Anthrax - C/D?

I'd be curious to hear their new one, but only just. I've always been of the opinion that John Bush (ex-Armoured Saint) was a remarkably superior vocalist to Joey Belladonna. Bush's gruff bark seems to fit the muscular sound more than Belladonna's castrative screech. SOUND OF WHITE NOISE is an inexplicably unsung album....easily comparable to Metallica's eponymous "black album" in terms of the deft meshing of speedy, heavy whallop and mainstream-accessible hooks. (I'll take "Only" over "Enter Sandman" any day of the millenium).

Ever since second guitarist Dan Spitz left, I haven't paid as close attention. I never picked up their last one (THE THREAT IS REAL???). The last of theirs I got was STOMP 442, which I don't remember being very strong.

Beyond that, though, being a New Yorker, I *HAVE* to say CLASSIC. AMONG THE LIVING alone renders them completely untouchable, to say nothing of their admirable choices of cover versions (Joe Jackson's "Got the Time", the Police's "No Time this Time", the Smiths' "London", Kiss' "Love Her All I Can", Sabbath's "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and....of course...."Bring the Noise").

I loved Among the Living back in high school, but I probably haven't listened to it in 13 years. I kinda wonder how it would sound. I mean, there's none of the odious humor on the main records. Just all the side projects and shit.

I think this is the truest thing Alex has ever said on ILM.

Or maybe I was thinking of the way "Make Me Laugh" has a riff like the one from the 'darkness!' part in "One".

I'm doing the Email Of The Week because this was just too easy to have fun with. We got an email late last night from Billy Milano. If you don't know who Billy is, you're probaby in the majority, but we did 20 Questions with him last year and he's been feuding with Anthrax for a while now. Out of the blue, he sent us this email. This was sent to TrashBin@metal-sludge.com. How fitting.

General Staff,
I didn't know which one of you douchebags to write to, so I am addressing you all.
Even though I only have seen your site maybe 10 times, I can't believe how much ass kissing you do to that judas jew bastard Scott Ian and Assthrax. It seems Kinda Hypocritical that you come off as the bad ass web site and at the same time kiss his ass with every chance presented.
I guess we should email you so you could let us know what bands we're allowed to like. Unlike yourself, Metal Sludge doesn't hate every band or every one. Some people we like, some people we don't. It's been that way since day one. It's kind of hypocritical that you try to come off like a bad ass and say you're going to choke out Scott & Charlie, like you did in your 20 Questions, when you've never done it once.
Scott Ian is not only the most selfish person I have ever been involved with, you mean other than yourself? He and his band are the biggest wannbe's going. They used to wear spandex and Bullet belts. The reason they wore spandex is because they could actually fit into spandex. They don't make spandex big enough for you, so you were left out of that trend. As for bullet belts, I believe Judas Priest and a million other bands did as well. I guess we all can't be on the cutting edge of fashion like yourself.
They they wore the hawaiian shorts and yelled mosh every chance they got.
Didn't you once claim that you were the one who told them to wear shorts? Now you're ripping on them for doing so when you said before it was your idea? Make up your mind. It's not like you have that great of a look. You wear a wrestling mask and pretend you're a wrestler. You're so fat if you stood in front of the Hollywood sign it would just say H D. Buy a mirror for your house and take a good look at what you look like before you start talking about other people.
Then let's see, um, they wore flanels when grunge was big and even recorded in seattle to bite that scene for everything they could. Yeah, I remember when Anthrax toured with Nirvana and Pearl Jam and they all jammed together at the end. Anthrax really rode that grunge bandwagon for all it had. (Sarcasm mode turned off) I recently was given a link to a Cunt Ian interview where he said " SOD toured too much it needs to be kept special" I find this quite amusing because he was booking SOD shows because no one gives a fuck about ASSTHRAX. As compared to you, where everybody cares about Billy Milano and his latest projects. I guess since he is milking meatloaf's daughter for everything she's worth that he is financially ok now. Scott's milking Meatloaf's daughter in more ways than one! Get it? (make your own rim shot noise)
He once told me "why should he do music anymore when his Manager told him he was going to be the next Kurt Loader". So who was Scott talking about, or was Scott talking in 3rd person like The Rock. Because you wrote that "he once told me" and then you wrote in quotations, which means you are writing what Scott said to you. But if Scott said that to you, then it doesn't sound like HE was talking about himself because he didn't say "I". Look, the internet has enough people who butcher the language, we don't need anymore. If you can't handle writing in quotations and actually making sense, then you shouldn't be online. I find that amusing because he has about as much charisma as him. I find it amusing that you think anybody gives two shits about what you have to say.
My sock has more charisma than that mutt you keep around for kicks.
Is that a conclusion or simply the place where you got tired of thinking?
Oh yeah, their new record sucks balls. But you guys kiss their ass like they are the coming of christ, oh that's right, scotts race murdered christ.
Billy, it's all right to be ignorant, but it's stupid to make a career out of it.
Anyway, I should have won the super balls award, but I guess you have to have balls to recognise balls.
Throwing around 2nd grade insults that aren't even creative and using racial slurs to get a cheap pop doesn't take any balls.
Say hi to that fuckin kike when you see him in temple.
See above comments.
fuck you,
your pal
Milano

Billy, you obviously qualify for the mental express line - five thoughts or less. We actually enjoyed your 20 Questions with us and now you're crying to us because we haven't gone off about Anthrax? Are you going to cry to every press outlet that talks about Anthrax? Maybe we should just give Anthrax an FU Award to make you happy. Would that work for you? Because, hey, we live to make Billy Milano happy!

Look Bluto, you're entertaining in the same way Jerry Springer is. You know it's trash and worthless, but you still can't help watching for a laugh. It makes people feel better about themselves, and that is sort of what you do. You write these rambling emails and it makes people go, "wow, I don't have it so bad. I could be Billy Milano." You can huff and puff and slober on your keyboard in the middle of the night all you want, but realize that your gimmick is as played out as the Honky Tonk Man. It was fun for a while, but now it's time to move on. You're not going to kick Scott's ass, you're not going to choke out Charlie, you're not going to do anything. You're going to say a bunch of shit, hope people pay attention to you, and then sit on your fat ass and drool. We understand that, and it's ok. It takes all kinds to make the world go around and your mission in life is to be a warning to others.

I'm sure we'll hear from Billy again, because lets face it, what else does he have to do other than sit around on the internet and pretend he's a wrestler.

Now here's an email from Scott Ian about this:

I know this scathing rhetoric makes for good website fodder, and you guy's are obviously having fun with it, but Anthrax and myself have nothing to do with this.
As far as I'm concerned there has never been a feud. I'm not fighting with Billy. His opinions are his, and he's free to espouse them however he see's fit.
I will say that I'm confused and saddened by the racial epithet's and the slanderous accusations.
We've never recorded in Seattle and yes, I am a Jew.
Scott

I'm out like Billy's gut over his jeans,

OZZY STILLBOURNE

How f****** sad.

BEST COVER EVAR.

This is what happens when you find Christ. HAIL SATAN!

Dan looks really excited to be back. Not.

Bello is still playing in Helmet and they are recording another album this fall after the Anthrax tour.

From what I understand, this tour is a one shot thing.

I do like Bush better as a singer but I like the '87-'90 songs best. So I definitely dig the Greater Of Two Evils record. I do wish they would have done "Imitation Of Life" and "Blood" and maybe "Finale" though.

I thought they backed out...the ozzfest site doesn't have any news about it...

You separatists
You say you want your own state
I'll give them a state
A state of unconsciousness

(state!)

^ great song from an awesome album though. love that one chord riff toward the end.

Belly of the Beast on the other hand, is an even more awesome song, except it doesn't have any idea how to end.

Anthrax were my first proper gig, which was unbelievable great, so I will always have lots of affection. It retrospect I think they're the weakest of the Big Four by some way though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTyEnpocBSo&feature=related

xp: I like them better than Slayer. Slayer just doesn't appeal to me - it's heavier and darker than those other bands, which puts them into a league of their own, but it's like their going for the things that death metal does for me without actually going over the tipping point. Like, their lyrics are really brutal, but what music I've heard from them isn't melodic enough to hit me in my heart (a la the other thrash bands) or heavy enough to flick the switch in my brain that makes me want to set things on fire and consume human flesh (via Scream Bloody Gore or Legion).

I loved Anthrax as a kid. As a young adult, I got to kinda know them personally. I seemed to be interviewing them every five minutes for a while there. Saw them so many times live I cannot count.

When they started to play musical singers, they lost me. And I don't mean musically - although that would come eventually, I loved Sound Of White Noise a ton and probably still would like it if I checked it out again.

Their whole attitude when they never got past their peak level in popularity was soooo shitty. They blamed everyone and their brothers. They blamed Joey, they blamed their old label, they blamed their old management. Yet they changed all of that and Anthrax stayed at about the same level.

A friend of mine said once "If you have been together for several years and released albums on major labels and you are still playing the same places, either you suck or people do not like you."

That same friend of mine joked around with me about how hard Anthrax was trying to diss Joey at every step back then. He told me that they would work hating Joey into anything.

I laughed, dismised it as hyperbole... But then I interview the band for the dozenth time when they play the CBGB's Anniversary. Tons of questions about the legacy of the venue, the hardcore matinees they all went to... And suddenly without prompting Scott Ian just goes "You know, I am so glad that Joey isn't with us anymore. He would have made this show so shitty" or something like that. Blew my mind.

Watching Anthrax continue to blame all of their lack of success on others got old fast. The fact is that metalheads in the past didn't trust them - they went from this:

http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/images/artists/anthrax.jpg

To this:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y70/Timo2F/Skate%20Lehtileikkeet/Anthraxsk8copy.jpg

To this:

http://yei23.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/anthrax-im-the-man.jpg?w=299&h=300

To this:

http://www.decibelmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Anthrax03.jpg

They were constantly changing their image. They would like to say they were setting trends, but what did they start? Rap metal arguably, and we all know how shitty that turned out. And listen to "White Noise" and tell me that wasn't Anthrax's Grunge Album! (And I like that album!)

Plus Anthrax were the Great White of thrash - their best known songs were all covers! "Got The Time" was a cover. "Antisocial" was a cover. "Bring The Noise" was a cover.

Hey guys, if you're so great how come your best-known songs from your peak period of creativity are by Joe Jackson, Trust and Public Enemy? (Or jokes like "I'm The Man.")

I still love me the early albums up to an including "White Noise" but everything since and the way they have acted just made me want to forget they ever existed. Their downfall made Metallica's fall from quality pale in comparison because at least Metallica sold some records when they sucked.

Interesting insights NYCNative! So many bands I like are infamous assholes though, that it doesn't bother me too much.

I gotta say too, that the main difference between the first and second picture seems to be that they went from being in black and white to being in color. Probably trying to get known off the back of the Wizard of Oz. : )

The assholishness is just one thing, the cause of what ailed them but not the ailment itself. At the end, the band was simply unreliable, untrustworthy, and since 1993 (that's 18 years!) virtually useless.

How Does Heavy Metal Music Affect Animals?

A student named David Merrill subjected mice to the music of a heavy metal band called Anthrax 24 hours a day to discover how it would affect their ability to solve mazes, but instead of completing Merrill’s maze, the heavy metal mice all killed one another, battling it out until just one remained alive. In a subsequent experiment during which the music volume was lower and the mice were separated from one another, the heavy metal mice soon grew worse at solving the maze than they had been when they had first encountered it, and they fought one another when Merrill tried to put them together (Wertz, 7 February 1998). Although this result is interesting, research indicates that reactions to music are shaped by whether or not it is the genre of choice, and it's highly unlikely that mice (if capable of preferring any sort of music at all) would have chosen Anthrax.

i talked to scott ian's dad on the phone a few days ago.

Regarding?

his mice

I'M THE WALKIN DUUUUUUUDE

am I wrong in thinking that Spreading the Disease has better "songs", whereas Among the Living is a better thrash album?

I am reliving meeting jjj in junior high by listening to "Caught In A Mosh"

Such a jam