Anthrax – Anthems
Release Date: March 19, 2013
Anthrax seems to be one of those bands that, as much as I love them, doesn’t always make the best decisions. It’s almost as if they have these ideas that they think are great but yet wait until those ideas have been so played out by other bands that they are ridiculously and tired. For their latest EP entitled Anthems, Anthrax decided to pick a handful of their favorite classic rock covers and record them. For a band that has just put out one of the best albums of their career with Worship Music, this EP just feels like they took about 5 steps backwards.
I have a few issues when it comes to these kinds of releases. First off, I feel that when bands put out things like this, it’s a sure sign that they are fresh out of ideas. Second off, this EP is really hard to listen to. Opening with the Rush classic “Anthem”, it was borderline excruciating hearing lead singer Joey Belladonna try and actually sound like Geddy Lee. First off, Geddy Lee alone on the original version of “Anthem” was hard to take so just imagine a thrash metal vocalist trying to emulate that. The vocals are so coated with auto-tune that it sounds synthetic and not even the least bit natural. This really had me cringing and longing for the end to come soon.
Covers of AC/DC’s “T.N.T.” and “Smokin’” by Boston followed and both just lacked any kind of sincerity or energy. The songs just sound very, “meh” and lacking any kind of character. By the time “Smokin’” was over I realized that Belladonna was trying hard to actually sound like each of the original singers of each respective song. This really bugged the fuck out of me because Belladonna is a fucking great singer in his own right with one of the most distinct voices in metal. Why on earth would he try and sing like someone else? He also did this with on the following songs which were “Don’t Stop Runnin’ (Journey), “Big Eyes” (Cheap Trick), and Jailbreak (Thin Lizzy). Each song was just as bad as the other as the EP progressed. The Journey song was absolutely painful, the Cheap Trick song actually sounded really good, and the Thin Lizzy song just had me not even able to finish listening to it. I literally had to stop the song before it even got to the solo as it was just too much to hear Joey Belladonna trying to sound like Phil Lynott.
Anthems is yet another one of those things that Anthrax has done that left me scratching my head and going, “Hmm”. This is something that Anthrax could have really done awesome. If they would’ve taken those classic songs and done them as Anthrax, I could totally see how this could have been a really spectacular thing. Remember when Slayer covered “In A Gadda Da Vida” back in the 80’s? That was awesome. It was SLAYER doing “In A Gadda Da Vida”, not Slayer trying to be Iron Butterfly doing “In A Gadda Da Vida.” Why Anthrax chose to go the route of actually trying to immulate some of the most iconic and distinct voices in rock n’ roll is beyond me. Anthems sounds less like an Anthrax album and more like a demo by a 2nd rate cover band trying to land gigs at the local pub. This album does little to further Anthrax along and in my opinion just sets them back and makes them look silly. It’s things like this that make me see that these guys (uh um Scott and Charlie) need to think a bit longer before speaking, or in this case releasing an album.
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