Got the Time

Anthrax has a unique flair for combining their finest musical moments on the album following a given single with some inspired slapstick comedy. Sadly in the case of “Got the Time”, the traditionally funny as hell antics accompanying the A-side have morphed into textbook buffoonery, resulting in some stuff that is basically devoid of any punch-line. I guess there is such a thing as poking too much fun at Rap and its rather unique ability to marry snippets of sampled music with babbled nonsense, because that is the only way I can explain “Who put this together”.

Our esteemed A-side is a nice little thrashed up Joe Jackson cover that lets the genre’s punk rock roots show like a thousand crazed streakers. The guitars step aside to make room for some wild and raunchy bass work, not to mention the best bass solo offering ever put forth by the band. Scott Ian also sees fit to take the soloing duties on here, as what he plays is a note for note rehash of the original version. Truth be told, although this remake really listens well, it’s a pretty safe rehash with very few changes other than a heavier guitar tone and a slightly more aggressive vocal delivery.

The rest of what is on here, however, gets a little bit awkward after repeated listens. The live in Japan version of “I’m the Man” somehow manages to drag itself out from normally being a three minute song to six minutes of ad lib antics. It’s pretty funny the first couple listens, but a lot of the lengthy pauses and dialogues between the 3 mock-Beastie Boys just throw off the flow of the song. “Who put this together” is utterly pointless, be it when first hearing it or however many times you can stand it. It’s just a bunch of sampled sounds all spliced together like a nightmare at Stockhausen’s studio. A few Anthrax riffs, a lot of random voice samples, and even a few Zepplin fragments are all basically pasted together in some sort of pointless six minute joke. Picture Ice-T and Kool Moe Dee getting together for a blaze on the wacky weed and then just throwing crap together on the home studio sampler and you’ll get an idea of what you can expect from this.

So all in all, great A-side and crappy B-sides are the final assessment here. You can only get away with making the same comedy routine so many times before people in the audience start to doze off and have dreams of hearing some damned thrash metal for a change. But don’t let this review dissuade you from getting the absolutely essential 5th and final great album a la Anthrax “Persistence of Time”. The fun as hell title track on here is just a brief taste of what you’ll be in store for.