Caught In A Mosh

I have to admit that I wasn't knocked out by Anthrax when I first heard of them back in the day (which means the 80s.) At the time I thought they were a little too punk, a little too heavy, a little too silly, a little too rap-y, and their singers voice was a little too high. But what I really missed out on was how great their songs were. I rediscovered Anthrax when they released The Greater of Two Evils, a live in the studio re-recording of many of their earlier songs done by the then-current lineup featuring John Bush on vocals. It was only then I realized what I'd been missing and how good this band really was.

Anthrax was formed in mid-1981 by guitarists Scott Ian Rosenfeld and Danny Lilker. The band was named after the disease the two saw listed in a biology textbook, using it because it sounded sufficiently evil. The initial line-up of Anthrax was rounded out by drummer Dave Weiss and bassist Kenny Kushner. Kushner was soon replaced by bassist Paul Kahn, who also was quickly ousted. Lilker chose to take over on bass and Greg Walls joined as lead guitarist. Weiss was replaced by Greg D'Angelo early on as well. The vocalist position was auditioned for by the band's roadie John Connelly and Scott Ian's younger brother Jason Rosenfeld before vocalist Neil Turbin joined the band in August 1982. This line-up made frequent live performances in the New York/New Jersey tri-state area. Anthrax and Metallica played on the same bill also many times. Greg Walls left in the summer of 1983, and  Bob Berry, who was recommended to Turbin by Rhett Forrester of Riot, temporarily replaced him on guitar. Berry's stay was short and he was replaced by Dan Spitz who had previously been with New Jersey thrash band Overkill. In September, Charlie Benante replaced Greg D'Angelo on drums.After recording a couple of demos and a single , Anthrax recorded their debut album Fistful of Metal in late 1983 and released in January 1984, followed by a US tour.

The term "Thrash Metal" was first referred to by the music press while making a reference to the Anthrax song "Metal Thrashing Mad". Prior to this Metallica's James Hetfield referred to their sound as Speed or Power Metal, while Anthrax then started to refer to their music as Thrash Metal. Tensions between Danny Lilker and the rest of the band arose due to Lilker's lateness, sloppiness and unprofessional demeanor. Lilker was released from the band and he went on to form Nuclear Assault with former roadie John Connelly. He was replaced by Charlie Benante's nephew Frank Bello. In August 1984, vocalist Neil Turbin was fired from the band. Matt Fallon (who later preceded Sebastian Bach as vocalist for Skid Row) was a temporary replacement. The band also appeared as a four-piece billed as The Diseased, with Scott Ian on vocals. They performed a few hardcore punk covers.

Vocalist Joey Belladonna was chosen as the new singer and the band recorded an EP titled Armed and Dangerous including two live tracks from early 1984, and the two songs from the "Soldiers of Metal" 7" single. Later in 1985, Ian, Benante and Danny Lilker collaborated with vocalist Billy Milano to produce the satirical album Speak English or Die under the band name Stormtroopers of Death.

Anthrax's next album, Spreading the Disease, came out in the same year and was followed by US and European touring in 1986. Their first major tour was with Black Sabbath, but with only one original member in its line-up at the time (guitarist Tony Iommi), plus singer Glenn Hughes's voice problems, the tour was cancelled after only four dates. In April 1986, Anthrax attempted their first tour of Europe, which was immediately cancelled after the Chernobyl disaster. Later that year, they attempted to tour Europe again with Metallica, but after the bus accident that claimed  Metallica bassist Cliff Burton's life that tour also was cancelled.

The follow-up album Among the Living developed the band's humorous and more experimental side. Anthrax radically departed from the "traditional" heavy metal look in favour of brightly colored "surfer" jam shorts and lyrics that focused on movies, comic books and Stephen King novels. "I Am the Law" is a tribute to comic book hero Judge Dredd. "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)" ("nise fukin life" spelled backwards) is about comedian John Belushi's drug addiction and death. "Indians" and the mosh pit anthem "Caught in a Mosh" are still considered Anthrax classics today. The album was dedicated to the memory of Cliff Burton. "I Am the Law" was issued as a single, backed with "I'm the Man", a song that combined rap with metal.

Anthrax stuck to its thrash metal formula on the 1988 album State of Euphoria. The single "Antisocial" soon became a staple on MTV in regular rotation as well as on Headbangers Ball. The group continued to expand its horizons by touring the US with Funk/Metal band Living Colour. In 1989, MTV held a contest in which the winner would get to have the band come to their home and trash it. This was the inspiration for the band's 1992 appearance on Married... with Children, where the main characters of the show win a similar television contest.

In 1990, Anthrax released the more serious Persistence of Time to even greater success than State of Euphoria. The album was considerably darker, more technical and progressive than Anthrax's previous work. This struck a chord with metal fans who had been previously wary of embracing the band because of their silly side.

During 1991 they collaborated with pioneering rap artists Public Enemy on a version of "Bring the Noise". This was a hit, and the band played a successful  tour with Public Enemy. The EP Attack of the Killer B's was recorded during 1991, featuring a new version of "I'm the Man" and a cover of "Bring the Noise" on which Scott Ian did some of the vocals. A short time later during 1992, Joey Belladonna was fired from Anthrax.

Belladonna was replaced by John Bush, formerly of the then-recently disbanded Armored Saint. Ten years earlier, Bush had been approached by Metallica to sing for them. Though it was quite a change from their earlier work with a dark, rockier feel, Sound of White Noise received mostly positive reviews and "Only" was a major hit. In keeping with the band's eye for unlikely collaborations, classical composer Angelo Badalamenti provided music for the track "Black Lodge," a tribute to the TV show Twin Peaks. Importantly, the album demonstrated that Anthrax had at last shed its sometimes cartoonish outlook in favor of mature, thoughtful songwriting.

 In 1995, the band released Stomp 442, and longtime guitarist Dan Spitz left the band leaving Anthrax officially a quartet for 2 years. On the album Charlie Benante played much of the lead guitar parts, assisted by Paul Crook – who would become the band's touring lead guitarist for several years – and Dimebag Darrell from Pantera. The record company refused to provide real promotion for the album and it quickly disappeared without a trace.

The 1998 release Volume 8: The Threat Is Real once again saw Benante playing lead guitar alongside Crook and Dimebag. Pantera's Phil Anselmo also guested. Unfortunately, almost immediately after the album's release, the band's record label went bankrupt and disappeared, making the album difficult to find. Regrouping, the band signed with a new label and released the greatest-hits album Return of the Killer A's, although that record label went out of business as well. During this period, a two-vocalist tour featuring both Joey Belladonna and John Bush was proposed and set to go, until Belladonna pulled out at the last minute.

During the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, the band altered its website to provide information about the disease after people began simply typing anthrax.com into their browsers. Amid what could have become a PR nightmare for the band, Anthrax issued a press release that jokingly mentioned that they were going to change the name of the band to something more friendly, like "Basket Full of Puppies". They later sank all name-change rumors at the New York Steel 9/11 benefit concert when they took the stage wearing boiler suits that spelled out the sentence "WE'RE NOT CHANGING OUR NAME". 

Despite the hardships and legal entanglements regarding who had the rights to certain albums, Anthrax managed to continue. New lead guitarist Rob Caggiano joined and the band released We've Come for You All —an album hailed by the metal press as a return to form. In early 2004, the band returned to the studio to record The Greater of Two Evils—a "live in the studio" re-recording of the band's early work with the then-current lineup. Shortly afterward, bassist Frank Bello announced he was leaving the band to join Helmet and was replaced for touring purposes by Fates Warning and Armored Saint member Joey Vera.

On April 1, 2005, the band announced that the "classic" lineup of Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, Dan Spitz, Joey Belladonna, and Frank Bello would be reforming. On some dates of the resultant tour, they performed Among the Living in its entirety for the first time. At the conclusion of the tour, it was expected the reformed line-up would begin a new album, but Joey Belladonna elected to leave the group.

John Bush was approached about rejoining the group at the time but he declined, possibly due to hard feelingsw about being pushed out of the group in favor of Belladonna. In December of 2007, it was announced the band's new vocalist would be Dan Nelson, formerly of Devilsize. Around the same time, it was confirmed that Rob Caggiano would return as lead guitarist.

 The band began work on an album with Nelson on vocals and played several shows over the next year and a half until Nelson was abruptly released from the band. The band reunited with John Bush, who had mixed feelings reguarding the reunion. He was not comfortable simply re-recording Nelson's vocal parts for the new record since he had no involvement in writting any of the material. Bush ultimately decided that he did not want to commit to the band full-time, and was out of Anthrax by early 2010. Joey Belladonna returned to Anthrax for shows in the summer of 2010 as well as committing to the band for Worship Music

On January 4, 2013, Anthrax announced that lead guitarist Rob Caggiano had left the band. A week later, it was announced that Jonathan Donais of Shadows Fall would become the band's touring lead guitarist, and subsequently Donais has become an official member of the band.

On March 19 in North America and March 22 in Europe, the band released the Anthems ep, which includes covers of 1970s rock bands, including Rush, Cheap Trick, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Boston and Journey

You can purchase Anthrax music from our online store or by clicking the album titles in yellow in the above article.