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Concert Review: Anthrax/Exodus & more…
Fans were out in full-force Tuesday night (Apr 2) in Denver, CO for the sold-out Metal Alliance Tour featuring Anthrax with special guests Exodus, High on Fire, Municipal Waste, and Holy Grail. If my memory serves me, this was my ninth appearance in the crowd at an Anthrax set. Under normal circumstances, I would have thought a bit more about traveling 102 miles on a weekday to see a band I have seen so many times, but once I learned Anthrax’s Among The Living would be played in its entirety, I just had to be there. Also, I never saw any other of the other bands live before, so there was also that. One other reason fueling my interest with this show was…of all the times I saw Anthrax this was only the third as a headliner. I longed for the full-set experience and I got it!
Reggie’s Top 25 Favorite Cover Songs #3 – Antisocial
Silly of me to not know this was a cover song. Believe it or not, I only discovered it was a cover when I was geeking out on Guitar Hero (Xbox 360) and the original song by Trust was on there. So, 20+ years after Anthrax’s awesome State of Euphoria album with Antisocial on it, I finally uncovered the deep, dark truth of the song’s origins. This is a classic case of my metal wingmen and women not looking out for me. It’s all good though. I have to say, I like Anthrax’s version much better. It’s a great live song; a fun song!
The original Trust version can be found on their album Répression released in 1980 which probably explains why I never knew it existed. There was an English version released not long after…which happens to be the version on Guitar Hero. Anthrax’s State of Euphoria was released in 1988 and did well for the band, though some might say it didn’t live up to expectations after Among the Living.
Here is Anthrax’s version.
Here is the original recorded by Trust in a live setting in French.
Album Review: Anthrax – Anthems EP
I can always appreciate an album of cover songs from my long-time favorite bands. Anthrax, though not necessarily known for recording that many covers, does do them well when they get around to it. You may remember a few cover songs off that eclectic album Attack of the Killer B’s released in 1991. It has the popular Metal/Rap collaboration Bring the Noise and a newer version of I’m The Man. Contained therein is also a Kiss cover (Parasite) and even a couple S.O.D. covers (Ode to Billy and Chromatic Death) which, ironically, members of Anthrax are part of. Other than Antisocial, Anthrax has kept their recording of covers to a minimum compared to some other Metallica bands. Now, we have the EP Anthems to satisfy our craving for metal cover songs. Here is the breakdown.
Monday Metal Madness – Grammy Nominations 2012
Last year, for the 2011 Grammy Awards (click here for our 2011 poll), there were some cool deserving bands nominated for an award. Dream Theater received their first nomination and Mastodon and Megadeth were also nominated. However, it was Foo Fighters who swept anything and everything related to Rock/Metal. Nothing bad on them, they deserve to be awarded for their work, they are a great band. But, it’s painfully obvious that the Grammy Committee is still unable to draw the line between Rock, Hard Rock, and Metal. They need to separate these categories completely. Incidentally, A Metal State of Mind voters wanted Dream Theater to win.
Reggie’s Top 100 Favorite Albums of All Time #35-31
As we journey down the path to my number 1 favorite album of all time, you will likely see more and more classic metal albums appearing on the list. Many of these albums have been my favorites for decades while some are relatively new….only came into my life in the last couple of years. This all-time list is an ongoing effort started by our friends at The History of Metal page on facebook. Each day we list another album until we get to the end which should take us just up to the end of the year. Below is my next list of five as we near our way to #1. Enjoy!
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Reggie’ Top 100 Favorite Albums of All Time #50-46
As we journey down the path to my number 1 favorite album of all time, you will more than likely see some classic metal albums. Many of these albums have been my favorites for years while some are relatively new….only came into my life in the last couple of years. This all-time list is an ongoing effort started by our friends at The History of Metal page on facebook. Each day we list another album until we get to the end which should take us just up to the end of the year. Below is my next list of five as we near our way to the top.
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Matt’s Top 100 Favorite Albums of All Time: #70 – #66
Over on my favorite forum for rambling about metal, The History of Metal (it’s an open Facebook forum, so anyone, meaning you, can join and flap your jaw about metal with a wide variety of metalheads from all over the world), the admin made a challenge to all the members to create their top 100 albums of all time. Loving making lists I’m all on this. Between the ~1500 albums I have there is a lot to filter through and this has turned into quite a daunting, yet fun, challenge. This list will represent where I am with my favorite albums right now, if I were to do this last year or next year, while being similar, I’m sure there would be lots of differences. My only self-imposed limitation on this is I’m confining each band 3 albums in the list to avoid entire, very large, discographies over saturating it. Every 5 days or so I’ll make a post with the next 5 entries into the list. Fellow bloggers, I extend this challenge to you (and be sure to let me know where and when you’ll be posting it, I’d love to read it), and for readers without a blog join up with THOM and post yours there! Enjoy!!! Peace Love and Metal!!!
#70 Sound of White Noise by Anthrax
Not to put down Joey Belladonna, he’s a great vocalist and was part of some amazing ‘Thrax albums. But when it comes to my personal favorite pick, the John Bush era is where it’s at for me. SOWN has a heavier edge to it due to the band taking a change in direction to fit Bush’s lower octave vocals and the riffs and rhythms just have so much more crunch than their earlier works. I’ve seen/heard that this record gets a lot of guff for ‘selling out’, but whatever, it’s my favorite Anthrax record. Belladonna or Bush, Anthrax rules!
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Concert Review: Download Festival (Sunday Only)
Another Download Festival came and went…this year marking the 10th anniversary of the famed UK metal festival. Here is my review of my one-day pass for Sunday, 10 Jun 2012 with Black Sabbath headlining and closing the event. Before I talk about my day I want to note that this is most likely my last Download Festival for the foreseeable future. Later this year I will move back to the United States and if this is in fact the last Download Festival I ever see, I honestly couldn’t have asked for more out of a one-day ticket. The icing on the cake was the fact that it was sunny.
Monday Metal Madness – Anthrax – Past, Present, Future
Congrats to Agalloch for taking 100% of the votes in last week’s poll.
Now that we’ve had time to absorb the Belladonna/Anthrax reunion, let’s see how you feel about it. I have seen many arguments about whether or not John Bush was the best thing to happen to Anthrax. But, now he is gone and Belladonna is back. This argument nearly rivals the great Hagar/Roth debate of Van Halen just on a bit of a lesser scale. Where do you stand? Below are two videos to help you decide. The first features Belladonna with a new song, The Devil You Know. The second with former vocalist John Bush for Room For One More.
