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Anthrax > Stomp 442 > Reviews
Anthrax - Stomp 442

I think the Devil lives in California - 70%

Twisted_Psychology, August 23rd, 2023

As suggested by that nineties-riffic album cover, Anthrax seemingly wanted to leave all traces of their past behind them with Stomp 442. Like a comic drawn by Rob Liefeld, the band hones in an especially aggressive edge as any old school thrash sensibility is completely phased out and even the grunge atmosphere seen on Sound of White Noise left as quickly as it came. They don’t even have a proper lead guitarist in light of Dan Spitz’s departure, having Paul Crook on a guest basis with.a couple others that included Dimebag Darrell of all people.

Speaking of ol Dime, the groove metal’s complete takeover reflects strongly in the musicianship. The guitars now totally dominate the proceedings, exerting rhythmic patterns with a headstrong thrust occasionally rounded out by squealing leads. The vocals also largely drop their melodicism and put more focus on faster patterns that almost border on rapping territory through a Phil Anselmo-inspired holler.

While there isn’t much to the songwriting that puts it in thrash territory, there remains a priority on high-octane beatdowns. I wouldn’t put the opening “Random Acts of Senseless Violence” among the band’s best tracks, but its urgent riff set and aggro-motormouth vocals make it feel like an explosive extension of “Bring the Noise” with some “Refuse/Resist” for flavor. “Fueled” and “King Size” are great for maintaining the energy even if their hooks aren’t quite as ear-catching while the filtered vocals and extra hits of dissonance help make “In A Zone” feel even more adrenalized.

Getting into the back half sees more experimental outliers start to pop up. “Nothing” brings some Soundgarden-isms to its riff set while “American Pompeii” has a somewhat clumsily executed alt-rock flair. The closing “Bare” winds things down nicely, evoking desert imagery with its acoustics and echoing vocals.

Stomp 442 is an odd album in that it’s better than I remember but ultimately still not very memorable in the grand scheme. I can appreciate the band’s full commitment to off-the-cuff groove metal, but there’s an ‘almost there’ feeling throughout as most of the songs don’t leave a deep impression. I can understand it having appeal for fans of this harder style but for better and for worse, this is the first album where Anthrax truly no longer sound like themselves.

A gigantic trash ball in a desolate space on a downward spiral - 35%

kluseba, August 28th, 2021
Written based on this version: 1995, CD, Elektra Records

The nineties and early years of the new millennium weren't particularly great for American thrash metal veterans Anthrax. The band delivered the goods throughout the eighties that cemented its status as one of the very best genre bands in the world and the band has been releasing excellent music and playing outstanding concerts again throughout the last decade. Stomp 442 however is one of the low points in Anthrax's career for numerous reasons.

First of all, the songwriting is lacking imagination. Most of the tracks here feature down-tuned chugging guitar play, barely audible bass guitar sounds, repetitive rhythmic drum patterns and strained vocals on the thin line between aggression and melody with occasional artificial effects layered upon it. The songs are rather on the shorter side with four and a half minutes on average and lack overtures, transitions, codas or any type of intriguing solo sections.

While tracks like aggressive opener ''Random Acts of Senseless Violence'' or the more adventurous ''In a Zone'' show some promise on their own, they cant convince in the context of the elevated number of similarly sounding tunes. The loud production might have been a good idea on paper as it fits with the band's more aggressive attitude but the final result is headache-inducing and extremely hard to sit through. The dreadful cover artwork featuring a gigantic trash ball in a desolate space describes my feelings towards the record perfectly and might also indicate that Anthrax weren't exactly in a positive state of mind when recording that output.

Anthrax had been a band walking perfectly on the thin line between passionate thrash metal tunes with inspired lyrics and party anthems with memorable choruses and instrumental passages. Stomp 442 is testament to a band that has lost its identity and features a more modern sound influenced by alternative rock bands of the nineties and the rise of groove metal but it desperately lacks the enthusiasm and positivism of yore. Those who like the aforementioned influences might appreciate Stomp 442 but fans of Anthrax's first five studio albums or the band's output since reuniting with Joey Belladonna will have a hard time getting used to those dystopian soundscapes.

Bush Era takes a wrong turn as Anthrax drops the ball - 40%

DerekB2323, January 5th, 2021

I'll say this. Stomp 442 definitely has a vibe. It's a fun record with a warm, appealing tone. The guitars are thick and crunchy, and as usual, John Bush sounds like a lion. You know that feeling of driving around blasting music on a summer day? That's the vibe of Stomp 442.

Unfortunately, it starts raining as soon as you start the car.

Stomp 442 is a weird album. On their previous record, Sound of White Noise, Anthrax figured out how to successfully adjust their sound for the 1990s. Songs like "Only" and "Potters Field" tamed their driving thrash into something more accessible while also, you know, not sucking. So clearly, they figured out the recipe for good mainstream metal. And that makes the fact that they decided to do something altogether different on Stomp 442 even weirder.

For its many flaws, the thing that ultimately derails Stomp 442 is the songwriting. Say what you will about Anthrax, but they know how to write a memorable song. But there's only one memorable song on Stomp 442, and aside from a handful of cool moments, the rest of the album is dull and even grating at times.

Seriously, the choruses in songs like "Random Acts of Senseless Violence" and "Nothing" will make you cringe.

For what it's worth, "Fueled" is the album's lone winner. It builds from a cool strummed riff that leads into a nice chugging verse and a big chorus. Charlie Benante also throws in a few double bass kicks, which drive up the energy, before the song ends with a modern take on Anthrax's classic mosh sections. It's one of John Bush's best songs with Anthrax and a cool slice of mainstream metal.

"King Size" is also a cut above the rest. "In a Zone" is often pointed out as another highlight, but I've always been more fond of "Tester." It has the same kind of infectious groove, but with a catchier chorus and a more dynamic structure—at least by this album's standards. In fact, its lack of dynamics is the other major issue with Stomp 442, because the rest of the album bleeds together into a long blur of choked riffs, mid-tempo beats and hooks that fall flat.

Still, as I mentioned, there's definitely a vibe. The album's general direction and tone at least give Stomp 442 an identity. They may have blown it with the songwriting, but it seems like Anthrax had an idea for the sound they wanted, and that at least gives the album something to lean on. Stomp 442 is best used as background music, when you can enjoy its rocking tone without focusing on the fact that it all sounds the same.

I often hear Scott Ian talk about how their record label, Elektra, dropped the ball with Anthrax. Perhaps there's some truth to that, but Anthrax themselves own some of the blame, too. The band's Bush Era was off to the races with Sound of White Noise, but instead of fueling that momentum, Anthrax crashed it into a ditch with Stomp 442.

Songs to check out: Fueled, King Size, Tester

A rocking, but heavy, album. - 77%

Lane, February 27th, 2016
Written based on this version: 1995, CD, Elektra Records

Anthrax is one of thrash metal's "big 4", together with Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth. Anthrax was always most playful of them all already in 1980s, best known from their flirtation with (gasp!) rap music. In 1990 the band had released their most mature, and slower, thrash metal album, 'Persistence of Time'. And then Joey Belladonna left...

With new vocalist John Bush came another change: Anthrax took more and more steps towards more groovy presentation with fine 1993 album 'Sound of White Noise'. Then Dan Spitz left, who played most of the lead guitar parts. Maybe it means something, that Mr. Spitz didn't write anything for 'Sound...' album any more, even though he never was a main writer for the band. Maybe he didn't want the band to get too groovy, rocking?

So, welcome to the first Anthrax album, that can be said to contain groove metal, and nothing else. Back when it was released, it might have sounded heavy as the ball of metal junk (no pun intended) on the cover. On the other hand, it looks more like a rock album artwork. Guys were around 30 years old, and new winds were blowing. So many bands tried to survive the attack of grunge rock by making changes in their sound and songwriting in early 1990s. The album is rocking and at times, punky, and those nu-metal whiffs featured aren't so much of killjoy as they could have been! Anthrax, generally, still did things by their own book.

Scott Ian's guitar riffing is heavy-handed. He does hammering palm-muted stuff, plays a lot with open strings and generally keeps things pretty simple. Some are simple as heck, hence the punk vibe here and there around the album. Anyway, it can be heard, that Scott's fingers must have been mash after recording sessions... Surely you hear heavy metal here, and 'American Pompeii's Black Sabbath influenced riffing that starts just before 3-minute mark is one shining example of that! Then again, there's not much of memorable stuff happening in lead and solo guitar departments. Paul Crook was enlisted as the lead guitarist, but his work was to throw in some noisy leads and solos ('In a Zone' features one of the more memorable ones, and surely there are a few more). Dimebag Darrell of Pantera fame guested on two songs, but he didn't conjure anything that could be called as legendary here. The guitars sound live.

Melodies are brought in by vocals by John Bush (Armored Saint). His lines are memorable, but again, rather simplistic. I like his rough-ish voice; you can hear he has lived. And not too strictly. This can be sensed from the lyrics, too, which are very streetwise. Fighting, drinking, anxiety, fucking society. Mr. Bush also does more clean vocals on 'Nothing', which is one of the catchiest songs on offer. Also so on 'Bare', which is a bit surprising semi-acoustic closer, where Bush manages to sound somewhat similar to Kurt Cobain. Generally, his vocals are raw, without much, if any, effects and such. The vocals sound live.

The rhythm section in Anthrax have always been more or less vivid. No lack of ideas in bass and drums departments! Charlie Benante is one of my favourite drummers ever. He just lives the beat. His simpler stuff always contains some tasty small tricks to enjoy about, and dan he is a real octopus is he wants to be. And you can bet he does! All of the music was written by drummer him, so that probably explains why it is so very rhythm-based. Frank Bello's bass is one of the funkiest in metal without being any lame. The rhythm section is, n a word, versatile. The bass and drums sound live.

So, the album sounds live! It sounds raw. It's not a presentation of balanced and clean production job, but while it's full, it's not clogged by any means. No, even though a lot of musical elements stay on lower levels.

'Stomp 442' is definitely better than the next one, 'Volume 8 - The Threat Is Real!', which was released as late as 1998. Here, the variety isn't so big, but on the other hand it could have been better in general songwriting; this is quite unvaried. However, the songs have their own vibes mostly for sure. I've managed to find something good in each of them, and the years do not seem to corrode them. Still, 'Stomp 442' is a remnant of mid-90s. It feels it has some similarities with early Machine Head, The Almighty's 'Crank' (1994) and even Helmet, just to name a few. This is a party record or one I love to listen to while driving my automobile.

(Originally written for ArchaicMetallurgy.com)

Just about the bottom of the barrel - 10%

Napalm_Satan, April 22nd, 2015

Even though Sound of White Noise saw Anthrax totally fall flat as they tried to hop on the grunge trend, they managed to fall even harder with their second stab at rock music. The stupid cover art and lame album title should give a good indication of what level we're on here - this tedious, dated and awkward music that sounded bad in the '90s and hasn't aged well at all. There are almost no redeeming qualities to this album at all, with even fewer good tracks and even less effort put into it than before. Barring the likes of The Least Successful Human Cannonball and Out for Blood I can't think of an album this bad that was released by a great thrash band.

The grunge tendencies of the last album have been ditched, giving way to a really, *really* bad take on a hard/alternative rock and groove metal hybrid. The band attempt to don a Pantera-like 'tough guy' attitude with the songs here, leading to an emphasis on chugging and simplistic, hard hitting grooves but it doesn't work, largely because Charlie Benante is no Dimebag Darrell when it comes to writing memorable, pugilistic groove riffs. The music is about as bland and redundant as can be, with the every last song consisting of turgid stop-start groovy riffs that are forgotten as soon as they leave, while Charlie and Frank play equally repetitive parts on their respective instruments. They occasionally pull it out of the bag with the music: 'Fueled' and 'In A Zone' clearly stand out as having a decent amount of thought put into their composition compared to the rest of the rubbish on here, moving along at a decent clip and having solid riffing to boot. Another relative positive is that the multiple lead guitarists on this album (Paul Crook, Charlie and the aforementioned Dimebag Darrell) put on a solid show on the soloing front.

The biggest issue with this album is that apart from throwing in some high-end noise from the guitars on songs like 'Riding Shotgun' there is no real way to tell apart most of the songs from each other. The closer 'Bare' amounts to a half ballad, with the second half being taken up by yet more awful grooving, and 'Nothing' throws that sound away entirely in favour of some dreadful buttrock nonsense that manages to be even less aggressive or energetic and even more dated than everything else here. Apart from these outliers however every last song sounds almost exactly the same, with the band rehashing the same boring verse-chorus structures and finding different ways to arrange the same 4 notes into more same-y ho-hum groove riffs. Songs are uniform in tempo (not quite mid-tempo but not brisk either) and never throw any surprises on that front, or indeed any way at all. They all ride one or two of those terrible riffs into the ground, with only 'In A Zone' managing to keep things vaguely interesting by changing up enough between sections and having some decent riffs. Other than this however it's all 'in one ear, out the other' garbage.

The vocals are pretty awful too, as John Bush has decided to throw in a pseudo-rapping cadence to some of his work ('Random Acts of Senseless Violence') and throw out most of the tune and melody from his singing, perhaps the closest comparison I could give is that he sounds like a weak Scott Weiland. He couldn't sound aggressive or sing in tune if his life depended on it, and it makes the album even worse than it otherwise would have been; even if you like this sort of music there is no way to enjoy this album with these vocals all over it. This is easily Anthrax's worst album, and makes other failures like St. Anger seem positively wonderful in comparison. For everyone's sake don't buy this or seek it out in any way, shape or form; it's a dreadful album that deserves to be derided and forgotten.

Like a garbage ball on a rainy day! - 30%

Kritik, November 18th, 2014
Written based on this version: 1995, CD, Elektra Records

Like the image of the album is showing, we are treated with real garbage music here. I am the first to accept or like change, but this is just painful to listen to. The sarcastic album cover is showing us a man who’s watching a big garbage ball passing by. I can imagine seeing Anthrax looking at the result of this album and even thinking themselves that the quality is similar to what we dispose of. So Anthrax is the man looking to his own "creative" trash ball. I will explain in all the means necessary why this album is the worst thing Anthrax has ever done.

First of all, I liked Sound of White Noise. I think this album had a certain charm with its own atmosphere and with enough variety to rival the first two albums of the band. This variety is exactly what is missing on Stomp 442. The drums seem to repeat indefinitely the same exact rhythm that sounds way too generic for the style in use. The style is way more generic than on the last album. This time, we don't have any external influence in hard rock or their metal roots. What we get is an exclusively grunge rock album with little variety. The guitars are just there but don't really add any substantial melodies or riffs that can keep the attention of the listener. All the songs are written in the same mould with little passages that really stand out. Only one song named "Bare" sounds different and is actually more interesting than the rest here. It's in fact a little rock ballad at the end of the album, but even then, the last part of this song is returning to the general sound of the album and is overall not even good.

The production is also another disappointing aspect of this release. The guitar is at the forefront without letting us hearing anything else. The different solos on the album seem forced into each song. The band seemed to try desperately to add some much needed variety but it still sounds forced upon the listener because the solos just don't fit at all the style they are put in. The bass is tuned down way too much. The drums have a quite unimpressive sound and the general mix seems to miss guts. The vocals on this release also sound different from the last release as they don't keep that little groove present in general over the course of Sound of White Noise.

On an emotional level, this album just doesn't seem to get anything straight either. It sounds again quite generic and way too unoriginal to evoke any feeling on the listener. The singer is not really at fault here because the lackluster production doesn't help him expressing his emotions.

About this grunge album, there are much better albums of this same style that were already out at this moment that sound way less generic and give us many more memorable moments than on this release. Even past and future albums of the same band included more positive moments in the genre forecast on Stomp 442. So this is another reason to skip this release entirely.

Finally, I just don't understand this missed opportunity. After a very good effort in creating something similar to this in form of Sounds of White Noise, I was stunned to see this band sounding so uninspiring this time around. With only half a good song there with the rest being a complete letdown, what we have left is only a garbage ball that stinks to an unimaginable degree.

Far from their worst album - 84%

SonicBlast190, July 6th, 2010

I'm never sure why this album is constantly labeled as Anthrax's worst album. In my opinion, it is John Bush's best album with Anthrax, next to Sound of White Noise. True, this album, and John Bush, did take a while to grow on me. I thought Among the Living was Anthrax's last excellent album. State of Euphoria was dull, Persistence of Time was tl;dl (too long; don't listen), Sound of White Noise was okay, and Stomp 442 was just shit.

After a while of only cycling through three Anthrax albums, curiosity got the best of me and I decided to listen to the other ones. Except, once again, Stomp 442. And for a while, I thought Sound of White Noise was John Bush's only great album with Anthrax. I had no intention of ever listening to Stomp 442 in its entirety.

Until one day, "Riding Shotgun" came on while I was asleep. I woke up right when it started and listened thoroughly. I was impressed by Scott Ian and Dimebag Darrell's guitar playing, and was even more impressed at Frank Bello and Charlie Benante. And then came John Bush, who I was still warming up to. And this album broke, or should I say, fucking destroyed the ice.

While not as "friendly" as Sound of White Noise, Stomp 442 is just as heavy, if not heavier. Stomp 442 is much more experimental than "Sound O' " and seems to be a logical step forward for Anthrax, with Dan Spitz having left the band after Sound O'.

To wrap up, I thought this album is Anthrax's most underrated album to date. It proves Anthrax can do just fine without their traditional sound, Joey, and Dan Spitz. It starts off strong with the five tracks, but really falls short after "In a Zone". Recommended tracks include "Random Acts of Senseless Violence", "Fueled", "King Size", and "Riding Shotgun". Although I wouldn't hang it as high as I would Sound O', it's definitely a fun one to listen to and a nice album to own.

The Royal Seal of Gayness (13th in Class) - 21%

hells_unicorn, February 28th, 2009

It can be plainly stated that although Anthrax lost most of their viability when Joey Belladonna was out of the picture, that the band didn’t completely die until they lost Dan Spitz and the subsequent release of this utter travesty. At this point basically anything that even resembles the good aspects of grunge and hard rock were ejected from their sound and what is left is probably the blandest and most redundant pile of groove feces possible while still just barely missing all out Mallcore territory. The Limp Bizkit tendencies are definitely here, but it still retains just enough elements of the early 90s Pantera sound to qualify as Metal in some respects.

There are actually two aspects of this album that make it superior, in a relative sense, than “Sound Of White Noise”. The first is that the guitar tone has been cleaned up a bit so as not to sound like the mud butt soaked mess that was present before, resulting in a sound that is somewhat closer to what was heard on “Persistence Of Time”, though the boring as hell guitar grooves that are being used do not bring it anywhere near being enjoyable. The second being that Dimebag Darrel has been tapped to fill Spitz’s shoes, and being the crazed fret board blazer that he is, actually upstages his predecessor in the technical department.

Make no mistake though, what is heard on here is absolute garbage, albeit fairly well sugarcoated garbage when you account for the production quality and the improved guitar sound. Picture two nice big pieces of savory cheesecake floating in a toilet full of runny excrement and you’ll have what these positive elements amount to. Each one of these songs is an exercise in sheer droning, repetitive boredom with really annoying Scott Weiland meets Fred Durst vocals. Sometimes the grooves are semi-tolerable like in the case of “Fueled” and “In A Zone”, and at other times they throw in some really ear piercing high end dissonant guitar noise like in “Drop The Ball” and “Riding Shotgun” which grates in a way that makes some of the crap on “Through The Ashes Of Empires” sound pleasant by comparison.

One thing that can be said about this album which pretty well separates it from a lot of others by Anthrax’s half-thrash contemporaries is that it’s consistent. There isn’t really a whole lot that separates one song from the next in terms of quality, baring the incorporation or removal of certain annoying guitar and vocal effects. One exception is the famed radio oriented single “Nothing”, which drops the groove metal and hard core influences for an even duller and lamer brand of pseudo-heavy alternative rock. Picture something by Eve 6 or Sponge and then throw in a little lead guitar slot and you’ve got it. The other exception is “Bare”, which actually comes off as a joke considering that it’s a poorly sung rehash of what Gin Blossoms had been doing on their acoustic music for a couple years on an album populated with bad mallcore.

If you wanted to point to a single song on here that really stands out as being good in any respect, the winner would be “In A Zone”, which ventures the closest towards the “Sound Of White Noise” character of sound. The chorus riff actually sounds pretty similar to the interlude riff heard after the guitar solo on Guns N’ Roses “Welcome To The Jungle”, while the rest of it sounds like a fairly consistent worship session of Alice In Chains’ “Dirt”. Bush’s vocals are also free of most of that really grating quasi-rapped version of vocalizing that dominates this style of music.

No self-respecting thrash band would put out something like this at all, let alone put it out and then complain in interviews later on that your labels wanted nothing to do with you because you’re an old thrash metal band, because this is not thrash metal. In fact, most of it isn’t even heavy metal if you’re relying on standards of the genre aside from heaviness, which would qualify every single nu-metal band for the category. If you liked any of Anthrax’s previous works, including the lackluster “Sound Of White Noise”, avoid this like crazy. There are better things to do with your time, like analyzing the ass end of a cow with a really bad case of gas.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on February 28, 2009.

442 Times Worse Than You'd Think - 24%

DawnoftheShred, June 30th, 2007

People love to hit a band while they're down. Sometimes they deserve the onslaught of criticisms, such as in the case of Metallica's infamous failure with St. Anger. Other times the critics are just opposed to change and judge the new style accordingly. This distinction is the reason that an album cannot be judged on bad press alone. One must actually hear the bullshit for themselves before they can be assured that they could not possibly grow to enjoy it. It is precisely for this reason that I obtained Anthrax's Stomp 442, even after immensely disliking their previous album Sound of White Noise. Stakes were high, but I might not hate it at best and I'd only be wasting a few minutes of my life at worst. And you know what, the critics were pretty damn right. This blows hard.

Whoever thinks that Anthrax was still a metal band at this point in their career has lost their ability to distinguish heavy metal from modern hard rock. Whereas Sound of White Noise maintained a pretty heavy grunge vibe, this exudes Foo Fighters and mainstream Soundgarden. There's also an occasional (but noticible) attempt at putting forth a Pantera-esque aggro sound, but it fails completely. This is limp-dicked late 90's radio rock covered in a thin, crunchy, tough-guy exterior and to suggest otherwise is absolutely preposterous.

It'd be easy to jump on the bandwagon of blaming John Bush as the reason all the albums he's on suck ass, but he's only providing the vocals. Even if he was the worst vocalist/lyricist on the planet, there would have to be a horde of fundamental flaws in the instrumental performances to allow an album to be as piss poor as this album is. Who to blame? Probably Scott Ian. [UPDATE 11/20/07: It has come to my attention that it was actually beloved drummer Charlie Benante who wrote all of the horrendous riffing on this album, not Scott Ian (I had heard a rumor that such was true, but had no proof. Thanks to Durandal1717 for confirming it). So do I owe Scotty an apology? No, because he still agreed to record Charlie's shitty material rather than write his own.] As the only guitarist left in the band, the riffing is all on him. Rather than attempting to write anything remotely thrashy, he sticks to shitty groove riffs (the kind that were exhausted by Pantera and Prong years earlier) and generic chord progressions designed to highlight Bush's vocals, as tough and menacing as they are(n't). Seriously, John Bush sounds about as intimidating on here as Zakk Wylde is on his solo album. But it's made all the worse by a noticible lack of quality riffage and an abundance of shitty guitar effects. His lead work also fails, serving as a fine example of predictable textbook hard rock guitar solos. I can't hear Frank Bello anywhere on here, so I'm going to assume he's just following the guitar and allowing himself to be mixed out, the acceptable norm for bassists of the 90's. Charlie Benante is still pulling his weight, providing as much of a backbone to this garbage as he possibly can, but his efforts are in vain, as all the fantastic double-pedal stomping in the world couldn't make this palatable.

By the second song on here, you'll have a pretty good idea of how the album is going to sound from beginning to end. "Random Acts of Senseless Violence" with its poorly thought out title and "Fueled" with its lackluster rehashing of the former's structure. Most of the song on here stick to this format: predictable song formats, embarrasing downtuned riffage, angry (but unintimidating) lyrics and vocals, and a general lack of balls. John Bush provides a saving grace at points, because if you listen closely, you can hear him actually warning the listener of how much this fucking sucks.

"Two steps forward
one hundred steps back
we're going the wrong way.
It's backwards, it's backwards
Cuffed and branded
I can't stand it."

Holy shit! John Bush was forced to sing on an atrocious album that he figured would ruin his reputation, so he managed to squeeze this little acknowledgment into "Riding Shotgun" to wash his hands of the whole thing. At least that's how I look at it. "In a Zone" is the only song on here that is borderline metal, but it's Pantera worship at best. This is followed by more radio-friendly bullshit that the radio never bothered to play. "Nothing" is a perfect example of what is wrong with this band. They wanted to appeal to the masses, only to find that the masses are fickle, leaving only old-school fans to disappoint. "American Pompeii" is kind of heavy, but reeks of the same mainstreamisms. Then we get some half-groove half-numetal with "Drop the Ball" along with another admission of guilt by Bush. Yes, John, you guys dropped the ball with this one. "Tester" is another generic number and is entirely forgettable.

But all of these bullshit songs climax with the last song, "Bare." Hey Anthrax, nice fucking ballad, hypocrites. It picks up near the end with one of those rejected Zakk Wylde-esque groove riffs (with the acoustic and electric guitars doing the same thing), but that isn't really any better. Besides it's the principle of the whole thing that cements this as fecal matter.

Finally, for those of us unfortunate enough to have the rerelease, we get treated to some bonus songs. For a quick summary of the quality of these tracks, replace "treated to" with "assraped by" and you'll have a fairly appropriate idea of their merit. "Grunt and Click" is as dumb as it sounds, another filler that deserved not to make it onto the album (just as many of the songs that did make the album didn't deserve to be there). Then a hideous Celtic Frost cover that the Anthrax of the 90's should have just left alone. Not sure who did the original "Celebrated Summer," but this version is lame, so enough said. And of course, every shitty album cannot end without a Kiss cover. (Okay so Hammerfall's Crimson Thunder is the only other album I know that ends that way, that album sucks too.) "Watchin' You" sucks as hard as the original, Anthrax finally doing a song justice for once. Think Blue Oyster Cult had an annoying cowbell sound? Just listen to this track and be convinced otherwise.

I love Fistful of Metal. I love Spreading the Disease. I fucking hate this. I definitely jumped the gun declaring Sound of White Noise as Anthrax's worst album, so I'm not going to do it again until I've listened to the ones that follow this. This is bad, but clearly Anthrax are capable of pushing their boundaries far below what anyone would expect of them. As long as Scott Ian is on his groove-core high, Anthrax is dead. The critics were right. Judge this accordingly.

The last Anthrax record worth listening to - 60%

Decapitated22, August 22nd, 2006

As the majority of the main american Thrash acts slipped into the different style of 90's Thrashing, so did Anthrax, beginning with 1993's "Sound of White Noise." Stomp 442 isn't at all a bad album, it's just not up to par with their original material, as is usually the case.

Charlie's drumming didn't particularly blow me away on this one. It wasn't bad, pretty solid, but it was just a bunch of modern-rockish beats that any one of a million drummers could have done just as well.

Let's do the riffs and songs all in one swoop. As was to be expected, 'thrax ditched their fast-picking again and went deeper into the slowly, more groove-based, mainstream rifing of the 'Sound of...' record. That being said, the songs themselves were obviously geared more toward a 90's radio audience, with almost all of them coming in at a convenient 3:30-4:00 minutes.

There's not too much to say about this one. It's what you would expect from a 90's Thrasher. All in all, it's not bad, just kinda predictable and bland and makes you kinda wish they had stuck to their style. It's still a fun, mindless listen now and then, though

Not the best but by far not the worst... - 70%

Snxke, April 30th, 2005

Anthrax certainly made an interesting step after the alarmingly brilliant "Sound of White Noise" release. This compact hardcore-meets-Anthrax mix certainly entertains but is lacking in much of the brilliance the predating album possessed. The production is about the same, (despite the bands protests to the opposite) the performances are also in line with the previous - the only weak link is the songwriting. Be it the label politics distracting them, or the unsure nature of a new line-up...the band dropped the ball in coming with a consistantly brilliant album in the same vibe of "Sound of White Noise".

Despite this drop in overall quality, the album still manages a few fun driving tunes that any fan of Bush-era Anthrax will want to own. The opening grind of "Random Acts of Senseless Violence" and the ultra-catchy "Nothing" stand out as great middle-of-the-road of modern metal tunes. "Riding Shotgun" and "Fueled" also have some classy Pantera-wannable riff-hooks as well. The rest goes from good to pointless, the band can claim they've stepped up lyrically but it matters little when the songs are only half-baked all around.

Anthrax burrow on with some great moments and some poor. Sadly, the band never recaptured the brilliance of "Sound of White Noise" and this record seems to function as the "lost child" of the Anthrax catalog.

Anthrax did NOT drop the ball on this one! - 85%

DrBell, November 29th, 2003

Contrary to what many believe, I feel this is a very good effort from Anthrax that is a step above Sound of White Noise.

Their sound has definately changed a lot since the thrash days. Here they rely more on vocal melodies and commercial sounds, but the riffs are still important enough to keep things from faltering, unlike on their later efforts. The guitar uses drop D tuning that combines with a good production to give the guitars a somewhat modern, heavy effect, but that effect is not over the top.

Highlights of the album include the first 3 tracks ("Random Acts of Senseless Violence", "Fueled", and "King Size"), "Nothing", and "Bare". Unlike most albums in which the strongest material is centered at the beginning, this album never feels like it drops off too much, which is a testament to its strength. "Nothing" relies heavily on vocal melodies, but in this case it just fucking works. "Bare" is a very interesting track. It is a ballad, and I very rarely consider a ballad to be one of the better tracks on an album, but I really enjoy this song. It is quite different from a normal ballad and sounds nothing like Anthrax have ever done, before or after Stomp 442.

I wouldn't consider anything on this album to be bad. The worst song is probably "In a Zone", but it is just kind of boring, and there is nothing especially wrong with it. Another drop in quality can be found in the pseudo-thrash break/middle section of "American Pompeii". For some reason, the pseudo-thrash break in "Drop the Ball" is quite a bit better.

This is a consistent, original, and interesting album from Anthrax. It is not very similar to anything they (or any other bands for that matter) have ever done. The only thing keeping this album from receiving a very high rating is the lack of any truly amazing tracks.