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ANTHRAX: The East Coast Legends Greatest Albums

The Be All And End All Of Thrash Metal

4. Sound Of White Noise (1993)

Source // www.shopradiocast.com

Source // www.shopradiocast.com

1. Potters Field  2. Only  3. Room for One More  4. Packaged Rebellion  5. Hy Pro Glo  6. Invisible7. 1000 Points of Hate  8. Black Lodge  9. C₁₁ H₁₇ N₂ O₂ S Na  10. Burst  11. This Is Not an Exit

Recommended Track: “Only”. Metallica’s James Hetfield described “Only” as the perfect song and who are we to argue, the man knows a thing a two about Heavy Metal. It helps that he’s right of course; “Only” stands proud as one of Anthrax’s finest compositions.

Fans could be forgiven for feeling extremely worried when Joey Balladonna quit Anthrax in 1992 to be replaced by Armored Saint’s John Bush. Armored Saint were not Thrash, more Power Metal meets Hard Rock and although they were a solid band (expectations were deservedly high when they released their excellent March Of The Saint debut in 1984) they were definitely not in the same league as Anthrax and John Bush was a very different singer to Joey.

Consequently, Sound Of White Noise is not strictly a Thrash album, more a Heavy Metal release containing Thrash elements but it is home to two of Anthrax’s finest songs; “Only” and “Room For One More”. Both tracks are blessed with choruses big enough to fill arena’s and are foot-stomping, gear-crunching, anvil-heavy classics which were a blessed antidote to the Grunge/Alt Rock stylings that were bothering the charts on its release.

John Bush made a massive contribution to Anthrax and its important to recognise his influence. Admittedly, Anthrax were forced to tailor their sound to match his Classic Rock style vocals but one thing can be said about his output, the boy sure could sing.

As a result, Anthrax were one of very few Thrash bands to successfully adapt to the death of the genre in the 90’s, channeling their sound to incorporate elements of old and new without sacrificing their trademark crunch. Only Slayer competed with them during this turbulent period and that’s simply because they refused to change at all. Metallica and Megadeth however did not fair as well, adopting a watered-down, commercialised sheen resulting in sub-standard albums (Load and Reload, Cryptic Writings and Risk) which tarnished their respective reputations and lacked the vicious thrash attack fans had come to expect and demand from the Big 4.

Thankfully, Anthrax did not follow the same path and Sound Of White Noise was the unexpectedly rewarding result.

Final score…Anthrax 1 – 0 Metallica/Megadeth

About Chris Jennings (1964 Articles)
I love metal. Always have. Always will. As editor of Worship Metal - a site dedicated to being as positive about metal and its myriad of sub-genres as possible - my aim is to 'worship' metal through honest reviews, current news and a wide variety of features; offering the same exposure to underground bands as we do to mainstream/well known acts. Our mantra; the bands are partners and we exist to serve the bands \m/

2 Comments on ANTHRAX: The East Coast Legends Greatest Albums

  1. Evandro Silva // February 17, 2017 at 1:04 am // Reply

    De fato, considero Among The Living não só o melhor álbum da banda, mas também um dos melhores de todos os tempos do Metal.

    • Chris Jennings // February 17, 2017 at 7:26 am // Reply

      Translation: “In fact, I consider Among The Living not only the best album of the band, but also one of the best of all time of Metal.”

      Can’t argue with there Evandro, ATL truly is an all-time metal classic \m/

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