This album is Anthrax's own 'Load' (1996). Man (or should I say Not Man), this is a broad take on modern metal and rock. And yes, country music too, just what Metallica did two years earlier. So, no thrash metal mentioned yet, but hey, you won't find it here anyways. I understand if a band stagnates and wants to do something different, but for fuck's sake, this is not-so-few steps over that border, that changing the band's name would have been a must, not just "in order".

'Crush' is like a Kiss song played with almost constant multilayered tom drum beats and modern downtuned guitars. It is far from crushing, because downtuned isn't a synonym of "heavy". 'Catharsis' is the band's most mainstream song ever together with last album's 'Nothing', but if it works, then it works! A fine, hellishly rolling good song, if you don't wait for thrash metal, which you shouldn't be doing at all. Nu-yet-good 'Inside Out' goes a bit too Fugazi at times, but John Bush's catchy vocal lines keep it over the surface. 'Piss n Vinegar' is a stomping rocker, similar to those that 1998's 'Stomp 442' was filled with. '604' is a "funny" fastie, in S.O.D. way, but... And then it comes; the fucking country song 'Toast to the Extras'. It has a true redneck vibe to it, but this is a fucking Anthrax song?! Man... I mean Not Man.... 'Born Again Idiot' is a Pantera style piece, and definitely the harshest of the album's songs. But harsh isn't a synonym of "good". Hey, it is the half-way point now, and what the hell is going on on this album? Exactly.

'Killing Box' is like Anthrax going Primus or something, but in a totally torpid way. 'Harms Way', a slow rocker, gets the album rolling after a long period. Or does it really? Nope, as 'Hog Tied', with Kiss riff played in nu-style, does its best to drop the level of quality again. And it does, with a big thank to the use of guitar talk box, reminding me of Richie Sambora. Thanks for that, heh. With 'Big Fat', the album goes to Corrosion Of Conformity style stuff and really rocking again. 'Cupajoe', another S.O.D. thingy, cuts the flow before it has even started. 'Alpha Male' is a bland rocker, followed by another slower song, 'Stealing from a Thief', which is another good slow song on the album! Not Man, there's something weird here, right? I mean slow songs work better than the majority of faster pieces. Anyway, there is a hidden bonus track, which is extremely soft. The songwriting is bloody broad, but partly so bloody boring. I would have waited something like these songs on Anthrax's mini-albums or b-sides.

Generally speaking, Anthrax started to dumb down their music with 'Stomp 442', and this is another piece of evidence about that fact. It might not be quite as simplistic as, say, Ramones, but these songs are hard to whistle! It's John Bush's vocals lines, that you can whistle, if he happens to put out something to whistle to...

During the album, there's a lot of various instruments used, that feel more like curiosities: Theremin, blues harp and slide guitar. But then again, this is more of a rock album than a metal album. Pantera's Dimebag Darrell and Phil Anselmo make appearances on a couple of songs, but also these are more like curiosities. Sound-wise this is on heavy and organic side, but the downtuned guitars have never been my favorite thing, and they aren't particularly heavy either. The band aren't on their best here, not even close. The rhythm section is the element that works the best here. Actually there's quite big chunks of groove on some of the songs. And so work John Bush's vocals, I've always liked his characteristic and a bit harsh voice. The cover art is a small part of astonishing painting printed on the opening lyrics sheet. The lyrics are very streetwise.

When picking out the truly good songs, I can count them with one hand's fingers. So, there's EP's worth of good music on this album. Surely, it is all listenable, but just scarcely so at times. In my opinion, this is the worst Anthrax album ever, but only their second bad one (the predecessor, 'Stomp 442', was plagued by the same problem; just a few goodies). This just does not feel like it was Anthrax. The album's name proved to be ill-boding.

Rating: 6 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
11/20/2009 17:37