We've Come for You All

After a surprisingly steep fall from grace, a new Anthrax album wasn't going to turn many heads in 2003. Most people would say they sold out for Sound Of White Noise, again for Stompbox, then once more for Threat Is Real, which sounds unfair, but let's be real: it's a popular opinion for a reason. There's nothing peculiar about why Sound Of White Noise sounds just like Alice in Chains's Facelift mixed with Soundgarden, nor was it any surprise that they shifted to groove metal as grunge was waning. So, where to next? The nu metal and alt metal trend was pretty big, so why not incorporate that?

Picture this: it's the early 2000s, you hear that Anthrax is releasing the 4th John Bush album, and that it's got nu metal, and that they're coming off a pretty bad streak; so, this must be the worst one ever, right? Nope! This is not utter trash, it's actually kind of a step in the right direction. That's what Anthrax had been lacking for so long: a goal, a better path to success than just riding the current wave. Within this album, I can hear the beginnings of Worship Music and For All Kings, the riffs and attitude have surely begun to develop (What Doesn't Die, Black Dahlia, Superhero, Anyplace But Here). It's still a bit all over the place, yes, but generally, the quality of the music has increased.

The first 3 tracks lay a pretty solid foundation for the album, and if it was slightly more focused on what works, this would be an unequivocally good release. Unfortunately, they lose their way at times, like a straight up energetic, sing-along chorus randomly placed in the brooding, almost great Any Place But Here (more like any place but the chorus, am I right?). It reminds me a lot of I'm Alive from their subsequent album Worship Music, a properly crafted song which shows that they did eventually figure out how to make it all meld. Nu metal itself is a mishmash to begin with, taking pieces from different genres and putting it together is its bread and butter. Like it or not, there is an art to fusing genres, and despite understanding groove metal by this point, some songwriting choices feel clunky because they hopped on the nu metal trend without fully understanding it. Secondly, what exactly is going on with the odd rockers with musical guests? Cadillac Rock Box is a wildcard, I'd liken it to a happy Stone Temple Pilots song if anything, but they chose Dimebag Darrell to play lead guitar here? And didn't have him shred? Bizarre! Then, there's Taking the Music Back, featuring Roger Daltrey from The Who?? Why are they featuring the lead singer from The Who and not giving him a prominent role? To top it off, this is not a very good song, yet they chose to make a music video out of it for some reason, and Daltrey's never even on screen at all as far as I can tell! Are these two songs the sell-out tracks of the album? Were they forced to make them by their record company? Who's to say. Both of these rockin' tracks waste their featured guest, and honestly, maybe even waste their album slots, but at least they're both catchy (or try to be).

Now I'll spare you the negativity, because I don't have much else bad to say! I always thought What Doesn't Die was decent, but it grew on me as I listened closely for this review. The grooves are simple, so are the lyrics, but it's relentlessly catchy and actually heavy too! It, like a lot of the album is nu metally, yes, of its time for sure, but how can I be mad at the return of intense grooves and hooks? Charlie Benante, Frank Bello, and Scott Ian work well together here, they've got me nodding my head in agreement, "yeah, you can't kill what doesn't die". (Let's also not forget that John Bush has a damn good voice). The band's newfound verve reaches its apex with the greatest track on the album, Black Dahlia. With this song, the band intersperses pummeling, continuous grooves a la Worship Music's Monster At The End with Benante blast beats and screams from John Bush. It's almost ridiculous to type this out, but Anthrax made a fun, heavy, fast-paced, groovy song with intense dynamics here. Isn't that exactly what they were so great at in the first place? Nobody Knows Anything, Strap It On, Superhero, these aren't terrible in the slightest, decent is the word I'd use. In concession, the last two tracks are not interesting enough to be over 5 minutes each, but they too are not trash, more like take it or leave it-level.

It could have been so much worse. They could have done "Anthrax apes Korn" or "Anthrax imitates Coal Chamber" etc. but they didn't. I can't say this is an amazing album, they barely used Rob Caggiano's melodic leads yet, and there still lingers a stench of the dreck that came before. The mixing is also not great, but it's pretty alright by 2003 loudness war standards. Metaphorically, it has more peaks than valleys, and even its plains are pretty grassy, not barren wastelands. This release has a few boring parts, and a handful of baffling choices were made during its creation, but it is such an improvement overall. The band totally screwed themselves with the last three releases, no doubt, but the more logical distribution of ideas on here (tangents aside), as well as having a few bangers, really marked a turning point for the band, an opportunity to unscrew Anthrax.

As the new millennium kicked off, the thrash world experienced a major second wind as much of the old guard either rose from the dead or returned to old territory after experimental excursions. “What Doesn’t Die” seems to indicate that Anthrax noticed this shift taking place, putting forward some of the fastest riffs they’d dispensed in a decade reinforced by a beefy production job and a hard-hitting chorus. The last couple albums may have their upfront openers but this one’s climactic execution makes it feel like a lost eighties staple given a 2000s update.

And then the rest of the album happens.

In practice, We’ve Come For You All plays more like a more consolidated version of the Volume 8 style. That album’s kitchen sink approach is better reconciled under a more nebulous modern rock umbrella and the presentation feels much more confident between the vibrant production and enthusiastic musicianship. While there isn’t a lick of thrash beyond that opener, there’s an air of maturity that at least feels like they’ve finally stopped trying to pander for whatever relevance they can grasp.

Of course, the songwriting remains as much a mixed bag as ever though there are a couple more winners popping up this time around. Tracks like “Superhero, “Any Place But Here, “Cadillac Rock Box,” and “Taking the Music Back” pack in some good choruses even if they aren’t hitting the glass ceiling of greatest hits material and lesser tracks like “Black Dahlia” are more put together than Volume 8’s worst. “Safe Home” comes out to be a particularly strong number as its otherwise pedestrian buildup is elevated by comforting lyrics and an especially uplifting chorus.

We’ve Come for You All is ultimately a middle of the road album that has some stuff going for it but not enough to make it a true staple. It manages to be more cohesive than their last couple outings, but its character isn’t quite as defined. The more melodic execution is pleasant but with the 2010s albums doing it considerably better, hindsight suggests that maybe the band was starting to rethink how mean they’d been to Joey all those years ago. It may not be an essential listen but it’s sure as hell better than the other attempted comeback released by a Big 4 band in 2003…

It goes without saying that the 2000s was a time of rebirth for metal after having suffered for nearly the entirety of the 90s as persona non grata west of the Atlantic, but many of the old guard that originally flourished during the 80s seemed to enter this newfound era of metallic ascendance kicking and screaming. Case and point, the once commercially formidable player in thrash metal's Big 4 known as Anthrax, who went through some of the most blatant exercises in stylistic contortion in order to stay relevant through the days of grunge and groove. To be fair, the slow but steady rise of the 2000s thrash revival hadn't really made a huge impact in the continental United States by 2003, but as a band that had toured extensively through Europe and South America, these old time New York thrashers had to have been aware of it. Nevertheless, this band's final hurrah with replacement vocalist John Bush in We've Come For You All billed itself as a return to the high period of the late 80s, but sadly was far more in line with what Machine Head was doing at the same time, i.e. the opposite of the good old days.

This album is not quite a complete turkey, in fact, after some deliberation between this offering and 1993's grungy sellout album Sound Of White Noise I'd call it the least terrible of a decade long low point in Anthrax's career. For his part, Bush sounds far less like an overt clone of Layne Staley and has mercifully moved away from the lousy Phil Anselmo impersonation that he'd trotted out on Volume 8: The Threat Is Real. Whether this was a happy coincidence or the result of the brief reunion that Armored Saint had a few years prior reminding him what singing actually sounds like, Bush is mostly on point in his capacity as the band's de facto leader, even if he's still carrying some baggage from his earlier work with Anthrax for purposes of conforming himself to Scott Ian's still groove-steeped, trend-hopping songwriting of the time. Likewise, the rest of the band holds up their end of things sufficiently, with newly recruited lead guitarist Rob Caggiano, who was clearly cut from a nu-metal pedigree, also throwing in some solos that amount to a reasonably competent emulation of Dimebag Darrel's signature sound.

On the positive end of things, a duo of faster thrashing monsters in "What Doesn't Die" and "Black Dahlia" definitely throw in some hints of the more groovy thrashing days of Persistence Of Time, with the latter occasionally dabbling in some blast-happy grindcore moments. "Any Place But Here" takes on a mid-paced, rocking feel that's a bit closer to the better moments of Metallica's Load era and Bush's generally solid vocal presentation helps keep it from feeling too repetitive, while the title anthem "W.C.F.Y.A." could be likened to a slightly overlong but mostly on point retread of territory originally explored on Machine Head's "Davidian". The all mixed up, jazzy groove machine "Nobody Knows Anything" is probably among the most overt throwbacks to the grungy Sound Of White Noise days, but Benante's insanely busy drumming basically carries the whole thing. Even the comical hard rocking vibes of "Cadillac Rock Box" has this sort of fun-loving charm to it that cancels out the cringe-inducing spoken intro, and Caggiano's bluesy soloing swagger meshed with a Dimebag-inspired noisy gloss shines pretty brightly.

That being said, this album's ultimately downfall is that it's utterly schizophrenic, as Ian and company can't fully commit to their older thrash style and find themselves repeatedly backsliding into the stagnant drudgery of their late 90s era. Some of the time this manifests in ridiculous fits of overt self-parody like the goofy alternative rock nightmare "Safe Home", which sounds like it was lifted off of Creed's Weathered during that horrendous chorus section, and never really locates anything resembling a metallic foundation. The extremely crappy nu-metal romp "Superhero", which was supposedly meant to be a revisiting of Anthrax's late 80s glory, sounds halfway like it wants to be a bad KoRn ripoff or an even worse Machine Head knockoff circa Supercharger, complete with the grating hip-hop moments. Even when some of these otherwise throwaway songs that occupy more than half the album start on a fairly positive note (namely "Taking The Music Back" and "Strap It On"), it ends up degenerating into modern rock mush the minute that Bush's otherwise solid vocals enter the fray, almost as if he is sucking the metal out of the instrumentation in order to strengthen his own performance.

To put it in the most condensed manner possible, this is the best of the worst in Anthrax's checkered era without Joey Belladonna or Neil Turbin at the helm. It's not without a handful of bright spots, but most of what occupies the better moments of this album were done far better on the eventual follow up and true return to thrashing form in 2011's Worship Music. Some bitter clingers out there from the days of over-priced flannels and Seattle-centric culture might object to the thought, but there is a reason why none of the songs on here or any other album going back to Sound Of White Noise have been featured in Anthrax's set since 2005. It's very much a product of its time, and it was largely a bad one at that, particularly if one wanted something resembling competent metal as the U.S.A. had provided prior to the mid-1990s. It's a cut above the competition from 2003, which was basically Machine Head's post-mallcore dud Through The Ashes Of Empires and Dime's atrocious nu-metal abortion with Damageplan New Found Power, but ultimately it's the difference between getting a Dutch oven from Honey Boo Boo's mom vs. being dropped into a lake of raw sewage.

Every band has like seven "return to form" albums that aren't quite returns to form.

This is one of those albums.

Of course, in 2003, even an album like that was a godsend coming from Anthrax. These once-mighty metal legends had succumbed to bland songs (Stomp 442), stylistic confusion (Volume 8) and a long list of professional and personal setbacks, so you can imagine the reaction when the band dropped "What Doesn't Die" like a thrash warhead on an army of fans who expected a potato gun.

"What Doesn't Die" is not only a tremendous opening track, but it was also a harbinger of things to come. The thrash metal revival was just around the corner in 2003, and in retrospect, perhaps songs like this were the seedlings. It kicks off—in a literal sense—with some double bass from Charlie Benante and a start/stop riff before launching into a completely unexpected thrash tirade. Catchy riffs, a big chorus, a trademark Anthrax mosh section...with all due respect to Sound of White Noise, this would've been a great sound to transition between the Belladonna and Bush eras.

But unfortunately, as with many of these "return to form" albums, the blistering opening track is sort of a false promise. Yes, We've Come for You All is the best album Anthrax had released in a decade, but it's also a far cry from throne-reconquering efforts like For All Kings.

Things quickly settle back into that familiar 1990s Anthrax groove, but there's a difference on We've Come for You All—its improved songwriting is largely able to compensate for its stylistic shortcomings. Even when it seems like things are heading for the mid-paced doldrums, there's usually a fun riff or hook to keep your finger off the skip button. In that sense, Anthrax's career renaissance really can be traced back, at least in part, to We've Come for You All.

Even if all they did was stop the bleeding.

Things pick back up with "Safe Home," which was the album's big single. It's a beautiful mainstream metal song with a soaring, heartfelt chorus from John Bush, who sounds far more interested and engaged on this album. We've Come for You All hits a decent stride in its middle, as Charlie Benante steals the show on the percussive "Nobody Knows Anything" and the band storms back into a thrashing pace with "Black Dahlia." This is a great example of how We've Come for You All differs from its two predecessors—when this one jumps around stylistically, it does so with confidence and decent songs.

The album comes to a close with the surprising "W.C.F.Y.A.," which is one of the band's most underrated songs. It's a simple groove/heavy metal song, but its chorus is an ultra-catchy fist-raiser that brings the album to a rousing close.

Don't be mistaken. We've Come for You All is far from a perfect album, and its restraint often does keep it stuck in neutral. That's especially disappointing considering how much better the music is when it lets loose, but looking at this album in context, the marketing was at least partially accurate. We've Come for You All was a promising step forward for Anthrax.

Even if that promise was still a few years away from being fully delivered.

Songs to check out: What Doesn't Die, Safe Home, W.C.F.Y.A.

Rebirth? Rebirth of what exactly? Compared to their previous two studio efforts, ‘We've Come for You All’ was indeed a rebirth of inspiration for Anthrax. It was, however, not the promised rebirth of their eighties sound. But did they actually promise that? I can hardly remember. It probably was their label and such who did that. ‘We've Come for You All’ just simply perfects and crystallises the path already set in by their earlier Volume8 album on which the band had regained their humour, dynamics and, most of all, willingness to just try some stuff.

The metal side of the album delivers most of the time in terms of quality groove metal material. The strong opener ‘What Doesn’t Die’ is heavy. Not as good as the openers on Sound Of White Noise nor Volume8, but very good indeed. Good drive, catchy enough chorus. ‘Superhero’ has that violent-video-game kind of catchy riffing with a stompin’ midpaced drive and the main riff from 'Any Place But Here' could have come straight from Metallica’s black album or even Load, thus being very catchy and nineties-proof. Nice waltzing on 'Refuse To Be Denied' by the way. It’s post-thrash or groove metal or whatever you want to call it, but these are some good songs simply because the band does deliver in the riff and performance departments. Best metal song here, performance wise, is 'Nobody Knows Anything', a showcase for Charlie Benante to just funk it out!

Just like 'Black Lodge' and 'Harms Way' on earlier Bush-era releases this album delivers another (semi) ballad, 'Safe Home'. Not as good as Black Lodge but much better than Harms Way and especially the guitars during the middle section are sheer beauty!

The rest of the album however truly fails to deliver. Even though 'Black Dahlia' is possibly the most aggressive song on the album, that black metal riff and blast speed drums make the song sound like a parody. I’m sure it wasn’t meant that way but it just feels like a collection of leftovers from SOD’s Bigger Than The Devil sessions. A failure, just like that other joke, 'Cadillac Rock Box', a very generic rock tune which goes in one ear and out the other. Other songs like 'Taking the Music Back', 'Thinking about an End' and the title track only have a few good ideas hidden within the composition but just don’t impress nor even convince as a whole. Worthless fillers.

Yes, indeed this was once again a small step forward for Anthrax. But because of the large amount of fillers, they still did not come close to their best effort with Bush, The Sound Of White Noise. However it does come in second place from the 1992-2003 era. But to those, craving something even remotely similar to the Belladonna days, stay clear.

It's not too surprising that my feelings about "We've Come For You All" after the first few listens were mainly of disappointment. During the period that this album was released, as well in smaller amounts in the years after, this was labeled as a true return to form; a return to the thrash days of yore. Of course these days it seems like every time a band from the 80s releases an album, people are jumping all over it as a "return to form," which in reality is true only 30% of the time, if that. At that time, however, I was more naive to those sorts of claims.

After a year or two of being banished underneath my bed to collect dust, I pulled out the album again and listened to it one last time to determine whether I should get a small return by selling the album to a local music store. When I listened this time, I was able to appreciate "We've Come For You All" a bit more. This is because my expectations for this album were different. I knew that I was getting an album that was quite different from their releases from the 80s.

For the record, there is no thrash to be found here. A couple of songs could be classified as metal, but most of the material is hard rock with a metal influence. The songs are mostly mid-paced with simple riffs and most of the songs focusing on the vocals, especially on creating a platform for a catchy chorus. This will obviously turn many Anthrax and metal fans off because one of the things that made Anthrax so great in their heyday was Scott Ian's furious thrash riffs.

The main reason that this album is worth listening to is because of John Bush. He gives his best performance with Anthrax and you can tell he's giving 110%. His choruses are memorable and he sings the faster songs really well too. He takes otherwise mediocre songs such as "Refuse To Be Denied" and "Superhero." He does his best to salvage "Safe Home," but that song was pretty much DOA from the beginning. "Any Place But Here" would have been a much better choice for a single because of its catchy theme and excellent chorus.

The best song on this recording is probably "What Doesn't Die." It's certainly a fast song (not thrash) and Bush again gives a great performance. Lead guitarist Rob Caggiano plays one of his only solos on the record which also happens to be one of the only decent solos on the album. Scott Ian and Charlie Benante play the rest of the solos and while Benante is STILL a better lead guitarist than Ian even after all these years (he had the better solos on "Speak English or Die" also), but neither are able to do anything especially interesting as far as leads go. Charlie Benante has always been an amazing drummer and he has done a fine job filling many of the songs with insane hyper-speed drumming; it's a shame that he couldn't write better music to go with it.

Overall this is certainly no return to form, but it's far better than anything Anthrax has done since "The Sound of White Noise." Once one gets past the fact that this isn't a thrash album, (I had high hopes for "W.C.F.Y.A." but it's just a lousy mid-paced song), then one can appreciate it for the decent hard rock album that it is. Obviously this is far from essential, but John Bush's vocal performance makes this album worth owning, especially for those who are fans of his singing. I've seen several copies of this in local bargain bins, so at that price this is definitely worth it.

Anybody who was listening to heavy music is the early 00’s cannot deny the phenomenon of that…thing…they called numetal. Everybody and their mother was listening to Linkin Park, every new band on the local scenes was adding rapped lyrics to their mindless chugging, and a lot of the old-guard extreme metal bands unfortunately got on the bandwagon. But now with a lot of the genre’s mainstay acts enjoying greatly diminished popularity, a lot of people think the whole thing is dead and gone. Well I got some bad news kids, numetal ain’t dead. New bands spring up all of the time, but since their albums don’t have “Limp Bizkit” or “Slipknot” plastered on the cover, it seems some people have deemed it groove metal or some other erroneous shitdick tag to mask its true nature. Five Finger Death Punch, for instance, is complete and total fucking mallcore shielded behind the groove tag. In fact, so is Anthrax of late. Have people completely forgotten what numetal sounds like, or are they just unwilling to admit it when one of their beloved acts starts playing it?

We’ve Come For You All is the ninth Anthrax studio album and it is just as utterly terrible as one might expect by their late 90’s offerings. Just as with the two abortions that preceded it, what we get with WCFYA is another blending of the groovy psuedo-thrash of late-period Pantera (“What Doesn’t Die) with vocal-oriented numetal like Puddle of Mudd (“Safe Home”) and the alt. rock of the Foo Fighters (“Taking the Music Back”). This from the band that brought us balls-out fucking thrash like that found on Spreading the Disease. There’s nothing remotely similar to that album here, nor is there anything to redeem it musically. Charlie Benante is the only member with a shred of talent and he keeps all his emphasis on his double bass technique. The riffs suck, the ‘solos’ suck, the bass sucks, the lyrics suck, Scott Weiland…I mean John Bush’s vocals suck; the whole thing is just grating. At its best, it wishes it was Reload (the verses of “Any Place But Here”) and at worst….well….listen to “Superhero.” Listen to that riff and the noisy guitar thing floating above it: this is something Korn would do. There’s lots of distorted vocals and uninspired clean riffs too, because these are things that the mallcore crowd enjoys. And apparently Anthrax enjoys them too, because there really is a boatload of crappy gimmicks like this.

There aren’t any highlights to albums like this, but how about some lowlights? “What Doesn’t Die” lampoons thrash metal with low-tuned guitars and plain-Jane Pantera riffs, the kind that you can’t pay attention to anyway because the vocals are so loud. And then the chorus drops all pretenses of metal for what is THE mallcore chorus of the album. Similarly, “Black Dahlia” has a mock extreme metal chorus: it combines a blast beat, a generic tremolo picked riff, and distorted vocals. No thanks. “Taking the Music Back” has that Puddle of Mudd chorus, while “Think About An End” wins the “most ironic title” award. I’ve been thinking about an end to this shitstorm since I started playing it. And if fifty minutes of aural torment is not enough, some versions have bonus tracks…

The only debatable quality to the album is as to whether or not it’s really worse than Stomp 442 and Volume 8. And that, unlike “this album really fucking blows,” is hard to say. It’s probably just a case of whichever album you’ve had to suffer through most recently. But anyway you slice it, it ain’t pretty. It’s numetal through and through and that’s reason enough to avoid it. Add in the fact that it’s Anthrax at their most embarrassing and you should be petitioning your local music stores to burn all their copies of it.

Anthrax has had a tough time the last few years. Their change from thrash metal to a more straightforward plain metal sound hasn't gone over well with fans of Anthrax. Fans of Anthrax have been divided with Joey supporters and John supporters. It's been a tough time for Anthrax and this long awaited
album needed to come eventually. What we all received was We've Come For You All, an eclectic mix of the newer

Anthrax sound and a more aggressive approach to the music. Where the other John Bush era albums fail, We've Come For You All picks up the slack and gives us the best Bush era album.

The guitar work has increased in aggressiveness and complexity and rather than focusing solely on heavy riffs, this album takes that sound and adds a bit more complexity and interplay between the guitars. The riffs are still heavy and the slight distortion is still present but there are more leads and solos present on the album as a whole. There are some interesting guitar tones they use on the album (including some that sound relatively industrial) so expect a mix of guitar styles overall. There are some great melodic (sometimes acoustic) passages too - including the intro to "Any Place But Here" that give the album something for everyone. None of it is too spectacular in the guitar area but none of it is bad either. A lot of catchy guitar work that I'm sure works very well in a live setting. It helps that Dimebag Darrel (of Pantera fame) contributes a few guitar parts (including some amazing solos) to the record to help them out.

The bass parts play a kind of ghost role on the album. They disappear and reappear at times. For most of the faster pace songs the bass lines completely meld in with the guitars or drums but at other times it's a main focus point for the song as a whole. "Black Dahlia" has a massive bass guitar part on it that, had this been used the entire album, would have made the album soun VERY modern.

The drum parts on We've Come For You All represent some of the best variety in an album I've heard. There are blast beats ("Black Dahlia") to progressive lines ("Nobody Knows Anything") and pretty much everything in between. This is a controversial topic because of his massive variety. I found the drums to be one of my favorite parts of the album and are something you can listen to over and over again.

John Bush delivers a massive album on his part. His vocals, although not very thrash, do fit very well with the music. Whether you love the man or hate him he presents damn catchy vocal melodies on this album. More sing a long material than anything but it helps when he has help from a lot of vocal layering and some great back up vocals from the band. Some of the distortions on his voice get a tad annoying and I'm still not sure what is being said on the track "Crash"...overall I really like the vocals though.

This album is not for everyone. This is a very modern approach to metal. This is not the Anthrax from 1986 and they haven't been since 1993. Personally this is the best the band has given us since Joey was fired and I'm not going to complain about it. We've Come For You All is one of the best albums Anthrax has done in a long time.

Songs to check out: What Doesn't Die, Superhero, Nobody Knows Anything.

Nice to have you back, guys. After a couple of disappointing albums - Stomp 442 and Volume 8: The Threat Is Real (I was far less impressed with Stomp than the tracks I heard from Volume 8, for anyone wondering), Anthrax have roared back with their best album with John Bush at frontman. This album isn't exactly thrash, but it is music we all know they are capable of making.

The music and rhythm is more groove based and the production is surprisingly good, considering how Anthrax is given credit as the main producers on this album. Almost every song is a highlight in some way, as most of the songs here are either excellent or very good. There is only one totally throwaway track ("Black Dahlia"), which lacks inspiration and direction, but that cannot be said about the rest of the tracks here. For anybody wondering, there are no collaborations with rappers, which in my opinion, is a good thing. "Contact/What Doesn't Die" greets us first, with the stutter riffing in the beginning of "What Doesn't Die" being very good. John Bush sounds incredibly inspired in the chorus of this song, and the rest of the band backs him very well with just as much inspiration. "Superhero" has a nice groove in the chorus, and "Refuse To Be Denied" does as well. The guitar playing is somewhat slower than the norm though.

"Safe Home" is a ballad, and got some airtime on my local active rock station, as this is probably as close to radio-safe as they get on WCFYA. It sounds a lot like "Black Lodge" (from The Sound Of White Noise). Charlie Benante's drumming in "Nobody Knows Anything" is some of the best I've heard from him since the Among The Living album, and check out the tribute to Judas Priest at the end of "Strap It On". It sounds a little like "Love Bites" (from Defenders Of The Faith). "Cadillac Rock Box" has a nice winding chorus, as well as some good rhythm guitar playing, while "Think About An End" and "W.C.F.Y.A" end the disc with a slight thrash edge. Two fairly unique songs, and a great way to end the album. Both tracks would also make a great ending to an Anthrax show, now that I think of it.

One of the best CD's of 2003, and a keeper at that!

Anthrax had all but descended back into relative obscurity. They had just released 1998's Volume 8 through Ignition Records, when said label went bankrupt, which effectively left Anthrax without a label and without distribution of volume 8. More turmoil followed, with the departure of longtime touring guitarist Paul Crook (quite possibly frustrated with never being asked to join as a full-time member), the Maximum Rock And Roll tour fiasco, and the public outcry over their name due to the anthrax scare (in which they apparently temporarily changed their name to Basket Full Of Puppies). Five years later, Anthrax finally released their new full-length album We've Come For You All.

This album is essentially a continuation of their work since the arrival of John Bush. The songs are more vocal-based, which to me isn't really a problem given John Bush's voice, with the guitars supplying a more groove-based rhythm as opposed to the ripping thrash tunes of the Belladonna era. However, this album sees a small incorporation of their older thrash-style, most notably in Charlie Benante's drumming. The combination of the straightforward rock along with the thrash influences makes this Anthrax's strongest album in years.

The Cast

John Bush (vocals) - I swear, this guy consistently improves with each recording that he does. For the most part he seems to stay in a lower range through most of the album, preferring to use a powerful throaty delivery. However, some of the range that he used in Armored Saint (which for the most part has been absent since he joined Anthrax) is employed fleetingly in
certain tracks.

Scott Ian (guitars) - Scott Ian's guitar attack is tight as usual, although mostly taking on a groove-based feel. A few of his rhythm tricks show up in areas, such as the blastbeat sections of Black Dahlia and some areas of What Doesn't Die, but for the most part he favours a pulsating down-picked rhythm.

Rob Caggiano (lead guitars) - Caggiano's role in Anthrax is mainly being a touring guitarist, and as such doesn't contribute much to the album. His lead style seems rather conventional, as seen on Nobody Knows Anything and What Doesn't Die. Special mention goes to his work on Safe Home, which is melodic and quick without being too sloppy.

Frank Bello (bass, vocals) - Frank is still continuing with his trademark style, holding down the bottom-end and locking in tight with Benante, while adding licks in here and there to keep it interesting.

Charlie Benante (drums, guitars) - The other member of Anthrax that seems to consistently be improving with every album, Charlie Benante supplies most of the power to this album, with some of his craziest work showing up here. Top spots include the blastbeats in Black Dahlia, the incessant double-bass towards the end of What Doesn't Die, and Nobody Knows Anything, which is more like an extended drum solo underneath the song. Benante also continues laying down guitar tracks as he has been since Persistence Of Time, contributing the bulk of the leadwork. His style seems to be more understated. Overall, an excellent performance from Benante.

Production was handled by Scrap 60 (Caggiano, Eddie Wohl and Steve Regina) in conjunction with Anthrax, and the result is one of the best mixes achieved by Anthrax. The guitars are processed clearer than in the past, and the drums are perfectly mixed, sounding better than any of Anthrax's previous mixes. Bush's voice is pushed to the front, keeping with the more rock oriented feel of the album. The overall feel is quite bass-heavy, due to the detuned guitars and a good bass presence.

Choice Cuts

What Doesn't Die - This one starts with a staccato guitar section before going into an uptempo verse reminiscent of some of their early work (Be All, End All in particular) before descending into a slow funky chorus. It also features a trademark Anthrax midsection featuring one of the few leads from Caggiano, before picking up into a double-bass drenched outro. Good way to kick off the album (if you don't count Contact).

Safe Home - Seems to be the closest thing to a ballad that I've ever heard out of Anthrax, and it features a tightly played verse section from Ian, and a chorus that shows off John Bush's vocal talents. This cut speeds up toward the end and features another lead from Caggiano (who is tremendously under-utilised given he's the new lead guitarist), which turns out to be the best lead on the album.

Any Place But Here - Although not being all that heavy, this is a really catchy tune with a tightly played verse featuring trademark work by Ian, and an uptempo chorus featuring a catchy vocal harmony. This also features another lead from Caggiano (bringing up the total lead count to 3 so far).

Nobody Knows Anything - I never really understood why Lar$ Ulrich got all the recognition that Benante should get, as Benante is ten times (at least) the drummer Ulrich is, with only 10% of the recognition. This song, which is more of an extended drum solo, shows exactly why I believe this is so. This song shows Benante working a basic beat and gradually building on it with some insane double bass and snare work. This is perhaps the track that bares the most resemblance to Anthrax's early days.

Black Dahlia - This one seems more than a little out of place here, but is quite enjoyable if you like blastbeats. The song starts out with a pulsating midtempo section which moves along nicely, until out of nowhere it morphs temporarily into a grindcore-esque section punctuated with blastbeats and tremolo-picked riffing before returning to the midtempo feel of the previous section.

Off Cuts

Contact and Crash - These two tracks are complete filler and serve no useful purpose whatsoever.

Raw Sewage

N/A.

Closing Comments

Those still hoping for a return to the thrash sound of their earlier days can pretty much give up now, but if you don't mind a more hard-rock style infused with some thrash elements, then this is for you. Definitely the best effort they've made since Persistence Of Time.

Haven't I heard this before? And much better done on albums like Reinventing the Steel. Here they take the worst aspects of Pantera (silly Vulgar Display and Far Beyond shit) and throw in some crap a la Machine Head and come up with some rather weak songs. Yes, this is occasionally heavy. No, it isn't good. And yes, there are some mallcore moments too, and even some random hip-hop/techno parts! However, there are the occasional good moments too. So it's not a complete loser - but almost.

First song... What Doesn't Die. What a schizophrenic little song. Some cool riffs, and at times there is a nice headbanging groove, but the chorus just fucking sucks - especially the guitar tone underneath it, and John's horrible articulation. Very forced-sounding. Also, the lead guitar is crap - I have no idea who's doing the leads on this album (Charlie?) but he's gotta stop trying to be a weakened version of Dime Darrell. But the verses are cool, with the nifty rhythm guitar underneath it.

Superhero... this was advertised as a return to Among the Living days. Hah, fucking hah! Check out that really dumb vocals-driven verse passage. Mallcore, kids. Not quite as whiny as Korn, but this is still really fucking shitty. Also, the chorus is again a total miss. Yelling one syllable at a time does not work. Pray! For! Help! Cry! Whatever... dumb effects hurt this one badly as well, as does the general vocals-oriented mix. Scott's rhythm guitar can still be quite good at times, but it is buried very badly in the mix. The final chorus before the middle part is better, because they throw in more lyrics - and the middle section is pretty decent. But again, the solo fucking sucks. This makes Jeff and Kerry sound like the epitome of technicality. Bring back the Jesusboy watchmaker, I say!

Refuse to Be Denied... little "cute" intro, then an entirely forgettable riff, and then the verses are totally vocals-oriented. Not quite mallcore, but still this is shit. At least it builds up to a nice pre-chorus and an acceptable chorus. "I stand and resist!" But the second guitarist comes and fucks everything up with his dweebish noodling. So far, this is the best song on here, though, because after the first stupid intro verse, it doesn't stop having a continuous riff basis. Plus the middle section is well done, with a nice riff around 2.26 - though I think I'm not the only one that thinks it would work better if it were played at 140% speed. So far this is very slow, very laid back, and missing on some serious aggression. Blood or One Man Stands, this is not.

Safe Home. Hmm, this is such a cheesy song, but why does it work so well for the first few seconds? A little bouncy riff that is bordering on self-parody... oh but it totally falls apart around 0.37 where I suddenly feel like I'm listening to Creed. Bring back the riff. Another schizophrenic little song, with two really bad choruses. It kinda builds up halfway through, though - and that lead guitarist finds approximately one testicle. Hey, it's better than what he had before, and this section harkens back to the Sound of White Noise era. Pretty decent solo when all is said and done, but they should have totally knocked off the first two choruses and done the entire song in the style of the third chorus.

Any Place But Here - little acoustic intro, and then - a great fucking guitar riff!!! Then, the drums come in and kill it. Plodding drums to fuck over that nifty riff - good job, Charlie. Then a far more ordinary groove riff, and we get into a fairly standard modern Anthrax number. But hey, the chorus actually kinda works. Come on, come on! Sounds like a White Noise era chorus. Unfortunately the middle section just drones on and the cool guitars of the intro just turn into yet another lame "solo" that goes nowhere and silly vocals, and then another slightly better solo that is still kinda crappy. This would be the best song on here, but for the shitty middle part. Still, though - what a boring song.

Nobody Knows Anything... kinda crappy intro riff leads into a slightly better one that would be even better if it didn't pause once every second, and if the second guitarist wasn't fucking around with some stupid effect in the background. Then the part under the vocals - more groove-stuff a la a Pantera album. The chorus would be pretty cool if the drums weren't so mixed so fucking high in the mix and so annoying - and that part after the chorus, that's total fucking hip hop bullshit. Seriously, listen around 1.07 in the song - that is not fucking heavy metal. Yeah kids, let's take the hiphop back. Decent solo, okay riff underneath it, but seriously, someone beat Charlie over the head and turn his drums down a few notches, because they are highly annoying.

Strap It On... hey, now here's a nice opening riff - cut right to the chase and here's the first verse, and the pre-chorus is pretty nice too. Take me back to a golden time!! Unfortunately, the chorus is very shitty. There's the mallcore "strap it on! strap it on! strap it on!" jump-teh-fukk-up segment and the boring endless repetition segment. This song has nothing to do with old school, really. Man, they just can't write an entire song that's a winner - gotta throw in some loser passages every once in a while just to keep the fanbase miffed. Decent solo section too - if it weren't for the really uninspired chorus this would be decent.

Black Dahlia - this is supposed to be the br00tal s00ng of the alb00m. Starts off pretty nice (well, after seven seconds of random shit). The verses are very driven, and remind me nicely of Fueled. Then... around 0.32. What the fucking shitweasel, Batman?? What was that? Someone spliced in some pure noise!! Fucking shitty drums and distorted vocals. Some mallcore/grindcore bastard child. It's like someone decided to have a practical joke at the band's expense and spliced in random segments because that section just doesn't make any sense - not in the context of the verses or the chorus. Cool chorus too, and man those verses are pretty fucking great. Middle section is very short and understated and then one final chorus. There's a good song here, too bad someone sabotaged the final production version.

Cadillac Rock Box - dumbfuck "mighty fine grooving going on on this record here" intro. What the fuck - is this an advertisement for the people like me that have only the mp3s? "Buy the album!" Then an okay riff, but the whole thing gives me a vibe of Black Crowes or something similar. It gets better around 0.52 but is still kinda mediocre. They cranked the "groove" up to ungodly new levels, but they threw out the riffs in the meantime.

Taking the Music Back. Okay here we go, here's an intro riff that is worthy. Worthy of Sound of White Noise that is... Spreading the Disease this is not. Oh no, then the verses, and man this is utter shit! No kids, no no no no! That is not how to do a verse passage. Another borderline mallcore segment, especially with the distorted yes-man backing vocals that kinda repeat certain lines only talking out of a prosthetic ass. Okay chorus, I guess. Again, there is nothing overtly spectacular on this album. Some cute sections that don't abjectly suck, but nothing here that totally fucking completely rules. Man this band has gone so far down the shitter that they've dug a hole to China. Stupid middle section will not be acknowledged, especially with the weak-ass solo.

Crash. What the fuck in the name of all that is sacred?? This is pure fucking mallcore here, that's all I gotta say about this one. Utterly fucking worthless.

Think about an End. Yay, finally. Sounds like a good thing to think about, because here's yet another vocals-driven shit passage, with the guitars barely there and playing an eminently forgettable riff. Finally, the rhythm is brought to the forefront... and another eminently forgettable riff. Guys, quit ripping off half the Machine Head catalogue, this is shit! The drums are again way too loud under the verses, the guitars not doing anything worthwhile, and the vocals are left to carry the song. But hey, the chorus is, ironically enough, the best part of the song. The middle section is cool too - now here's some actual riffage! This one almost, but not quite, could be considered thrash! "Where is all the mercy???" Fuck, why did they wait this long to throw this in? This is total White Noise, and almost, almost!! could be State of Euphoria.

Ah well... can't win 'em all. Give me the new Overkill any day - they're the first, and at this rate, they'll be the last..... Anthrax has gone by the wayside. (And seen a few.) The overall verdict - boring as fuck. There really isn't anything that grabbed me by the genitals and forced me to kill my neighbour. Sorry. Black Dahlia almost did, but just when it was getting good, they threw in that joke of a grindcore interlude. Seriously - these guys are suffering from "too many dumb interludes" syndrome. The very last few minutes of the album - Think About an End - are the very best thing they've done since Sound of White Noise, but otherwise it's a loser.