"Fistful of Metal"The first Anthrax album and the only one to feature Neil Turbin on vocals. When I heard this for the first time I hated it, but got a vibe for the music over the vocals eventually. In between this and the second album, drummer Charlie Benante, guitarist Scott Ian and bassist Danny Lilker collaborated on a famous punk project called "Stormtroopers of Death" (or "S.O.D." for short.) Danny Lilker left immediately afterwards to create Nuclear Assault.
"I'm Eighteen" is a cover of the Alice Cooper song. (Well, duh...)
"Armed and Dangerous" (EP)First recordings with new singer Joey Belladonna & bassist Frank Bello, going through some new songs & redoing old ones. Rereleased on CD with two so-called "collector's tracks" (i.e. "Buy This And Make Us Rich!!") "God Save the Queen" is a Sex Pistols song.
"Spreading the Disease"Quite a lot of classics on this album. Also the first evidence that Anthrax are Stephen King fans, with the reference to the Gunslinger in "Lone Justice". Also "The Enemy" is based on some horror novel or movie or something I can't remember what right now.
"Among the Living"This was the CD that first got me into the band. Impossible to find a song that is less than stupendous! More King-isms abound, with the title track being about Randall Flagg from The Stand, and "Skeleton" is based on Apt Pupil, the story of a 13-year-old boy who discovers a former Nazi SS officer living secretly in his neighborhood, and blackmails him into telling stories of death camp atrocities. At the end of the book the boy climbs into a tree with his rifle and starts picking off people one by one: "King of the world, four hundred rounds/It took five hours to bring him down." What a hero!
"Efilnikufesin" is "Nice Fucking Life" spelled backwards (kind of), and inspired a bunch of other "Nikufesin" play on words: there's the EP Penikufesin, the live home video Oidivnikufesin, and, on the Internet, Egapemohnikufesin :-)
"I'm the Man" (EP)I don't remember if this came out before or after "Among the Living", I'm assuming it was after because of the live tracks. Nobody can be a true Anthrax fan w/o owning at least six different copies of the infamous "I'm the Man" pseudo-rap single. "Sabbath..." is by you know who.
"State of Euphoria"Didn't like this album at first although it eventually grew on me. Still it's kind of unreachable, but luckily this was not the beginning of a slow downward slide, but merely a stumbling point in their career, as the next CD would attest.
Quite a bit of trivia associated with this album. When I had my college radio show I tossed on "Now It's Dark" not thinking of the 30 times they say "FUCK!" in the song! Not to mention it was a religious university to boot. Also I spliced together a "homemade remix" of the hyper-repetitive "13" track & extended it to about 5 minutes or so. You can't fathom how annoying that is to most people. And finally, the video they shot for "Who Cares Wins" was banned from MTv for showing too many homeless people & depressing their viewers. Well a few months later bald-boy Phil Collins was praised for trotting out the homeless in his "Another Day in Paradise" video. I guess they thought the bums were cuter in Collins' video. But WHO CARES??? Make 'em all into Soylent Green I say.
"Penikufesin" (import EP)Contains the extremely rare French version of "Antisocial", although the chorus is sung in English. (I still think the original French version by Trust is FAR superior.) "Friggin' in the Riggin'", a Sex Pistols tune, also appears on their "Make Me Laugh" single, which I recently sold; the other three tracks also appear on Attack of the Killer B's (see below).
"Persistence of Time"The most consistent album they ever released, just as good as (if not better than) Among the Living. "Time"/"Blood" is a terrific album-opener, with perfectly executed instrumentation, and it hardly slows down through classics such as "In My World", "Belly of the Beast" and "One Man Stands". Once again, the best song here is a cover, this time Joe Jackson's "Got the Time?" (I've heard the original and it's pretty damn cool!)
Unfortunately, problems within the band's ranks couldn't be solved, and Joey Belladonna ultimately split to form his own solo band called, well, Belladonna. Before Joey left, the band guest-starred in an episode of Married With Children, and it was obvious that Joey & the others did *not* get along -- Joey even refused to sing when they played "In My World"!!
"Got the Time?" (import single)Import single containing an extremely profane :-O live version of "I'm the Man" and a junk track thrown together by Charlie Benante. It's cool if you're deep into collecting everything Anthrax has ever made but otherwise it ain't worth it.
"Live: The Island Years"Whenever a live album gets released four years after it was recorded, AND is named after the band's former record company (and doesn't even feature the current lineup, for chrissakes), you can be assured that the band had NO say in the making of this, and expect nothing but inferior quality. Which is why I put off buying this for so long, because I knew it would suck. And I was right. The biggest fault is the sound quality, which is awful -- totally muddy, with badly mixed drums and you can't even hear the fucking guitars. Gotta admit, they did a wonderful job of sucking all the energy out of this live show. Worst of all...where the fuck is "I'm the Man"??? How can they even THINK of leaving that song off?? (It is on the Oidivnikufesin video, which was recorded around the same time, probably from this very concert...)
The last four tracks come from a live radio broadcast, and this time, the sound is raw and powerful. So I guess it's not a TOTAL loss...and besides, this is the only place you can get live renditions of "A.I.R.", "Indians", and "Bring the Noise" (with Chuck D & Flavor Flav no less, though you can barely hear them) on any official release. But sheesh, I'll bet the bootlegs sound a LOT better.
"Attack of the Killer B's"Billed as "The Longest EP Ever", this collection is quite a mixed bag of B-sides, unreleased tracks and a few live cuts from "Persistence of Time". "Milk" and "Chromatic Death" are re-recordings of S.O.D. songs ("Billy" refers to Billy Milano, of course.) "Parasite" is a Kiss cover. "Bring the Noise" is an AWESOME rendition of the Public Enemy song w/ Chuck & Flav rapping the first two verses & Scott Ian handling the lines for the last two. "I'm the Man '91" is a HORRIBLE hip-hop remix. "Le Sects" is yet another Trust song (in English), and "Pipeline" is that famous surf-rock instrumental which has also been covered by Assassin. And last, but not least, there's the country-western flavored "Posse" whose chorus is made up entirely of profanity!
"Sound of White Noise"The first album with John Bush on vocals comes off with a totally different sound. Gone are the ebulliant major-tempo songs & the stuff about family crises, Indians, etc. Less technical and more grungy. In fact it kinda sound like Armored Saint too :) C11H17 etc. is the chemical symbol for Sodium Pentathol (which the song is listed as on the "Only" single, see below.)
The new Anthrax has also jumped on the bandwagon of popular bands recording non-album songs for soundtracks and various artists compilations. They've appeared on The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience, ECW: Extreme Music, and the soundtracks for Last Action Hero, Airheads and Bordello of Blood. John & Scott also teamed up with a couple other ex-Saint guys on the first Judas Priest tribute album, under the name "Doom Squad".
"Only" (digipack 2CD single)
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This rare double CD single contains the last three tracks from the Japanese import of "S.O.W.N." that I didn't already own: "Cowboy Song" (a Thin Lizzy cover), "Auf Wiedersehen" (also a cover, but I have no idea by who), and "Noisegate". Got it at a pretty good price, too...
"Black Lodge" (single)A numbered, limited-edition single that I haven't listened to much. When I bought the CD part of the hinge for the case was broken, and missing piece was NOWHERE in the shrinkwrap! Kinda makes you wonder.... "Love Her All I Can" was also written by Stanley & Simmons, although I'm not conversant enough on Kiss lore to know if it's an actual Kiss song or not.
"Stomp 442" (Japanese import w/ 6 bonus tracks)When it comes to dealing with the greedy record company CONSPIRACY of putting extra songs on Japanese imports, my method is very simple -- I pretend they don't exist. But when I heard about the reissue of this CD with SIX, count 'em SIX BONUS TRACKS, including Iron Maiden's "Remember Tomorrow", Celtic Frost's "Dethroned Emperor", Kiss's "Watching You", and The Police's "No Time This Time", there was no way I could ignore it!! Finally, the time was right, when CDNow had a major sale on all their import discs, AND offered a $10 "Grammy Discount" out of the goodness of their hearts...(I could have gotten free shipping, too, by ordering a Grammy winner but I have all the Sheryl Crow CD's I'll ever need, thank you very much...)
Problem was, CDNow listed *two* separate Japanese imports for this CD, without providing a track listing for either one! So I had to take an educated guess, and picked the one that mistakenly designated "Bare" as a bonus track (which was obviously bogus, since it's on the domestic release, stupid idiot people.) Whaddaya know, it was indeed the one. I sure do impress myself sometimes. :-) Although I can see how they fucked up, since NONE of the bonus tracks are listed on the sleeve, only on the CD itself...
...oh, and what about the music? Umm, excuse me I think I hear my mother calling....
"Volume 8 - The Threat is Real" (reissue)Hey, these guys are still kicking around, wouldn't you know it...kinda like how a dead body twitches for several minutes after the life within it expires. :-) Naah, that's too harsh...it's only a minor improvement over Stomp 442, but does offer a few genuine highlights, especially the hard-driving power rock of "Catharsis", and the hilarious country-western flavor of "Toast to the Extras". "604", on the other hand, tries to be an M.O.D.-ish novelty song ("Can't stop eating, can't stop eating, can't stop eating, she's so fat!") but fails miserably...John Bush simply doesn't have the right voice to do Billy Milano-style humor.
This album quickly went out of print when Ignition Records went bankrupt, but was reissued to accompany the release of W.C.F.Y.A. Of course, they just HAD to add three bonus tracks, so this is the second Anthrax CD in a row that I've been forced to buy TWICE!!! I've got the extra songs on mp3 so I was thinking of just leaving it at that, but once I found a cheap ($5.99) used copy, it became a non-issue. Besides, now that "Pieces" is a listed track, they've eliminated the annoying five-minute gap...that alone is worth the upgrade!
And "Snap/I'd Rather Be Sleeping" is a D.R.I. cover, in case you didn't know already.
"We've Come For You All"Poor Anthrax, they really do seem cursed these days. After the 9/11 attacks, when little envelopes filled with white powder started showing up on the desks of congressmen and news broadcasters everywhere, their very name became a liability. (However, in the words of Jay Leno: "Well, DUH! You named your band after a FATAL DISEASE!!!") Luckily, the widespread epidemic feared by some never materialized, and the whole REAL anthrax scare became a relative non-event, with minimal loss of life. Although I did like the name "Basket Full of Puppies", which the band toyed with for a little while.
Ok, first I gotta say that it really cheezes me off that this CD was released in so many goddamn versions. For several months it was only available as an import (yeah, the guys couldn't even get American distribution, their woes continue!) and when Sanctuary finally picked them up, the domestic version contained two bonus tracks: an acoustic version of "Safe Home", and a silly novelty song called "We're a Happy Family". Whoohoo!! Or...so I thought. I could have SWORN that Amazon/et al. listed a 14-track import and a 16-track domestic. But now it's backwards!! And this thing has a stupid "Enhanced CD" portion instead!!! CURSES! FOILED AGAIN!!
But, whatever. The music here is uneven, but overall a good step up from Stomp 442 and Volume 8 -- the last two tracks in particular just might be the pinnacle of the post-Belladonna era. (Hey, speaking of poisonous things...) Another great song is "Taking the Music Back", which features Roger Daltrey of The Who on backing vocals...I guess he's helping raise money for Pete's legal bills? Heh. In any case, I hesitate to call this "a return to form" since I'm not sure latter-day Anthrax ever HAD a form they can return to, and it's still a far cry from the glory days of Among the Living and Persistence of Time, which will likely never be recaptured. But it's a respectable effort, and all the Anthrax fans who have stuck it out this long should not be disappointed.
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