The Anthrax Saga: A Fan’s Perspective
Just a month ago, October couldn’t come quick enough. October 23rd was set to be the release of my second most anticipated album of 2009 (just behind Megadeth’s Endgame), Anthrax’s Worship Music. Unfortunately, recent events have seen to it that my anticipation will have to continue into and possibly beyond 2010.
Where Anthrax are concerned, I’m in the minority it would seem – I’ve been predominantly in favour of the band’s moves throughout the 2000′s. I loved “The Greater of Two Evils” and still play it regularly, the energy and live feel the album has, help to give the classic songs a new lease of life. Some of the takes on this album I even prefer to the originals, songs like “Belly of the Beast” and “Keep it in the Family” suit John Bush’s voice perfectly. Strangely though, not long after this album’s release, it was announced that the “Classic Lineup” (wrongly referred to as the original lineup by many publications) featuring singer Joey Belladonna and guitarist Dan Spitz (and the returning Frankie Bello) would be touring the world to celebrate Anthrax’s legacy.
At the time, Anthrax’s stance on the reunion was that it was a nostalgia tour, a chance for the younger fans to see Joey don the Indian headdress one more time, a celebration. It has since been said that the tour was also to “save Anthrax”, who despite writing one of the best metal albums of 2003 (We’ve Come For You All), had found themselves in debts.
Whilst it seemed odd that John Bush would just be sitting around waiting for the rest of his band to finish up fooling around with the ex-wife, I was all for it. In my opinion, the shows were great, and we were getting to hear deep cuts from classic albums not heard in years, like “Skeletons in the Closet” and “Medusa” as well as (for us younger folk) experience the live impact of classic Anthrax.
As great as I thought the reunion was, it lasted too long. The band would be asked, interview after interview if they would be recording an album with Joey Belladonna, constantly maintaining that they wouldn’t and that the reunion was just a tour. But, with the reunion lasting forever, they started to entertain the idea… until all of a sudden Anthrax released a statement saying “that’s all folks”.
However, similarly to recent events, singer and band released separate statements claiming different understandings of the arrangement. Joey Belladonna claimed that he found out the reunion was over via the Internet [source], whilst Anthrax maintained that Joey had become awkward regarding a major upcoming tour. Nonetheless, that was that, and Anthrax trooped on singer-less.
Fast forward to 2009, a buzz starts to circulate around Anthrax once again. The band have unearthed a monster talent in Mr Dan Nelson, they’ve recorded their “heaviest album to date” and the live shows are killing. Finally it seemed, Anthrax were ready to step up and take their place along side fellow thrashers in the great thrash metal revival we’ve recently seen, and they were ready to mean something once again.
I caught their headlining show at the London LUU [photos] in June, and they seemed re-energized with Dan Nelson bringing a youthful kick to the band. At one point, Scott Ian claimed that their plan for the next couple of years was for us to “get really sick” of Anthrax, something I was very much looking forward to. I also managed to meet 4/5 of the band (Charlie escaped) after the show, and all seemed very positive and excited about the future, especially Mr Nelson. It seemed things were finally going to start working out for Anthrax.
NOT! Of course, something had to go wrong. Following a successful short European tour, the band and singer Dan Nelson found themselves unable to continue. Similarly to the recent Belladonna split, band and singer released conflicting statements, one stating that the singer was out – the other claiming they knew nothing of the sort.
The silver lining on the whole debacle is that lucky fans at Knebworth’s Sonisphere festival got to see Anthrax reunite with John Bush for (at the moment) one night only. All accounts I’ve read thus far have been overwhelmingly positive, causing many to do some metal maths, concluding the best thing for Anthrax right now would be to move forward, with John Bush back in tow (the plan all along). Even Scott Ian has said that the ideal situation would be for John to return full time and Dan Nelson to be just another blip in Anthrax’s less than streamlined career.
The frustrating thing about being an Anthrax fan is that they’re great at dividing their audience. Quite often, people passionately love one or the other multi album recording singer (referring to Bush or Belladonna). The circus of singers makes it difficult to casual fans to keep up with Anthrax, many fans choosing to give up entirely. For example – I’m fairly eager to hear “Worship Music” with Dan Nelson at the helm, however the likely scenario is that the album is recut with (seemingly most likely) John Bush and as much of a Bush fan as I am the switch may induce some slight disappointment within me if this materialises, considering how fantastic Dan’s vocals were supposed to be. They seem to live in the moment, with what seems like a very vague idea of what their future will bring. Whilst this makes for a fantastic energy to their music and performances, their constant changing of plans seems to leave many fans behind.
Here’s hoping that this weekend’s Sonisphere reignited a passion within John Bush, and Anthrax can move forward consistently for a few years, before it’s too late.
Links:
- My photos of Anthrax at London LUU
- My photos of John Bush’s Armored Saint at Sheffield Corporation – 26/06/06 (1 month following Anthrax’s reunion tour date at the same venue. However, More people attended the Anthrax date).