ANTHRAX - SPREADING THE DISEASE
WHITE COATS TO BIND ME.
This album have been a bit controversial lately in this post-9/11 world. But it's rather dumb to retroactively blame a band for the name of their band and the title of the album. Anyhow, I'm a huge fan of Spreading the Disease, I think that this is the best album of the Joey Belladonna era that had just started. He appeared on the Armed and Dangerous but this was the first full-length studio album with Joey. Which was also the case for long time bassist Frank Bello that replaced Dan Lilker.
I think Anthrax peaked early on, their first three studio records are my favourites for sure. Spreading the Disease might be a bit in the shadows of Among the Living due to it being a multi-million selling album that had a lot of Anthrax biggest songs on it but I prefer Spreading the Disease. It's a little more underground and not as overplayed as Indians or Among the Living.
Anthrax recorded a music video for the song Madhouse, a weird little thing.
The intro track A.I.R. is legendary and I love the song "The Enemy", with the backing vocals when they shout out "Screams - In the night". Aftershock and Gung-ho are classic thrash songs too that needs mentioning, two of Anthrax's faster songs. A funny fact is that Jon Zazula (R.I.P.) wrote the lyrics on the song Medusa.
Joey Belladonna's vocal style is a bit odd for a thrash metal band, his approach is a bit more old school with his falsetto shrieks than your typical aggressive thrash vocals,I love Neil Turbin but Joey has become one of the most famous metal singers and deservingly so. His style of singing is a bit odd for a thrash band but when Joey delivers it's really impossible to resist Anthrax.
The band had grown quite a bit since Fistful of Metal, Spreading the Disease has more of a full thrash metal sound and the production value is higher this time around. The artwork looks more professional so it's quite safe to say that there's a bigger machine behind this Anthrax release than on 'Fistful'.
It's was a step forward for the band and their popularity grew very quickly, so much that they would cement their place in the big four of thrash, especially with their next studio album Among the Living. Spreading the disease is essential for every thrash metal fan to own. It's the stuff of legends.
Rating:
| INFO |
Label: Music For Nations Year: 1985 Country: U.S.A. Duration: 43:40 Tracks: 9 Genre: Thrash Metal Reviewer: Ruthless Rating: 5/5 | ||
| TRACKS | LINEUP | |
| Joey Belladonna - Vocals Scott Ian - Guitars Dan Spitz - Guitars Frank Bello - Bass Charlie Benante - Drums |
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