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After
9/11 rocked our great country a lot of things have changed in our
world. For instance, we now have armed military officers guarding
our subways and our air space, many of us second-guess vacation decisions
and may get a bit more paranoid about flying and mingling in crowded
areas. Also, we have to think twice before opening strange envelopes
that come through the mail because Anthrax isn't just a wild thrash
metal band anymore.
But, we are a determined people who will get past this dilemma, we
are strong people just itching to bang our heads once again, just
waiting to get loose in the pit and let those terrorists know that
they didn't phase us metal heads. So now, after five long years, Anthrax,
the thrash metal innovators from Queens, NY, have released their latest
studio album entitled WE'VE COME FOR YOU ALL on Sanctuary Records.
Vocalist John Bush, guitarist Scott Ian, bassist Frank Bello and drummer
Charlie Benante have come back with new guitarist Rob Caggiano to
bring the metal havoc upon our lonely ears and put the evildoers to
rest once and for all. "We spent a lot of time and a lot of hard work
making this record and we're really excited with it," explains guitarist
Scott Ian. "Especially after not having a studio record in five-years
so we're really glad that people are connecting with it so strongly.
We wanted to make this a record that once you put it on you want to
listen to the whole thing. It's almost like you have to listen to
the next song. It's not complete unless you hear the next song."
 WE'VE
COME FOR YOU ALL on Sanctuary Records is fully loaded with kick-ass
American made metal created the only way Anthrax knows how, brutally.
The album shifts gears here and there from a more melodic rock based
foundation and into the old-school thrash fury that Anthrax helped
originate. But, as for the overall vibe of this record, Ian says,
"I guess the overall vibe would be that there really is no overall
vibe. There is a lot of distinctly different sounding types of material
on this record yet somehow it all remains cohesive. You can have songs
that are as brutal as 'What Doesn't Die ' and 'Black Dahlia' and on
the same record you get a song like 'Cadillac Rock Box' which is straight
up hard rock song. Then you get 'Safe Home' which is this really driving
emotional rock song and it all works together and we're able to come
up with all this material that, as distinctly different as some of
it is, its still Anthrax. I think that's what we always tried to do
on every record we ever made and this one seems to work the best of
anyone we've ever done. It's not just 10 songs that all sound exactly
the same, yet still somehow it all sounds like Anthrax."
One of the highpoints for Ian and the boys was when The Who's legendary
front man, Roger Daltrey joined Anthrax in studio to guest appear
on the song "Taking The Music Back." "Roger is a friend of my girlfriends
mother and we got a call one night to go out to dinner with him and
I was pretty much freaking out," says Ian. "I've been a Who fan since
I was a little kid. So, we went out to dinner with him and he was
a great, great guy and was telling us stories about The Who and we
stayed at dinner for like three to four hours just listening to Roger
tell stories, it was awesome. At some point during the meal it was
brought up that we were working on the record at the time and we should
get Roger to song on it. I was just like, 'yeah, yeah, yeah.whatever.'
But he was into it, he said, 'I would love to.' At the time we really
didn't have any specific ideas for him, it wasn't until we came up
with 'Taking The Music Back' that I said, 'I can hear his voice on
this song.' So, I called him up, he lives here in LA, I told him that
we had this idea for him and asked if he was still into it and he
was totally into it and so he said, 'lets book a studio and lets go
for it.' So that was it. Then a couple days later there I am in the
studio with Roger producing his vocals on this track and that was
really mind blowing. To just sit there and see Roger listening to
an Anthrax song and then putting his vocals on it and then hearing
it all back. It was kinda hard for me to be cool about it [laughs]"
This album also features the first single, 'Safe Home" which clearly
shows a much different side to Anthrax. Firstly because it is an acoustic
song and secondly it's a love song. "My girlfriend inspired that tune,"
admits Ian who wrote nearly every song on the record. "Charlie [Benante]
had come in with the music and as soon as I heard that track I started
singing the words immediately. Most of the songs I'd write when I
got home, but with this I just knew exactly where it was coming from.
This was the first time I was ever able to write a song from the point
of view of a positive relationship and be able to have such strong
emotions and feeling about a person and be able to write them in a
song and not have it come out sounding.you know.lame. [Laughs] It
was as simple as that. To me it such a powerful and emotional song
and people are really connecting with the lyrics to that song and
writing those kind of lyrics are just as powerful as any negative
vibe or ranting lyrics of the government was. In fact, lyrics that
come out of love are even stronger than those other lyrics because
I feel more passion for it."
Reactions for WE'VE COME FOR YOU ALL has been huge world wide. The
album, also released in Germany, has become an enormous hit which
debuted at #22 on the German Media Control Album chart. It seems that
Anthrax have finally begun stamping their mark back into the metal
world and are now developing the proof needed to assure everyone that
PERSISTENCE OF TIME really wasn't their last great album. "Our attitude
is that we never went away," says guitarist Scott Ian, "Things have
changed around us quite a bit in the last 15-years or so. Look at
how many bands there were in the '80s and what the scene was like
then and going into the early '90s and it all pretty much changed
and bands died out. It really does seem like, in a way, metal is coming
back around. But, not in the same way as it was 10 or 15-years ago,
it is different. There is a whole new audience of kids and it's a
whole new world around us, but somehow, by staying true to what we
do it just seems like everything has come around back to where we
are now." www.anthrax.com
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1998-2003 Sinbad Productions / BallBusterHardMusic.com
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