Anthrax - Big in New York

Hailing from New York, Anthrax - led by guitarist Scott Ian and bassist Daniel Lilker - formed in 1981, taking their name from the bacterial infection also known as "anthrax." This curious choice, fully in line with heavy metal's grim, negative aesthetic, would end up causing them some trouble at the dawn of the new millennium, which we'll get to in due course.

The lineup was unstable, but the band nonetheless started performing live as early as 1982, buoyed by their first recordings in demo form. The two founders, who remained a constant point of reference while every other instrumentalist came and went, met and became friends with Jon Zazula, the man whose label Megaforce Records had released Metallica's era-defining debut, "Kill 'Em All" (1983). Zazula put out the band's first single, "Soldiers Of Metal" (1983), having it produced by Ross The Boss of Manowar.

Thus began one of the most important chapters in thrash metal history: that of a band that had to weather internal tensions, lineup changes and periods of crisis, as well as comparisons with more beloved and celebrated peers like the aforementioned Metallica, and the even more extreme Slayer. Rightfully included among thrash metal's "Big Four", Anthrax actually have more in common with the fourth member of that group, Dave Mustaine's Megadeth - at least when it comes to a spotty discography and an appeal that skews toward a narrower audience of dedicated heavy-metal fans rather than casual listeners of the genre. They never became a rock superpower like Metallica, nor a band idolized by entire generations of diehard metalheads like Slayer. That said, they are by no means a minor band, and their contribution to thrash metal retains original traits that the other three bands in the quartet never quite expressed. Alongside historic acts like Overkill and Nuclear Assault, they were trailblazers of the East Coast metal scene. So let's retrace their story, from their origins to today.

Got my foot pinned to the floor

You can feel the engine roar

I got thunder in my head

I’m metal thrashing mad

Whoa-yeah!

(“Metal Thrashing Mad”)

Part of their fate as co-protagonists, often relegated to the background, is also explained by the fact that their debut Fistful Of Metal (1984) sounds aggressive and fast, but also considerably less futuristic or even innovative compared to that of the other three thrash-metal colleagues already mentioned. The first frontman Neil Turbin is still tied to the vocal style of the NWOBHM, especially that of Rob Halford of Judas Priest, and in general the band's points of reference have nothing to do with the hardcore-punk attitude that deeply permeates early Metallica and Slayer. When those two bands paid tribute to other acts, they opted for artists like Misfits, Motorhead, Minor Threat, while on their debut Anthrax offered a cover of “I’m Eighteen” by Alice Cooper.

So, is there nothing in the tracklist that truly stands out? Actually, the album played a fairly significant role in drawing attention to New York's metal scene, offering a supersonic sound, propelled above all by Charlie Benante's drumming, and decidedly sharp, one that doesn't share the brutality of other peers. Take two examples: “Panic”, which despite its breakneck pace doesn't shy away from long guitar melodies and a dazzling solo; “Metal Thrashing Mad”, a potential anthem, though perhaps better suited to speed-metal than thrash-metal, hard to reconcile with this vocal style. Curiously, it was precisely because of this track that journalist Malcolm Dome coined the label “thrash-metal”. It's no coincidence that the track closest to that style is the instrumental “Across The River”, which asserts itself more convincingly thanks to the absence of vocals. The long, elaborate tracks, powerful but never visceral, like “Death From Above”, have something of a transitional style about them, with the historical merit of capturing a change in progress. The flip side of this peculiarity is that Fistful Of Metal sounds today like a relic from another metallic geological era.

Shortly after its release, bassist and founding member Danny Lilker was fired for his supposedly poor skills on the instrument, something he would always try to deny, and was replaced by Frank Bello. Turbin, who had contributed significantly to writing the debut, was pushed out by guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Benante in order to better control the creative process.

Destroyer of life, Demon

Oh, I’m ready to strike, Gorgon

(from “Medusa”)

Matt Fallon, also active with Skid Row, joined the band in 1984, but lasted only a few months. In 1985 came Joey Belladonna, a histrionic, compelling singer destined to launch the band into orbit with his electrifying performances: he was the missing piece, the spark that would lead to detonation. The occasion for the new voice's debut was the Ep Armed And Dangerous (1985), which, not by chance, also contains a cover of Sex Pistols's famous “God Save The Queen”: it is, in a way, a small symbolic event, marking the band's emancipation from its early stylistic touchstones toward louder, more punk shores. The title track is a ballad with prog-metal tones, recalling what Fates Warning had proposed, before launching into a long and violent thrash-metal outburst.

For the rest, it's little more than an appetizer for the far more substantial Spreading The Disease (1985), the album that definitively put Anthrax on the thrash-metal map and secured them a place in the history of metal as a whole. Released on Island Records, and thus with all the potential that comes with a major label behind it, it was propelled by the single “Madhouse”, a spectacular pyrotechnic display of guitars. The opener “A.I.R.” is already a different beast compared to the debut, a guitar cathedral that has nothing to envy in terms of complexity and compositional richness compared to contemporary Metallica. The gentler, more melodic soul of “Lone Justice” is balanced by its pub-rock leanings, but it jealously preserves an idea of fun that's more hard'n'heavy than thrash-metal. Far fiercer are “S.S.C./Stand Or Fall”, first Middle Eastern-tinged then dizzyingly guitar-driven, a breakneck ride that proceeds at full speed without sacrificing melodic hooks, and above all “Aftershock”, an interpolation between the uncompromising fury of Motorhead and the guitar assaults of Megadeth, who had debuted just a few months earlier.

Another pivotal moment on the album is “The Enemy”, with its measured, armor-plated groove capable of anticipating the genre's developments in the nineties: these Anthrax would be among the most plundered by nu-metal and the late-millennium epigones. Among the classics we can also count “Medusa”, essentially Iron Maiden reread through the lens of thrash-metal, with similar epic scope, fantastical imagery and piercing operatic high notes. Closing the nine-track lineup is the lightning-fast “Gung-Ho”, with an anthology-worthy ending, explosive and liberating, where the guitars seem to burn through all their energy in one last, paroxysmal assault, backed moreover by Benante's furious drumming, before descending into a deranged little tune and a comic acceleration seasoned with unruly screams.

If, then, Spreading The Disease is decidedly more faithful to the gospel of thrash-metal, with its often brutal pounding, insane speed and extreme intensity, Anthrax doesn't abandon their identity, but rather blend their peculiar sonic material more skillfully into a decidedly more mature work. Joey Belladonna is an ideal singer for the band, able to capture both its fiercer side and its more melodic one, while Charlie Benante proves formidable on drums, moving between more measured rhythms and reckless outbursts, forming with Frank Bello a rhythm section far more incisive than that of the debut. Dan Spitz and Scott Ian on guitars, however, are the real crown jewels, an arsenal of riffs and solos that leaves you breathless and makes the record enjoyable and lively, so enduring that even after thirty-five years it's still a joy for the eardrums, busy following the two guitarists' constant evolutions throughout the songs.

Fifteen years in the academy

He was like no cadet they’d ever seen

A man so hard, his veins bleed ice

And when he speaks he never says it twice

They call him Judge, his last name is Dredd

So break the law, and you may wind up dead

Truth and justice are what he’s fighting for

Judge Dredd the man, he is the law

Drokk it

(da “I’m The Law”)

The celebrated Eddie Kramer produced the band's third album, Among The Living (1987), the record that cemented their status and marked their full artistic maturity. This is down to a handful of classics from their catalogue: the gleefully fun "I Am The Law", the rousing "Caught In A Mosh", the pyrotechnic "Skeleton In The Closet" and the more layered, even socially engaged "Indians" — the latter even accompanied by a music video that got decent rotation on Mtv: truly different times.

Dedicated to the late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton, a friend of the band and labelmate on Megaforce, this is an album shot through with numerous references to social issues and pop culture, boasting a fine balance between explosive energy and elaborate melody, plus a dose of irony that contrasts with the dead seriousness of many of their peers. Unlike the dark, doom-laden Slayer or the raging Metallica, and even setting themselves apart from the slightly-less-serious Megadeth, Anthrax put together a record brimming with a sense of fun and vitality that makes it the perfect party album for metalheads of yesterday and today.

The title track draws on Stephen King's novel "The Stand", and "Skeleton In A Closet" on the stories collected in the same author's "Different Seasons", while "I'm The Law" quotes the famous catchphrase along with many characters and situations from the Judge Dredd comic: this is the colourful, pop imagery that Anthrax draw on here. "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L)", meanwhile, is inspired by the life of John Belushi.

Included in the famous book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die", in Rolling Stone's "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time" list (at #20) and in Decibel magazine's hall of fame, the album also went gold in 1990 after selling its first 500,000 copies, and is considered essential listening within thrash metal and Eighties heavy metal as a whole. Anyone wanting to dig deeper into the band's golden period should pick up I'm The Man (1987), an Ep featuring the groundbreaking Beastie Boys-indebted rap-metal of the title track, a few live cuts and a Black Sabbath cover.

Life can be a real ball

State of mind

Euphoria

("Be All, End All")

The following State Of Euphoria (1988), which still reached gold status and #7 on the US Billboard 200, is easily overshadowed by the pair of albums that precede it, but in truth forms a trilogy with them of the band's classic sound. Charlie Benante is the sole songwriter here, which gives the record a strong sense of coherence and rhythmic drive. The opener "Be All, End All" is one of their most rousing, arena-sized anthems, with a push-and-pull dynamic between bursts of speed and more measured passages that runs through the whole album, acting as its main driving force.

The cover of French band Trust's thrash-inflected hard rock number "Antisocial" breaks up the slightly more serious tone of the record, which is otherwise harder and more jagged than its predecessors, including in the production, handled by Mark Dodson (Judas Priest, Metal Church). This album also sees the band leaning further into hammering, pummelling tracks, as is the case with "Who Cares Wins", seven and a half minutes designed to properly rattle your eardrums.

Unfairly forgotten, overshadowed both by the two preceding records and by the band's later fame as pioneers of the hip-hop crossover and certain Nineties metal trends, State Of Euphoria still has its share of tracks on par with the band's most celebrated classics, including the closing "Finale", a guitar orgy driven by furious drumming that gets launched into orbit by a dizzying final acceleration.

Die-hard fans will also want to track down Penikufesin (1989), an Ep made up mostly of covers and alternate versions, and also the last Ep from the band's historically most significant period: a decade would pass before Inside Out (1999, with three covers), followed by Summer 2003 (2003, with five covers) and then Anthems (2013, with a full six covers).

Persistence Of Time (1990) marks a more pronounced shift in format, towards extended six- or seven-minute tracks that leave the listener little room to breathe in the first half of the tracklist. These are long, clattering, hammering rides that nonetheless show no particular progressive leanings or outside influences, staying stubbornly rooted in a hard-and-pure metal vocabulary. Decidedly more mature in its themes, and unfortunately a lot less fun, it's a heavily rhythmic record that doesn't give much ground to catchy melodies, favouring instead vigorous, deafeningly loud guitar explorations. The exception is the lively cover of Joe Jackson's "Got The Time". Belladonna's voice ends up the casualty, hemmed into claustrophobic structures that leave no room for his trademark high-register acrobatics. Some tracks, however, deserve credit for probably helping inspire the groovier strain of metal that emerged at the end of the millennium, such as "Keep It In The Family".

Whatcha gonna do? Rap is not afraid of you

Beat is for Sonny Bono, (Beat is for Yoko Ono)

Run-DMC first said a DJ could be a band

Stand on its own feet, get you out your seat

Beat is for Eric B. and LL as well, hell

Wax is for Anthrax, still it can rock bells

Ever forever, universal, it will sell

Time for me to exit, Terminator X-it

(from "Bring The Noise" by Public Enemy)

The curious compilation Attack of The Killer B's (1991), certified gold, contains a handful of rarities and, above all, the much-celebrated collaboration with Public Enemy for a metallic version of "Bring The Noise". Unsurprisingly, it's a track often held up as a blueprint by turn-of-the-millennium rap-metal and nu-metal, a clash between two worlds considered distant if not downright opposite at the time; it can't exactly be called flawless, and is in fact a bit messy and chaotic, but it still lands thanks to its sheer nerve and the names involved, and the overall sense of fun it conveys. For a whole generation of listeners, this odd hybrid is the first Anthrax song they ever heard, almost as if the band's early period didn't even exist: it's the same dynamic that affected Aerosmith back when they teamed up with Run-Dmc for "Walk This Way" (1986). Belladonna leaves the band shortly afterward, making a change in sound that already feels inevitable all but unavoidable.

You would see if

Only

You hadn’t taken things out of my hands

Only

You never wanted to understand

(from "Only")

Sound Of White Noise (1993), a misleading title, is sung by the deep, bluesy throat of John Bush, already known from Armored Saint. It's the occasion for a decisive break from the thrash-metal blueprint in favor of a clearly more melodic direction, with all the ambiguities of alt-metal and more than a few nods to the fashion of the moment, grunge. "Only" does to their music what the "Black Album" did to early Metallica: it smooths out the rough edges while preserving the grandeur, and through contagious, powerful melodic lines makes everything far easier to listen to.

"Black Lodge", inspired by "Twin Peaks" and performed with Angelo Badalamenti, is a shadowy ballad, rich in atmosphere but one in which it's impossible to recognize the band of old. Overall it's a way out of the stagnant thrash-metal they'd gotten stuck in, but at the cost of turning into an almost unrecognizable band, one responsible for an album with an enveloping, powerful sound that alternates decadent softness with the occasional killer assault ("Burst", "Hy Pro Glo").

Live: The Island Years (1994) is a chance to hear the classics sung by Belladonna again in a live setting, but on the whole it's material for completists.

For Stomp 442 (1995), Dan Spitz leaves too, another worrying sign of crisis. He's replaced by Paul Crook, previously with Meat Loaf. Promotion is scant and the commercial results disappointing, and the music itself isn't exactly thrilling either: a deafening collection of turn-of-the-millennium heavy metal, without any particular claim to originality. Die-hard fans might dust off their leather jackets and rusty studs for old times' sake, but with hindsight, it's a very minor addition to their catalogue.

With Volume 8: The Threat Is Real (1998) the band tries to react to the nu-metal wave. They do so by playing a post-grunge hard'n'heavy, armored and melodic, attempting to make not particularly creative ideas sound contemporary, often playing up the groovier sides of their sound, as on the opener "Crush" or on "Born Again Idiot", or inserting sweeping melodies into their still-present rocker spirit, as on "Harms Away". There's even some country on "Toast To The Extras", along with a few goofy moments and some filler more befitting a fledgling teenage band than middle-aged gentlemen with so much experience. Once again, the band's creative crisis is compounded by the bad luck of having signed to a label, Ignition, that goes bankrupt shortly after the album's release.

It never rains but it pours: after the 2001 anthrax terror attacks, their name gets dragged into the media storm, and rumors start circulating about a possible name change on the horizon, which thankfully remains just a rumor.

The best-of Return Of The Killer A's (1999) takes it upon itself to collect the best of the band's career, leaving out their raw debut, and doing a better job than the compilation Madhouse: The Very Best Of Anthrax (2001), assembled without any input from the band and containing some glaring errors. The best will come with Anthrology: No Hit Wonders (1985–1991) (2005), a double collection of their classic period.

You have always been my safe home

I walk, I run, I burn out into you

You have always been my safe home

My whole world has moved on

(from "Safe Home")

Rob Caggiano comes in as guitarist for We've Come For You All (2003), repeatedly delayed, an album in search of a fusion of hard-rock, heavy-metal, speed-metal and thrash-metal, and of its own place within the musical landscape of the turn of the millennium. In effect, on this album the band decides to self-produce, in a modern way, songs that could have been written a decade earlier. Compared to the two records that preceded it, this ninth studio album at least goes back to clawing rather than just stunning, bending the rhythmic emphasis to its advantage on "What Doesn't Die", which sparks a flash of hardcore-punk, and balancing power and melody on devastating midtempo tracks like "Superhero". Now even a ballad like "Safe Home" seems to fit, a natural landing point for the reflectiveness that comes with middle age. And when they decide to step on the gas, they can still be frightening, as on "Black Dahlia", worthy of fellow thrashers Slayer's "God Hates Us All" (2001).

In 2004 comes also the compilation The Greater of Two Evils, a collection of old songs re-recorded by the band in its lineup of the moment.

In 2004 Frank Bello leaves for Helmet, replaced by Joey Vera (Fates Warning, Armored Saint). Bush also leaves in 2005, and there's nothing left to do but rebuild from scratch to imagine a future. Anthrax does so by dusting off the lineup with Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, Dan Spitz, Joey Belladonna and Frank Bello, playing Among The Living live in full. The long-awaited new album, however, doesn't materialize. Belladonna refuses to work on the tenth studio record, and so does Bush.

Dan Nelson of Devilsize comes in, and Caggiano also returns on guitar, but the former lasts only until 2009, when he's fired. Bush makes a much-requested comeback, then leaves just as an epochal "Big Four" thrash-metal tour is taking shape: it will be a resurgent Belladonna singing on those occasions, across seven event-shows in 2010, including a date in Milan. It's a belated career crowning, arriving just when things seemed irreparably compromised, and it precedes not one but three Grammy nominations across the 2012-2014 span.

During that same long stretch away from the studio, live documents pile up: Music Of Mass Destruction (2004, cd + Dvd), Alive 2 (2005, cd + Dvd), Caught In A Mosh: BBC Live In Concert (2007, though featuring 1987 recordings) and above all The Big Four: Live From Sofia, Bulgaria (2010), the record of a more-than-rare event and an ideal moment of alignment for the four bands' careers in a colossal live album, also screened in some cinemas, running a total of 317 minutes.

Anyone who doesn't want to split their attention with other bands, though, should turn to Chile On Hell (2014) if they want to see their favorites in a more recent performance, or opt for Kings Among Scotland (2018) if they prefer a European setting. There's no doubt that the live dimension restores some of the band's magic, but none of these documents really add anything that can't already be perceived in the studio albums, with the exception of the show played alongside the other thrashers, which offers a chance to pinpoint points of contact and divergence with the genre's other three big names.

The long-awaited Worship Music (2011) is an unexpected late surge, the roar of an old lion attempting one last charge before retiring. It was entirely plausible that this album might never arrive at all, but the fact that it can be considered among their best works, just below the classic trilogy, is the kind of surprise that makes fans' day. Whether it's Belladonna's return or the absence of any attempt to sound alternative or renewed, the fact remains that this tenth studio chapter is fun and feels like coming home, from the opening, overwhelming "Earth On Hell", through the rock-crushing thrash-metal of "Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't", the guitar showcase of "The Giant", the anthem "The Constant", or the closing slaughter of "Revolution Screams".

In 2013 Jonathan Donais replaces Caggiano on guitar. It's time for a victory lap in the form of For All Kings (2016), a fitting conclusion to a long and troubled career in which Anthrax simply do what Anthrax do, toning down the self-irony a little but also delivering a few final memorable tracks, particularly "Blood Eagle Wings".

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