Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Anthrax

ANTHRAX
The Devil You Know

From: Worship Music
Released: September 13

If you follow metal at all, you're probably already familiar with the context surrounding Worship Music, Anthrax's first album with original singer Joey Belladonna on vocals since their 1990 breakthrough Persistence of Time, and first overall in eight years.  If you're not familiar with the situation or metal in general, there are really only three things you need to know:


a) Metal fans can be a fickle bunch; Anthrax has struggled in the twenty years since Belladonna left the band.  In 1993, they released Sound of White Noise with new singer John Bush and a new, decidedly less thrashy sound.  It's now regarded as a classic, but at the time was widely panned by fans put off by the new sound.  Sales suffered, and after follow-up Stomp 442 landed in 1995 with a resounding thud, they were dropped from the major label deal they'd signed with Elektra after just two albums.  They fizzled out with two more ignored albums and, until Belladonna's re-entry, were written off and forgotten in the pages of history.  All because they changed singers; and metal fans don't like change, even when it results in something great.

b) Worship Music had a hell of a time coming out at all.  Originally recorded in full and planned for release in May 2009 with (yet another) new singer Dan Nelson on vocals, it was pushed back when Dan Nelson left Anthrax later in the year.  They brought John Bush back into the fold with the intention of re-recording vocals, which Bush wasn't comfortable with since he hadn't been involved in the creative process.  They tried to make it work, but soon enough Bush left Anthrax again.  Enter Belladonna and, eventually, Worship Music got released over three years after work had begun on it.  By the time of its release, the album was the butt of jokes in some sectors of the metal community, sometimes referred to as the Chinese Democracy of metal.

c) Worship Music is heavy, cohesive, and jaw-droppingly well made.  Considering the context, the album had no business being anything beyond an afterthought, a failed attempt by the band to regain some of the credibility they had in the late 80's.  That it's been received with open arms by fans and critics alike speaks to the power of the music on record; in such jaded times as we live, for Anthrax to be forgiven so unconditionally for juggling singers and taking eight years to follow up their last album is no small feat.  Maybe it's the absence that made our hearts grow fonder; after all, since so many fans walked away in the mid-90's, for them it's been a much longer time apart.  Whatever the case, it's good to see Anthrax release a really good thrash album again.  It's even better to see them trumping the more mainstream members of the Big Four (again, if you're not into metal, the other three are Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer); I can't speak for Slayer since they didn't release anything in 2011, but Megadeth rehashed the same album for the fourth time since their 2004 comeback and Metallica's follies this year are extremely well documented.  For too long considered washed up and inconsequential, Worship Music proves Anthrax still deserves their place in history and refuse to be anyone's punch line.