And, I think, Anthrax's different way of doing thrash was exactly the thing that gave them the push to the thrash elite: they didn't just do what everyone else did to fit in with the scene, they embraced what they did that was different from what everyone else did and focused on doing that well. True, you could make a fair case that their songwriting wasn't as strong as some of their contemporaries due to this, but the fact they made it work is certainly commendable in and of itself.
I won't go into every single detail about Anthrax's history, but, for the benefit of those who haven't heard of the band, I'll give you a skim read version of their history. Basically, the band released their first album, Fistful Of Metal, in January 1984, but it wasn't until late in that year when the band's classic line up officially came together, when Joey Belladonna was chosen to replace Neil Turbin (during which time, Matt Fallon, who you might remember me mentioning as being the original lead vocalist of Skid Row, filled the vocals spot). This line up would be stable for four albums, October 1985's Spreading The Disease, March 1987's Among The Living, September 1988's State Of Euphoria and August 1990's Persistence Of Time (any other Anthrax fans notice that their most loved album seem to have three words in their titles?). It was in 1992 when the band would start to enter their...difficult years, to put it politely. Joey Belladonna was fired from Anthrax and replaced with John Bush (then of the recently disbanded Armoured Saint). His tenure in the band, at least on the band's original material with him, is rather hit and miss, but the albums that most people tend to say are their best with him on vocals are his first album with the band (Sound Of White Noise, released in May 1993) and his last album with the band (We've Come For You All, released in May 2003): the other two albums he released with the band, Stomp 442 (released in October 1995) and Volume 8: The Threat Is Real (released in July 1998) tend to be considered pretty bad albums, albeit still with good tracks if you're not exclusively into metal. There was a reunion with the classic line up in 2005, but it only lasted until January 2007, when Joey left again. It was in December 2007 that the band got Dan Nelson as their new vocalist and Rob Caggiaro (who had joined the band before We've Come For You All: before that, the band's lead guitarist was Paul Cook) returned to the band. The band were going to release their first album with Dan Nelson on vocals in May 2009, but this did not happen and, to make things worse, Dan Nelson was out of the band (it's not clear whether he was fired or decided to leave) in July 2009. A reunion with John Bush occurred, but he ended up leaving the band in early 2010 after deciding he didn't want to commit to the band full-time (in his defence, Armoured Saint had reunited by that point). The band reunited with Joey Belladonna again and, in September 2011, Worship Music was released...with Joey on vocals. The band's line up was consistent up until January 2013, when Rob Caggiaro left the band (and would later join Volbeat) and was later replaced by Shadows Fall guitarist Jonathan Donis.
So, that's the basic history of Anthrax up until the present day. So let's take a look at Worship Music!
First of all, the cover art. I have to say, I like it! It probably is a bit too heavy on the orange (it's darker on the actual album cover, trust me), but I like the way it all comes together, as the final effect gives the impression of the horde moving towards the light from the sign. Some of the lighting effects probably aren't accurate with how they would be in real life, but that's probably a bit of a nitpick. It's also nice to see a thrash metal band focus on a colour for their cover art that is rather atypical of the scene. So, all told, an eye catching cover that is actually pretty cool to look at! Well played, Anthrax, well played...
So, now we've looked at the cover art, let's look to the music!
Musically, this album is the closest the band have come to thrash since Persistence Of Time...but I wouldn't say the album is especially thrash heavy, either. There's definitely thrash influence on several tracks, but the most thrash heavy songs are at the start of the album ("Earth On Hell" and single "Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't"). So, it's hard to call this a comeback album for this thrash band, as it's not really a thrash metal album so much as it is a heavy metal album that leans towards the thrash spectrum on quite a few levels. HOWEVER, I wouldn't necessarily say that this is a bad thing: the band's sound since 1993 hasn't been especially thrash heavy, so this is a nice way to acknowledge the band's sound post-Persistence Of Time while giving it a bit of 80's influence to mix things up a bit. I'm not hugely familiar with the John Bush years of Anthrax, so I can't say how much this resembles that era of the band, but I will say that, if you're looking at this expecting the band to suddenly sound like they're producing a follow up to Persistence Of Time, you're going to be VERY disappointed. If, however, you aren't opposed to just hearing metal in general and aren't picky about just hearing thrash metal, this album should be a good listen, as most of the songs are very enjoyable to listen to (and even the ones that I'm not so fond of aren't bad songs per se, I just tend to skip them most of the time...), although I will admit that I find the album a bit top heavy in terms of where my favourite songs come from on the album!
I don't normally talk about band's lyrics (well, unless they are particularly bad...which they aren't, before you start reading into this the wrong way!), but I think I should this time: quite a few of the tracks on this album have rather serious messages behind them ("Earth On Hell" and "Revolution Screams" are about democracy in various countries, "The Devil You Know" is about World War II veterans, "In The End" is a tribute to Dimebag Darrell and Ronnie James Dio and "Judas Priest" is about the band, who were about to embark on their Epitaph World Tour, which a lot of people assumed was going to be their retirement tour for a while), which WILL take you by surprise if you're only familiar with the band's reputation for not being especially serious with their song topics. The band's less serious topics for songs are still intact, though: "Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't" is about a zombie apocalypse and "The Constant" is about the episode of the same name from the show Lost.
Moving to the actual performances on the album, the first thing that will strike people is Joey's voice. In a word: WOW! I'll be honest, I wasn't fond of Joey's voice on the band's classic albums (it's still the thing that stops me from loving the band, to be honest...), but I love his voice here! He has developed a very strong lower voice that doesn't grate on me to listen to (although it does bear a surprising resemblance to that of John Bush...) and delivers the songs with a conviction that I wasn't convinced he had the first time around with the band. Sadly, I'm not sold on him singing live (I don't think he did a good job at Wacken 2013), but, on this record, I have no qualms in saying "MORE OF THIS, PLEASE!"
Another member who deserves praise is long time drummer Charlie Benante, who shows a lot of variety in his drumming across the album. A typical problem that plagues a lot of modern thrash bands (and extreme metal in general, come to think of it) is the assumption that constantly playing fast is the only way to do metal drumming, but Benante should be held up as an example of a drummer who gets that, even in a genre known for playing fast like thrash metal, variety is very important, and he provides that in spades! Case of point, check out his drumming on "Earth On Hell", then follow it up with his drumming on "The Devil You Know". The contrast is rather impressive, but his drumming on both songs is still very skilled, just in different ways: "Earth On Hell" is Benante providing a lot of speed and aggressive playing, while "The Devil You Know" is more Benante providing a solid background to support the rest of the song than anything else.
This isn't to say that the rest of the performances are terrible, but I feel that I should highlight Joey Belladonna's vocals and Charlie Benante's drumming, as they are definitely the performances that impressed me the most! Scott Ian and Rob Caggiaro (who also handles production, which I'll talk about in a minute) do great on the guitars and Frank Bello is probably the best bassist in all of the Big 4 at the minute (no offence intended to Rob Trujillo, of course!). However, their performances are always pretty good, so this is not anything new to anyone who is already familiar with Anthrax (mind you, the same could be said of Benante!).
The production on this album, while a bit loudly mastered, deserve mentioning for the mixing of the bass, and for a good reason: it's actually not difficult to hear it! I am not kidding you, the bass on this album is the most audible I've heard the bass guitar on any thrash album I've heard this side of the 2000's, aside from maybe The Dream Calls For Blood by Death Angel! Jay Ruston was the guy who mixed this album, so, to any music producers reading this, please give this guy more work!
So, final thoughts? This is a very enjoyable album, if you look at it without the eight years that built up expectations for it! The songs, for the most part, are all very enjoyable (although most of them are not going to win over the "thrash or nothing" crowd), the music is well performed by the musicians and the production, while still a bit too loudly mastered, gets praise from me for not forgetting what the bass guitar is! Would I say this is a classic album? No, not really. However, I will say that I've enjoyed this album a lot since I first got it and, aside from maybe wanting the band to have thrown in some more speedy material to the album, cutting a few of the songs I'm not so fond of and my usual production complaint when it comes to mastering, there's not a lot that I'd want the band to change about this album! And that, in a way, is an amazing achievement when you consider that this album took nearly four years of hard work from the band to finally get finished and released!
Final Rating: 7 Out Of 10
A very enjoyable album that might not win over the thrashers, but should be a winner for all other Anthrax fans. If you're an Anthrax fan and don't have this, then go pick it up! If you're not an Anthrax fan, then give some of their stuff (both from the Belladonna era and the Bush era) a listen, then, if you like it, go pick this album up! I'm pretty sure you'll not be disappointed!
Personal Favourite Tracks: "Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't", "Earth On Hell", "The Devil You Know", "The Giant"
Another member who deserves praise is long time drummer Charlie Benante, who shows a lot of variety in his drumming across the album. A typical problem that plagues a lot of modern thrash bands (and extreme metal in general, come to think of it) is the assumption that constantly playing fast is the only way to do metal drumming, but Benante should be held up as an example of a drummer who gets that, even in a genre known for playing fast like thrash metal, variety is very important, and he provides that in spades! Case of point, check out his drumming on "Earth On Hell", then follow it up with his drumming on "The Devil You Know". The contrast is rather impressive, but his drumming on both songs is still very skilled, just in different ways: "Earth On Hell" is Benante providing a lot of speed and aggressive playing, while "The Devil You Know" is more Benante providing a solid background to support the rest of the song than anything else.
This isn't to say that the rest of the performances are terrible, but I feel that I should highlight Joey Belladonna's vocals and Charlie Benante's drumming, as they are definitely the performances that impressed me the most! Scott Ian and Rob Caggiaro (who also handles production, which I'll talk about in a minute) do great on the guitars and Frank Bello is probably the best bassist in all of the Big 4 at the minute (no offence intended to Rob Trujillo, of course!). However, their performances are always pretty good, so this is not anything new to anyone who is already familiar with Anthrax (mind you, the same could be said of Benante!).
The production on this album, while a bit loudly mastered, deserve mentioning for the mixing of the bass, and for a good reason: it's actually not difficult to hear it! I am not kidding you, the bass on this album is the most audible I've heard the bass guitar on any thrash album I've heard this side of the 2000's, aside from maybe The Dream Calls For Blood by Death Angel! Jay Ruston was the guy who mixed this album, so, to any music producers reading this, please give this guy more work!
So, final thoughts? This is a very enjoyable album, if you look at it without the eight years that built up expectations for it! The songs, for the most part, are all very enjoyable (although most of them are not going to win over the "thrash or nothing" crowd), the music is well performed by the musicians and the production, while still a bit too loudly mastered, gets praise from me for not forgetting what the bass guitar is! Would I say this is a classic album? No, not really. However, I will say that I've enjoyed this album a lot since I first got it and, aside from maybe wanting the band to have thrown in some more speedy material to the album, cutting a few of the songs I'm not so fond of and my usual production complaint when it comes to mastering, there's not a lot that I'd want the band to change about this album! And that, in a way, is an amazing achievement when you consider that this album took nearly four years of hard work from the band to finally get finished and released!
Final Rating: 7 Out Of 10
A very enjoyable album that might not win over the thrashers, but should be a winner for all other Anthrax fans. If you're an Anthrax fan and don't have this, then go pick it up! If you're not an Anthrax fan, then give some of their stuff (both from the Belladonna era and the Bush era) a listen, then, if you like it, go pick this album up! I'm pretty sure you'll not be disappointed!
Personal Favourite Tracks: "Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't", "Earth On Hell", "The Devil You Know", "The Giant"
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