belladonna was shown the
\ndoor, and the band left Island to reap the benefits (or so it
\nseemed) of a mega-deal with Elektra.<\/p>\n
But dammit, the signs were there. Of the “new” songs
\n(translation: tracks not recorded live, featured on the import EP
\nPenikufesin<\/i> or included on a Public Enemy record),
\nBelladonna provides lead vocals on two – count ’em, two – of the
\nsix tracks.
\nHello?!?<\/i><\/p>\n
Maybe the reason we didn’t pay attention to the signs of
\nBelladonna’s imminent departure was because we were all fretting
\nand fuming about the half-ass quality of this release.
\nAttack Of The Killer B’s<\/i> has its moments, but this is one
\nthat’s definitely for the diehard fans only.<\/p>\n
Let’s look at the two live tracks first. Quality-wise, these
\ntracks recorded in Birmingham, England don’t do the band a lot of
\njustice. The sound quality is a bit muddied, and these aren’t the
\neasiest tracks to get into from the
\nPersistence Of Time<\/i> disc. (For that matter, the last time I
\nlistened to that album, I wasn’t impressed… but that’s another
\nreview for another day.) What would have been interesting is if two
\ntracks from a promo-only disc,
\nFree B’s<\/i>, had been included instead.<\/p>\n
The material borrowed from the
\nPenikufesin<\/i> EP hasn’t aged too well – the cover of Kiss’s
\n“Parasite” sounds a bit sloppy – but is still kinda nice to have in
\nthis format. Worth noting: their cover of Trust’s “Sects”. This
\nparticular song still rocks today. But to play devil’s advocate,
\nwhy did they choose not to include the French version of
\n“Antisocial” or their cover of “Friggin’ In The Riggin'” that also
\nwere on
\nPenikufesin<\/i>? Maybe to make sure there would still be demand
\nfor the original? Hmm…<\/p>\n
The collaboration with Public Enemy, “Bring The Noise,” is still
\nfun to listen to, and it marked a significant point in the
\nrelationship between rap and metal not seen since Aerosmith and
\nRun-DMC joined forces for their cover of “Walk This Way”. Rhythm
\nguitarist Scott Ian proves to be quite the rapper, and the track
\ndiminishes neither band’s power or prestige in any way.<\/p>\n
That leaves us with six new tracks on
\nAttack Of The Killer B’s<\/i>. Two of the tracks give Anthrax’s
\nspin on S.O.D. – “Milk (Ode To Billy)” and “Chromatic Death”. (Hmm,<\/p>\n
another<\/i> sign of things that were to come; less than two
\nyears later, S.O.D. – which featured Ian and drummer Charlie
\nBenante – reunited for
\nLive At Budokan<\/i>.) I can’t say I like the addition onto
\n“Milk,” but the newer, crunchier version of “Chromatic Death” is a
\nrare instance of a re-make improving on the original. (S.O.D. must
\nhave thought so; they switched “Chromatic Death” to the Anthrax
\nversion.)<\/p>\n
The remaining four tracks give new meaning to the phrase “big
\nmistake”. “Startin’ Up A Posse” proves two things. First, a poorly
\nwritten song taking the anti-censorship position can only hurt your
\nside’s stance… and the fact is, this song is lame to the nth
\ndegree. Second, Ian can’t carry a tune in a bucket when it matters.
\n(He does a better job on the cover of “Protest And Survive,” in all
\nfairness.) This track is easily the biggest nugget of dog crap
\nAnthrax has ever recorded.<\/p>\n
Their tongue-in-cheek tribute to rap, “I’m The Man,” gets
\nre-worked here as “I’m The Man ’91”. It has its moments as well,
\nbut the old saying rings true: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. As
\nfor “N.F.B. (Dallabnikufesin),” this track shows how much throwaway
\nmaterial was really on this album.<\/p>\n
Collections of b-sides and rarities are almost always a
\nhit-or-miss batch of tracks, but at least the effort to put
\ntogether a collection worthy of a band’s name should always be
\nmade. If you pick up
\nAttack Of The Killer B’s<\/i> expecting to hear vintage Anthrax,
\nyou’re gonna get stung.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5959],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-36545","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-anthrax","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36545","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=36545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36545"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36545"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}