Anthrax is a thrash metal band that's been around since the early 1980s. Along with Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer, they became one of the most popular metal bands at the time and still maintain quite a following of fans today. I believe the first song I heard by them was "Bring the Noise", a crossover of metal and rap recorded with Public Enemy, on the video game Tony Hawk Pro Skater.
I later listened to several of their older albums including Among the Living and Spreading the Disease and heard some of their biggest hits like "Madhouse" and "I am the Law". They later added a new singer named John Bush to the lineup after firing Joey Belladonna who originally held the spot. Their newer albums with Bush had more of a modern rock sound than previous albums, but I still enjoy them all the same.
This leads me to where I am now. A few weeks ago I saw Anthrax during their tour to promote their newest album, Worship Music, in Ft. Wayne, Indiana with the bands Testament and Death Angel. I hadn't really listened to much of their music lately so I guess hearing them in concert rekindled an old flame. I made the effort to start listening to them again and let me tell you, it's been worth it.
This has led me to rediscovering one of the albums with one of my favorite songs on it. During the John Bush years, Anthrax released an album titled Volume 8: The Threat Is Real. It's a hard album to find due to the album's record label, Ignition, going out of business soon after its release. I had heard a few songs from the album before, but never actually owned it since it is so rare (I just checked. It's going for 80 bucks on Amazon).
With the advances in computer technology, however, there's no need to buy the physical copy since digital copies are widely available. I've been listening to this album for the past few weeks and I can't get enough of it--particularly my favorite song, "Inside Out". The song offers a constant mix up of slower, softer verse sections only to be followed by a much heavier and very dynamic chorus. Not only does the song sound amazing, Anthrax even made an excellent music video for it reminiscent of an old Twilight Zone episode called "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (The music video is at the top of this post. See the Twilight Zone episode here...and yes, that is William Shatner).
Anthrax is a great band and helped to pioneer a subgenre of metal and have been putting out music for the past thirty years. They have gained countless fans throughout these years and have helped inspire many people in their love of music. They are also one of the few bands that were able to breach the genre line between rap and metal which is something you don't normally see from artists of any genre. The members of Anthrax are doing what they love and they have found many ways to continue having fun with it. As long as they continue to produce good music I'll continue to listen to it. I invite you all to do the same!
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