Anthrax

[Incandenza]

I've been listening to Among the Living and Persistence of Time a lot this past week. Where do I go from here?

 

[Incandenza]

I haven't listened to

but I can't help but think it won't live up to the cover. What possibly could?

Related: I really dig the subgenre of Heavy Metal Cover Art of Dudes Getting Decked:

 

[The Metal Maniac]

Fistful of Metal is pretty awesome, in a very old-school metal type of way, but it has a different sound then what you've been digging. I'd say State of Euphoria next, as that's right around the same time period as what you've been listening to. Also, Attack of the Killer B's is pretty awesome, despite being B-sides. What you wanna do next kinda depends, because Anthrax has a sound shift. Basically, it comes down to whether you dig the more old-school metal stuff, like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcLXOTwZ5tA

or the more sorta grungy stuff like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQRE_DFk6o8

Joey Belladona isn't on either of those tracks, for the record, so the vocals may throw you off. John Bush (latter) is pretty awesome and is on a few albums which continue this sorta sound. The dude doing vocals on their first album I can't even name, and he's only on that one CD. So I'd say if you like the top track, go backwards in their discography (Fistful of Metal, Spreading the Disease, Armed and Dangerous), if you like the bottom track go forwards. (Sound of White Noise, Volume 8, We've Come for You All)

 

[Incandenza]

I actually had the first two John Bush-era albums way back when, and being reminded of "Only" just now was enough to get it stuck in my head.

 

[The Metal Maniac]

Only the first two? Volume 8 is pretty great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN7gZnKpfsk

See?

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Confession time: Anthrax didn't deserve to get anywhere near as popular as they did. They have a handful of solid material, lots of filler, and more crap than Metallica post-Black Album. You have the two "essential" Anthrax albums already. In addition to Fistful, Spreading the Disease is the only other album you really need to check out. It's incredible seeing the absolute decline of Scott Ian as a riff master once the '90s hit and they started following the herd.

Worth checking out, IMO, is The Greater of Two Evils, which is a live-in-studio album they recorded in '04 of a bunch of deep cuts and some classics with John Bush on vocals. I prefer Bush over Belladonna in every conceivable way and I don't see Belladonna's appeal.

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ch9SX5X0Rc

Of course, we can't talk Anthrax without mentioning the S.O.D. side project (though technically a side project, Speak English or Die is probably the best thing Scott Ian's ever done).

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9aEZfVOvw0

(This clip alone makes me wish Billy Milano wasn't such an asshole to absolutely everybody he's ever worked with.)

 

[Fall of Epic]

One of my favorite bands. I like John Bush and all and preferred him for many years but ever since the classic line-up reunited (minus guitarist Dan Spitz), I have much preferred Belladonna. Bush only really had one great record with the band (Sound of White Noise) while the entire Belladonna era from the 80s is fucking spot on. I never really cared for Fisful of Metal myself (the vocalist on that album was Neil Turban, Metal Maniac).
I personally wouldn't bother with any album post SOWN except for their latest, Worship Music, the first with Belladonna in over a decade. It's pretty damn good.

Inc, I would check our their second album and first with Belladonna, Spreading the Disease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NJ0KkmwgEo