Worship Music - Anthrax

Anthrax has always been the runt of the big four. In truth they seem more comparable to Testament than to say Megadeth. And their placement in the big four sort of seems like its only to represent the East Coast thrash metal scene, one that has always been overshadowed by the West Coast. So if this review seems biased that’s because it probably is. I’ve never been a big fan of Anthrax. In my book they hardly qualify as thrash and are more on par with the sound of Metal Church or Sacred Reich. But I do like the classics, by which I mean Among the Living and Fistful of Metal. I’ve never been able to really get into the John Bush or Dan Nelson stuff.

With that said their new album has been getting a lot of praise and right off the bat I have to say that it’s good to see that Joey Belladonna is back. It’s sort of like Bruce Dickinson coming back to Iron Maiden or Rob Halford rejoining Judas Priest. He just belongs with Anthrax and without him it hardly feels like Anthrax.

But Worship Music was clearly written for a different singer. The geniuses over at That Metal Show would have you believe otherwise and insisted when they talked to Scott Ian and Charlie Benante that this was “your best album ever”. I was shocked when I heard this. I have disagreed with those three many times but not only is Worship Music not Anthrax’s best album it’s really not even a good album. It’s probably mediocre at best.

This album has been a long time in the works and I can’t help but get the same feeling I had when I first heard Chinese Democracy. But Chinese Democracy was a colossal failure and Worship Music is more of just a feeble attempt. All to often here the music simply sounds uninspired (see “The Devil You Know”). Plus there is nary a song that really comes close to thrash. It’s somewhere between new style heavy metal and sort of Pantera groove metal. It just doesn’t work for this band and certainly not this singer. I did like “In the End” however. It has a nice epic feel to it. But that’s really just one small shining spot on an otherwise fairly muddled attempt.

So my advice for Anthrax is to skip the tour and go right back into the studio. Guys remember that you have Belladonna back. Stop recording like you still have John Bush. And also make this more thrashy. Live up to your place in the big four.

Th1rt3en - Megadeth

There seems to be a race within thrash metal right now (at least within the big four) to see who can return to their roots faster. I probably would have put my money on Slayer rather than Megadeth but Mustaine is really showing his stuff. I preferred World Painted Blood to Endgame but on Megadeth’s most recent output the band has really kicked it up a notch, and that’s not to say that Endgame wasn’t good, it certainly was.

Th1rt3en brings the band closer to their 1990 magnum opus Rust in Peace than any of their albums over the last decade (and even a little beyond). In fact it’s probably fair to say that this is the best album of the big four within the last decade. Metallica’s Death Magnetic was a huge sigh of relief (due in part to the fact that it was the follow up to the colossal failure that was St. Anger), World Painted Blood was probably Slayer's best album since Seasons in the Abyss, and meanwhile I am still bewildered by all the praise being given to Anthrax’s Worship Music.

Something seems to have happened to Megadeth; maybe it’s that Mustaine is finally clean, maybe it’s the return of Dave Ellefson, maybe it’s Mustaine’s recent turn towards religion (although I seriously hope that’s not it) but something indeed has happened. Actually I think the most likely thing is that Mustaine has created a time machine and has been regularly travelling back in time and writing music with his former self because just about every track of the new album is pure old school thrash. All of the songs really seem to groove together. Well that’s not entirely true; I was actually a little apprehensive when I heard the first single from the album: “Public Enemy No. 1”. The song just didn’t really click for me, it didn’t quite feel like a Megadeth song so I was worried that after Endgame Megadeth might have fallen off the wagon again but when I heard the rest of the album all of my fears were alleviated. Stuff like “Never Dead” and “Sudden Death” are exactly what Megadeth is all about: pure homebrewed good ol’ fashioned thrash. Plus on stuff like “We the People” you get that awesome political commentary that Megadeth is famous for.

Overall this album is great and easily Megadeth’s strongest in years. Considering the proximity of it’s release date to that of Metallica and Lou Reed’s Lulu it’s hard not to look at the four horsemen and just shake your head.

Sudden Death

Never Dead

We the People

Lulu - Lou Reed & Metallica

I knew that I would have to write this review and I’ve been dreading it for a while. I really had high hopes for this album, I really did. When the project was first announced I was optimistic. But then when The View came out that optimism all but vanished. God knows I tried to like that song as much as I could but I just couldn’t. I will say that it sounds ok when its just James Hetfield singing but that’s about all of the praise that I can give.

I’m going to be honest: this album sucks. It’s really hard for someone like me to say that because I love Metallica. I own every one of their studio albums (yes St. Anger included, I just don’t listen to it that much). I like a few of their songs from Load and ReLoad but like most I worship their early stuff (cliché, I know). Every now and then I’ll put on “Frantic” or “Some Kind of Monster”. So that should give you an idea of how much I like Metallica. But the thing is I haven’t even bought this album and for the foreseeable future I don’t think that I will be.

Also just for note I’ve never been all that into Lou Reed. I’ve heard “Walk on the Wild Side” which was decent but I’ve never really gotten into anything like The Velvet Underground.

So let’s talk about the album now. The music for the most part isn’t half bad (take that with a hefty grain of salt), although “Junior Dad” is a. way to long and b. way too light. But the music is still somewhat bad. It tends to plod along a lot, like its not really going anywhere. So in general the music is ok.

The vocals on this album aren’t half bad though, they are all bad, well actually I take that back, Hetfield is ok in a few places. Lou Reed barely sings however, he sort of rambles like a crotchety old man, which if you think about it…well never mind. The album is already bogged down by not so good music and the terrible vocals just pull it down even further.

The thing is there seems to be so much potential for this to be a good album but most of it was squandered. Maybe they didn’t think it through enough, maybe it was rushed, maybe it was just never meant to be. Odds are that we’ll never know.

Now I’ve been hearing whispers that Metallica are working on a new album (sans Lou Reed) so right now I would like to speak directly to them: please please please go back into the studio, write Master of Puppets Part II, and kick anyone in the balls who suggests that you use the same mixing process as you did on Death Magnetic. That would make a lot of people very happy.

Also I’ve heard that there could be one or more music videos for Lulu. Making music videos is purely unnecessary. They won’t be aired and if Lulu’s sales on iTunes are any indication, they probably won’t sell well either. So get back out there and do what you do best: making thrash metal.

Painkiller - Judas Priest

I know I should probably get off my ass and start reviewing new releases, like Megadeth’s Th1rt3en, Mastodon’s The Hunter, or the thing I’m really dreading: Metallica and Lou Reed’s Lulu. But you know what, Judas Priest just came to town and it was fucking awesome so I’m going to review one of their albums and you’re just going to have to accept that.

Painkiller is essentially Priest’s last classic album, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given that their next two albums had Ripper Owens on them. But even since Halford returned to Priest they haven’t managed to put out a completely solid album.

Priest has often been a band that has a hit then a lull but prior to this album they suffered majorly from the very misguided Turbo and it’s only slightly less retarded brother Ram it Down. Now for most bands it might take a few albums to get back on track but amazingly Priest did it in just one. Painkiller is easily Priest at their most metal. Clearly the rise of 80s thrash had had somewhat of an impact on them and that was channeled into their most ferocious album.

The best song on the album is easily “Painkiller” (a few years later it would be covered by Death, showing just how metal it really was). Songs like “One Shot at Glory”, “Leather Rebel” and “Night Crawler” also help to carry the album. But it’s hard to overlook stuff like “Metal Meltdown” which feels more like metal-by-numbers.

Still it’s impressive to see Priest be this aggressive given that their a band who has always stayed closer to the hard rock side of metal, rather than the more grinding metal side. All in all Painkiller shows that a band whose heyday is waning can still be innovative and put out a damn good album.

Painkiller

One Shot at Glory