Fans of the pioneering thrash metal group Anthrax had to wait eight years for a proper studio album follow-up to 2003's We've Come For You All. Last month, the legendary New York band's tenth studio album Worship Music was finally released.
Within that long period of time, the group toured around the world quite a bit, but had a hard time keeping a steady lineup intact, as singer John Bush (ex-Armored Saint) left twice, once in 2005 and then again last year after briefly reuniting with his former bandmates for big road shows in 2009 and 2010. Before 2009, Dan Nelson commanded vocal duties, but he quit the band after a three-year stint (2007-2009). When Bush refused to commit to recording a new album last year, that's when (ace rhythm guitarist) Scott Ian and (longtime drummer) Charlie Benante successfully got singer Joey Belladonna back into the fold to record his first album with the band since 1990's Persistence of Time. And as this reviewer will explain below, it's a damn good thing he did.
No offense to the Bush era (1992-2005), but the Belladonna era is considered by most fans and critics to be the golden era of Anthrax, with Spreading The Disease (1985), Among The Living (1987), and the aforementioned Persistence CD being among the classics Anthrax recorded with him on the mic. Sure, the Bush era was more commercially successful, with "Only," "Inside Out" and "Safe Home" being among the hit singles Anthrax had with him on board. But the band known for numerous classic thrash metal cuts, including "Caught In A Mosh," "Antisocial" (a Trust cover) and "Madhouse" had Belladonna's acrobatic vocals leading the way.
Besides the eight-year length between official studio albums, Worship Music itself had been in the works for nearly three years before its September 13, 2011, release (which conveniently came one day before the band's huge show at Yankee Stadium alongside the other members of "The Big Four" pioneers of thrash metal, Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer). But again, getting the right vocalist for these songs proved to be a very difficult task.
Article comments
1 - steve
"In the End", if anything, is not long enough. It is the a masterpiece of the album in that it encapsulates every generation of metal that is worth a shit. Nice review tho. Glad you're enjoying it as much as I do.
2 - Charlie Doherty
Thanks Steve. Appreciate the love!
3 - Charlie Doherty
Heads up to the readers: the "skimwords" Amazon.com link under the "Nelson" in Dan Nelson was put there by our parent company Technorati, not by me. (Those skimlinks are put in quite a few Blogcritics articles nowadays by Technorati.) I certainly would never link to the hair band Nelson twins (but this error is somewhat funny).
Apparently, we aren't the only site victim to errors like this, as the New York Times website and other companies have airheads who put random ad links like that under words/names without thinking. Oh well (it's not all that big a deal).
4 - ed
really really good! Album of the year with Megadeth`s "Thirt33n"