Sunday Metal Shop - Anthrax

Sunday Metal Shop comes to you from Queens, New York to bring you the Kings of East Coast thrash metal. Anthrax is considered one of the Big Four of thrash along with the California bands Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica. Despite the West Coast’s laid back image, it was Anthrax that least took itself seriously and provided some comic relief along with some serious bone crushing riffs.

To know the story of Anthrax is to know the story of its founding member, Scott Ian. Born Scott Ian Rosenfeld in 1963, Ian started playing guitar in grade school and was heavily influenced by bands in the New York punk/hardcore scene, English metal bands like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Motorhead, German band Accept and KISS. Ian started Anthrax in 1981 and has been the only member who has been in the band since day one.

In 1982, drummer Charlie Benante joined Anthrax and has been in the band ever since and has appeared on every Anthrax album. Former Overkill founder and guitarist Dan Spitz joined in 1983 while bassist Frank Bello, Benante’s nephew, joined the band in 1984 right after the release of their first album “A Fistful of Metal” on Megaforce Records. Anthrax had to fight to get signed to Megaforce, which was a leading label in metal at the time. The band relentlessly stalked label owner Jonny Zazula and hounded him with demo tapes until they were signed. It was through Megaforce that Anthrax had been introduced to Metallica when they traveled from California to New York to record their first album, “Kill ‘Em All”, in 1983.

Original singer Neil Turbin left Anthrax after the first album and was replaced by Joey Belladonna. It was with Belladonna that the classic Anthrax sound took form. The band was working overtime in 1985 with Ian and Benante forming the punk/metal band Stormtroopers Of Death with former Anthrax bassist Dan Lilker and singer Billy Milano. S.O.D. released their debut, the sublime “Speak English or Die”, while Anthrax released an EP along with the album “Spreading the Disease”. Anthrax toured Europe in support of the album in early 1986 and then opened for Metallica later that year. In September of 1986 Anthrax was in Sweden with Metallica when Metallica’s bus crashed and killed bassist Cliff Burton.

In 1987 Anthrax dedicated their album “Among the Living” to Burton. “Among the Living” is the album that solidified their place as metal royalty and included staples like “I Am the Law”, “Indians” and “Among the Living”. Anthrax again toured Europe with Metallica and Metal Church but they also started headlining their own shows in decent sized venues, but it was an entirely different kind of song released in 1987 that helped Anthrax breakthrough to the mainstream.

The previous year Aerosmith and Run DMC shocked the musical world when they collaborated on a cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way”. Rap was in its infancy and in most places rock and rap didn’t mix. One of the places it did mix was in New York City and Anthrax were rap fans and were certainly familiar with the hardcore punk scene that spawned the Beastie Boys. In 1987 Anthrax released the EP and single “I’m the Man” which was the first rap-metal song by a major artist.

“I’m the Man” was unlike most Anthrax songs not only in terms of style but also in terms of airplay. Radio largely ignored Anthrax but could not ignore “I’m the Man” and the single went platinum and sold over one million copies. The song featured samples from Run DMC, Metallica, Beastie Boys and comedian Sam Kinison. Anthrax also borrowed the melody from the Jewish folk song “Hava Naglia” in a wink to guitarist Dan Spitz and Scott Ian’s Jewish roots.

In 1988 the band released their fourth album, “State of Euphoria”, while their fifth album, “Persistence of Time”, came in 1990. In 1991 Anthrax again reinforced their love of rap by covering Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise”. That song was originally released by Public Enemy in 1987 and the lyrics name checked Anthrax. Public Enemy had noticed that Scott Ian had taken to wearing Public Enemy t-shirts on stage and wanted to thank them. All of this led to Anthrax and Public Enemy recording a version of “Bring the Noise” which was very well received. The two bands toured together behind the strength of that collaboration and Anthrax’s EP “Attack of the Killer B’s”.

Singer Joey Belladonna would leave Anthrax and be replace by Armored Saint singer John Bush. Bush was courted by Metallica in the early 1980s to be their lead singer but he turned them down. With Bush on board Anthrax took on a heavier, more melodic sound. Bush’s first album with the band, “Sound of White Noise”, was also Spitz’s last album with Anthrax. The album debuted at #7 on the chart, which is Anthrax’s best ever chart position. Spitz would go on to be a renowned watchmaker and the band would have to weather some tough times.

Anthrax released their last album, “Stomp 442”, on Elektra Records in 1995. The album featured Dimebag Darrell from Pantera on a few songs and marked the formal beginning of his relationship with the band. He would appear on two more albums and Anthrax considered him almost as a sixth member. Their next album, “Vol. 8: The Threat is Real”, was released on Ignition Records in 1998. The label promptly folded and Anthrax was left without a contract. They took some time out then brought on Roger Daltrey from The Who and Dimebag for 2003’s punishing album “We’ve Come for You All”. Six months after the album was released Dimebag was murdered.

Anthrax went into a tailspin that saw John Bush leaving, Joey Belladonna returning, Belladonna leaving, Bush returning and some guy named Dan Nelson joining for about 15 minutes. They did manage to get it together in time to appear on the Big Four concert tour with Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica starting in 2009. In 2011 Joey Belladonna returned for their last album, “Worship Music”, which debuted at #12 on the chart, their best showing since 1993. They have finished recording a new record which will be released in February 2016 titled “For All Kings”.

“Soldiers of Metal” off the album “A Fistful of Metal” 1984: