Music review: Anthrax - Worship Music

Here comes my first album review then. I’ve been thinking some of which album to start with and I decided to go with this one. This is a newly released album which I have got to grow enough opinions about, so let’s start already!

Anthrax – Worship Music

First off - I’m a BIG fan of (classic) Anthrax. Big like I really fucking LOVE some of their stuff. I am NOT (!!!) the Anthrax fan who says that “Among The Living” is their best album ever. In fact, I AM a fan of their Joey Belladonna 80’s records, but I think that one is the most boring they did in the whole 80’s. Honestly. My favorite would probably be “Persistence of Time” because of its dark and totally kick-ass sound. So now when you know that, you’ll also know which album I will mostly (unintentionally) compare the new one to.

At first hearing of the new album I had a bunch of different feelings. One was the happy one, one the head-banging one and one the disappointed one. Nowadays I’m very open to new things and bands trying out new things, so I knew that Anthrax would most likely sound different to their classic albums. That’s right and there are both good and bad things to it. Some good are that you hear a more mature / grown-up band and how they make music today. The production is also very thick and heavy and I totally dig that. Some bad things are that I’ve heard so much of this record being done by other bands already. This leaves the album somewhat mediocre and boring to me. Some of the songs are simply (like FUCKING) awesome … when others are just skippable. Anthrax also released the album’s first single “Fight ‘Em Til You Can’t” this past summer. That was also a good / bad thing. The song, to me at least, is very good. A new fave of their tunes to me for sure, but that also left me with very big anticipation for the album. Then when you hear the album and most of the tracks aren’t nearly as good, you get pretty disappointed … and I can’t really say that its second single, “The Devil You Know”, got me nearly as strongly neither. But wait, it doesn’t end there. There’s yet (at least) ONE other good / bad thing about this album. The good this time is the cool intro. That was a really good move by the band, I believe. I listen to lots of electronic and ambient music and to have something like that as an opening … that’s just perfect. The bad is that they’ve got these “Hymn 1” and “Hymn 2” instrumentals in the middle of the album. I think they’re just completely unnecessary here and it gives me a feeling of “fill out the album and it makes two more tracks!”.

Now I imagine that you probably think I don’t like the album very much, but I actually don’t dislike it at all! There are a lot of other good things to this album, like the band and how they perform for instance. Joey Belladonna has lost his glory days voice but he’s one of few whose aged voice I really like. Charlie, Frank and Ian also play very solid. No misses, everything’s perfect BUT with feeling. Rob also shows us, or me, that the need of Dan Spitz isn’t necessary. I mean, it would’ve been cool to have the all-classic line-up playing together again, but musically Dan wasn’t really Randy Rhoads, Chuck Schuldiner or Alex Skolnick. Rob does a great job with the solos and it certainly sounds like it’s Anthrax again, not Armorthrax when John Bush was in the band. The strongest tunes on the album are also real strong ones. For instance, “In The End” is an epic piece that sounds like nothing else Anthrax have ever done. Scott Ian posted a video from the recordings of the new album on YouTube, in which he played the main riff in this song. I was hooked instantly when I heard it and the whole tune doesn’t get weaker! The chorus is real nice and I’m sure this will be a fan favorite that will be appreciated live. Joey also does a scream in the middle section slightly before the guitar solo kicks in, which makes my ears drool. Unfortunately, that scream is very laid back in the mix and doesn’t get its justice. “I’m Alive” begins with some clean guitar and arena song that reminds me of Maiden or some native American ritual-song. Overall it’s one of the better tunes. The song “Judas Priest” has nothing to do with the band of the same name, but it’s quite good heavy metal piece. I also have to point out that “The Constant” reminds me A LOT of the Swedish sleaze outfit Hardcore Superstar.

Finally I would just wanna say that the album is very much  up, but has its downs here and there. It’s not better than “Spreading The Disease”, “State of Euphoria” or “Persistence of Time”. I don’t really know which I like better of this one and “Among The Living”, though. I leave the other albums out since they’re not with Joey on vox. I recommend it, but I would not buy it for 20 bucks. 10 of yeah. 15 maaaybe. You decide.

Best songs: Fight ‘Em Til You Can’ - In The End - I’m Alive – Crawl - Earth On Hell.

Final Rating:  73/101 – Based on the album as it is, trying not to think about this being an Anthrax album afterall …