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Happy 20th Birthday Sound Of White Noise!

I remember spotting Anthrax's sixth album in a department store bargain bin, circa 1994 or 1995. On cassette, no less. Their record label had pressed far more copies than it sold, it seemed, and so Sound Of White Noise found its way to that dreaded bin, next to a plethora for far more deserving rejects, wearing its fifty cent price tag like a shamed dog wearing its own shit on its nose.

Today, Sound Of White Noise is regarded as a decent to good album by casual observers, but it was released into a far more hostile environment. In fact, as okay as people seem to be with the album today, Sound Of White Noise effectively ended Anthrax's career. Of course, it's not the album's fault; it was doomed well before release, thanks to what amounted to three pretty significant strikes for a metal band:

1) They had a new singer in John Bush, formerly of Armored Saint. Hindsight has accepted him as a formidable replacement for Joey Belladonna, but fans of the band weren't too happy with this turn of events in '93. It was different, and different meant bad.

2) Speaking of different, there was less thrash metal to be found on Sound Of White Noise, making way for a slightly more alternative slant. Even though Anthrax added these elements to their sound successfully, too many metal bands had tried and failed for most to put their trust in Anthrax.

3) Its release followed the band's two biggest successes; 1990's Persistence Of Time was lauded by critics and fans alike, and the release of the odds and sods collection Attack Of The Killer B's a year later yielded their biggest hit in Bring The Noise.

Add those factors to the band's new label, Elektra (a label that was still swimming in cash from the release of Metallica's "black album"), expecting Metallica-like sales numbers and you had a recipe for failure. The album got a lukewarm reception from critics, and a damning combination of trepidation and apathy from fans. It sold well below Elektra's expectations and, after giving somewhere between slim and none promotion for 1995's Stomp 424, they were relieved of their major label duties.

Sound Of White Noise deserved a better fate than it got; thankfully, time has taken away the stigma of failure. And, as it turns out, the album holds up remarkably well. Is it an undeniable classic? Maybe, maybe not. Is it deserving of commemoration? I absolutely think so, not so much for the music (though I stress that it's quite good and totally holds up) but to remember its origins and hopefully learn an important lesson about preconceptions, assumptions and expectations.

Listen to Sound Of White Noise here.
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