BIRMINGHAM'S BEST RETAILER FOR METAL AND HARDCORE
ANTHRAX
Nearly as much
as Metallica or Megadeth, Anthrax was
responsible for the emergence of speed and thrash metal;
combining the speed and fury of hardcore punk with the prominent
guitars and vocals of heavy metal, they helped create a new
subgenre of heavy metal on their early albums. Original
guitarists Scott Ian and Dan Spitz were a formidable pair,
spitting out lightning fast riffs and solos that never seemed
masturbatory. Unlike Metallica or Megadeth, they had the good
sense to temper their often serious music with a healthy dose of
humor and realism.
After their first album, Fistful of Metal, singer Joey Belladonna
and bassist Frank Bello joined the lineup. Belladonna helped take
the band further away from conventional metal clichés, and over
the next five albums (with the exception of 1988's State of
Euphoria, where the band sounded like they were in a creative
strait-jacket), Anthrax arguably became the leaders of speed
metal. As the '80s became the '90s, they also began to increase
their experiments with hip-hop, culminating in a tour with Public
Enemy in 1991 and a joint re-recording of PE's classic "Bring
the Noise."
After their peak period of the late '80s, Anthrax kicked
Belladonna out of the band in 1992 and replaced him with ex-Armored
Saint vocalist John Bush -- a singer that was gruffer and deeper,
fitting most metal conventions perfectly. Subsequently, their
sound became less unique and their audience shrank slightly as a
consequence, and after signing to Elektra for 1993's Sound of
White Noise, the group left the label after just one more album,
1995's Stomp 442. At that point Anthrax -- now a four-piece
consisting of Ian, Bush, Bello and drummer Charlie Benante --
built their own studio in Yonkers, New York, and after a three-year
hiatus returned with their Instinct label debut The Threat Is
Real, Vol. 8.
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©2001 Digbeth Promotions (a subholder of Badger Promotions).
