Anthrax

Double Jeopardy

For those who thought thrash metal was a distant memory, best reminisced over with whisky and a damp eye, 2004 was like digging up a time capsule. First there were reunion albums from two of the greatest Bay Area thrash exponents, Death Angel and Exodus. And towards the end of the year there was a new Anthrax album. Make that a new old Anthrax album. No, an old new Anthrax...ah, never mind.

The Greater of Two Evils is the new Anthrax re-recording the best old Anthrax tracks, as voted for by their fans. While perhaps this shows some discourtesy to former members, it is still a great package. Most of the classics are present, from the seminal ‘Metal Thrashing Mad’ and ‘Caught In A Mosh’, to the awesome ‘Among The Living’ and ‘I Am The Law’. But they're not only re-recorded, they're also reinterpreted and rearranged, with added aggression and attitude from vocalist John Bush. For a band that’s well over 20 years old, Anthrax still sound vital.

This is not lost on Bush, who's on the phone from New York City a week after his friend, ex-Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell, was gunned down in cold blood. Although this is still raw in his mind, Bush has more optimistic subjects to ponder. "It feels like quite an accomplishment to tell you the truth," he says of the band’s age, though he's ‘only’ been around since Joey Belladonna left in 1992. "I think that I speak for the other guys that the objective was always to have longevity and to not just come in and shoot your load and then be gone. To create a legacy that was long."

The Greater of Two Evils documents that legacy, cunningly spanning the dynasties of both front men by having Bush sing the songs originally credited to Belladonna. While this has led to dissent from fans of the first Anthrax line-up, there can be little question it is a worthwhile album. "The reason we did this was because I've been singing these songs live for 12 years now, and people haven't been able to listen to them. It made sense to do a version with me singing them.”

Handing the decision as to what tracks would appear over to fans is a brave move, especially when they didn't see fit to include ‘I'm The Man’ or even ‘Bring The Noise’. Though, while Bush admits on the whole the results were fairly obvious, "There seemed to be large contingency of people who seemed to love the song ‘Lone Justice’, who have to have that song. So we had some fun with them by throwing it on as a hidden track."

‘Lone Justice’ was just one track on the album that created difficulties for Bush, due to the fact that his vocal range - a low down, gravely yowl - is so different from Belladonna's falsetto screech. "We did things to make it easier for me to sing them, tuning them down a bit, which made it sound heavier anyway. I feel confident about singing them in the ranges that I did, my voice is pretty strong right now. There were a couple of things that we had to change that weren't sounding comfortable. But for the most part they were pretty true to the originals."

It wasn't just Bush adjusting to the songs, as Anthrax underwent another line up change last year, with founding bass player Frank Bello leaving, to be replaced by another ex-Armoured Saint, Joey Vera. This left only guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Charlie Benante from the original line-up, second guitarist Dan Spitz having left a while back, Rob Caggiano taking his place. "It's never good having to go through any kind of line-up change," opines Bush. "It bums fans out. But you have to look at it as kind of a marriage, people grow apart, people change, people have differences of opinion. You hope you're all on the same page, but sometimes you're not."

Regardless, the new line-up has gelled, and with metal in general building up a head of steam right now, things are looking up. "People are excited about it again, people are into playing guitar again,” exclaims Bush. “There was a weird time in the early nineties where being a heavy metal band was really uncool. I remember when Anthrax was nominated for an MTV award and we went up against Soundgarden, and they won. They went onstage and said 'We're not a heavy metal band, we don't even know why we're getting this'. I didn't like that... but that was the mentality of the scene at that time. I don't think that's the same mentality that people have now.”

Gavin Bertram.