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Continuing in a similar vein to Stomp 442’s groovy alt-metal, erm, stomp, Volume 8 – The Threat Is Real is a clumsy album with a clumsy title. Those who hate everything the band did post-Persistence Of Time will not be convinced by hearing this, and to be honest it’s the last Anthrax album I’d reach for if I wanted to hear Scott Ian and the boys. Yet it’s not actually that dreadful an album, considering; John Bush is often superb at giving sub-par material a punch and drive that it doesn’t deserve due to his vocal oomph, and so it proves here. Add to this a genuine variety of material, and you’ve got an interesting album for Anthrax fans that doesn’t do much well, has less intelligence and quality behind it than Stomp 442, but is still somehow worth a listen. Let’s look at the genuinely good, first. Opener Crush is probably the best track, clattering in and giving you false hope for the album with its catchy pound, and the following Catharsis is almost as good and even has a solo! The country-fied ballad Toast To The Extras works surprisingly well, and Killing Box is one of the few tracks present that tries to use groove in a good, experimental way. Now for the genuinely bad: nu-metal dirge Inside Out marries some truly awful-sounding guitars and some dreadful screeching from Bush with a genuinely great chorus that makes you wince in sheer horror at what a missed opportunity the song was. It’s got a good music video, though, if you can be bothered YouTubing it. Everything else on the album is decent, if hardly great. A few odd little moments like the punk 604 and Cupajoe (each about half a minute long!) help provide a bit of variety, and whilst Big Fat has no business in being six minutes long, it’s not awful. Stealing From A Thief rattles along nicely enough with a good bit of soloing, and closing acoustic ballad Pieces is pleasant, if not quite fitting what your idea of an Anthrax album is. I’m struggling to find words of real praise for it, really – certainly the worst of all the band’s studio albums. As a reminder of the band’s past mistakes, however, it makes a great introduction to the oncoming Worship Music, which seems like a return to form for Anthrax after much disappointment. Tune in next week for the lowdown on that... |
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Killing Songs : Crush, Catharsis, Toast To The Extras, Stealing From A Thief, Pieces |
Goat quoted 55 / 100 | |||||||||||||||
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