OK, I'll leave the kiddie pool and go back the grown-up table, so long.

Yeah, they were, but they are as catchy and mid-paced much like Anthrax is, err... was.

Are you one of those metalheads who takes himself incredibly seriously?

That's...tragic.

And...so is your face, haha.

I admit I haven't heard the stuff after Annihilation Principle, except maybe a track or two. Worth checking out?

I think Laaz Rockit just wasn't as consistent as songwriters as I prefer for thrash. That's my main beef. They seemed to latch onto the Bay Area thrash scene around them but didn't necessarily have the song to back it up.

Laaz Rockit is one of the better thrash bands from the period, and their 1987 album (too tired to remember the name) is their best by far, and gives Among the Living a run for its money.

I strongly disagree. Lääz Rockit being a second-tier thrash act has nothing to do with their sound. They are in the same league of subgenre style as Anthrax, while being way more enjoyable, however, both bands are really catchy. Lääz Rockit continued to get faster as their career went forward. Anthrax just became more commercial.

Know Your Enemy was my first introduction to the band, and still my favorite.

I'll check out post Annihilation sometime soon. You got me curious about it now. Annihilation is probably my favorite because it was my introduction to the band in 1989 or 1990, whenever I first got that cassette. I didn't hear any of their other albums until sometime in the past couple of years, so there's almost 20 years of changed perspective that colors my opinions.

I don't think Anthrax necessarily became more commercial. Mainstream tastes tended to veer towards a heavier sound in the 90s.

Shame on me, but I never listened anything by Laaz Rockit, will check'em out right now!!!!

XD
that's sig worthy

Nothing'$ $acred certainly !

Yeah, Vio-Lence, Exodus AND Anthrax.

Will do.

Anthrax are a lot of fun. I was absolutely stoked to see them with Belladonna a few years back, definitely one of the most enjoyable shows I've been to.

I saw them in 1998 with John Bush and it was a blast. What I liked was the fact that although they were obviously past their prime and playing to a smaller audience, they really seemed stoked to be playing a concert and having a great time. I would have liked to have seen them around 1989 or 1990 or the more recent go around with Joe Belladonna, but I have warm memories of the one time I did see them.

I love all there old stuff up to including Sound of White Noise. I didnt come back to them until We've come for You all,which was okay. Old stuff, love it

Fistful of Metal is the best one, I think. When they made darker sounding music, it turned out well but they always had that habit of injecting too much humour and lightheartedness for my taste.

See, I feel the opposite about the darker sounding music. I always felt like the humor and lightheartedness was more natural to Anthrax and the attempts to sound harder and darker were a bit forced. While I think it's a good album, I felt like the seriousness and darker sounds of Persistence of Time more of a reaction to the criticism the band recieved due to their "shorts and comic books" image and to State of Euphoria rather than a natural evolution of the band and their sound.

What does anyone think of Scott Ian's guitar skills? I am getting tired of always seeing him on VH1 but is he a good songwriter? He is obviously the face of the band.

Superb. nobody sounds/plays like Scott and vise versa.
Whether you like their music or not, the man has his staple sound. Period!

Ok. My next question to anybody who cares to chime in is how would you compare 80's 'Thrax to Nuclear Assault?

Worlds apart obviously... Nuclear Assault were much 'noisier', especially live. Anthrax were the better musicians but N.A. were faster and more aggressive, their two styles of thrash sounded very different except for maybe both their debut albums which still had a lot of speed metal in them.

Scott's a good guitarist. I think he's a bit underrated since he's not a lead player and the focus almost always tends to be on the lead guitarist. I don't know how to qualify him as a songwriter since I believe Charlie actually writes most of the music. I think Scott just writes the lyrics (or split the writing with John Bush during the Bush years).

I think him and Henry Rollins have a clause in their contracts that say they must appear on every show about any band ever.

But as far as Scott Ian's guitar playing goes: he's a solid of a rhythm player as anyone I can think of. There are obviously many guitarists with better technical skills, but he definitely provides an unshakable foundation for Anthrax and deserves respect for it.

I don't think that people who wasn't around the metal scene in the 80s
can understand how important Anthrax were...

When I read that Anthrax are "comercial" just makes me laugh, ridiculous...

There's no doubt that Among The Living was one of the most innovative
albums of the 80s, as it was all their attitude, the "do what you like" thing.
Not to mention that moshing was popularized at their expenses, as
it's something that originated from the hardcore scene, which was close
to their hearts being from NY and all. At least I don't remember anyone
moshing to early Iron Maiden when I saw them in the early/mid 80s.

As I said, only who was around can understand properly, though my
opinion is bias, I admit to be a Anthrax fanatic from the Fistful of Metal
and Belladonna era...
Nowadays I think they only play with their wifes... at least Scott Ian.

worst band of the big four.

Easily. I think there should only be a "Big 3" really. I think Sepultura should take take their place among the "Big 4" to be honest despite them being a Brazilian band. They defected and made a name for themselves when they came to the States anyways.

Nope, Megadeth as far as I'm concerned. No Megadeth album comes even close to Spreading The Disease & Among The Living i.m.o.
It all comes down down to personal taste. And besides, all Big-4 turned shit during the nineties.

exactly what I think about it a lot of the time. Whenever there's some Anthrax bashing and trivialising going on and I check the profiles of those making the boldest negative statements, they're always under 30 with a few exceptions. Only a few.
I guess for metalheads who did not grow up with metal in the eighties but the nineties (or later..) and can only experience the eighties albums through 'archaeology', Anthrax doesn't appeal to most of them for some obscure reason. Maybe it's because the scene had turned somewhat grim and suffers even more from dogma's the last decade...? who knows.

Not judging anyone here, just mentioning an observation...

To everyone who's bitching about who should/shouldn't have been a part of the big four: Why the fuck take it seriously? It never had any purpose anyway, except that in the early 80's (?) those bands of the big four were way more populair.

In my opinion, Metallica were the worst of the big four, but in my opinion all big four bands released some nice material in the 80's, except for Metallica who wrote some decent songs here and there.

My favourite album(s) by the big four bands:

Anthrax - ''Fistful of Metal'', ''Spreading the Disease'' and ''Among the Living.''

Megadeth - ''Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?'' and ''Rust in Peace''.

Metallica - None really, just some great songs such as ''The Four Horseman'', ''Ride the Lightning'', ect.

Slayer - ''Show no Mercy'' and ''Hell Awaits''.

Oh and one more thing: if you're hating Anthrax because they're not thrashy enough, get fucked, Anthrax were never meant to be full of riffs, they're not Testament who were suppose to, but lacked quality riffs.

Call of Ktulu was Metallica's best song. How could you miss that one? But that one owes alot to Dave's time in the band.

I just gave some examples of Metallica's good/better songs. If Dave never was in Metallica, I'm sure albums like ''Kill Em' All'' and ''Ride the Lightning'' would have sounded pretty different.

I would expect exactly that because that's the demographic of this forum.



I don't really think that it is more dogmatic than it used to be. Any time there is a some sort of community there is some group-think going on. It just seems as if the dogma is different.

How anyone can say Anthrax is the worst of the "big 4" is beyond me. You can't really ask for much more of a perfect album than Spreading the Disease, which is easily my favorite album of any of the big 4 bands.

I think alot of listeners just dislike Belladonna's vocal style, and I can understand where they're coming from if all they have heard is Among the Living. There's kind of a shift from Spreading the Disease, where Joey's melodic wailing fits perfect with the almost NWOBHM/speed inspired songwriting, and Among the Living, where you can tell they are going for a more aggressive approach but Joey's delivery isn't quite there yet (unlike the next album, where I think he's spot on mostly. See Be All, End All verses). To me, Among the Living has always been about the riffs and not only are the riffs good, they are damn good!

I've always hated the concept of the Big 4 because it uniformly seemed to trivialize all of the other American thrash bands who put out a fair share of solid music. I've always believed that Overkill outclassed most of those bands in terms of 80s output, and completely outclassed all of them in terms of total career output. Nonetheless, I think that "Spreading The Disease", "Show No Mercy" and "Peace Sells" were signature classics and that "Ride The Lightning" wasn't too far behind.

i wouldnt really consider them crossover. they definetly sound kinda like it though. one thing for certain is that they rock. i love "caught in a mosh" its awesome

I can agree with that. I think it's common for most true metal heads to refer to the big 4 bands as such, but only because it's usage is so widespread, even though they most likely prefer (or at least agree that there are still) other great thrash bands from the 80's.

STRONGLY DISAGREE.

if i'm surprised by anything in this thread, i'm surprised by the fact that so many people like anthrax. yes, i'm 23, and i know about all the thrash via "archeology" like someone mentioned earlier. that doesn't change the fact that anthrax has no appeal when they're compared to the better bands of that era. you're gonna hate me for this, but even modern bands like municipal waste blows them out of the water.

Having grown up in the 80s, I can without any doubt that Anthrax is one of the dullest bands.

The vocals are mediocre at best. I find them plain annoying. The lyrics are just goofy. The music is nothing special.

As far as the big 4 go, I would but Testament in 4th place waaaaaay before Anthrax. Actually, I would put Possessed above all 4, but they were relatively unknown outside of CA in the early 80's.