{"id":3884,"date":"2011-09-12T00:00:52","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T00:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=3884"},"modified":"2013-06-01T12:53:25","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T12:53:25","slug":"album-review-anthrax-worship-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-anthrax-worship-music\/","title":{"rendered":"ANTHRAX – Worship Music (2011) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANTHRAX
Worship Music<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNuclear Blast (2011)<\/span>
Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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After a lengthy series of setbacks, Anthrax returns in 2011 with Worship Music<\/em>. The album is the band\u2019s first to feature vocalist Joey Belladonna (who fronted the band during the height of their popularity) since 1990\u2019s Persistence Of Time<\/em>, an album long considered to be the band\u2019s seminal offering. Worship Music<\/em> was produced by the band as well as guitarist Rob Caggiano and Jay Ruston and was recorded over the last four years. <\/p>\n

Worship Music<\/em>\u2019s first proper song \u2018Earth On Hell\u2019 is a straightforward affair led by probably the best drumming of any Anthrax song ever and a snarling Joey Belladonna letting the world know that he means business this time around. The guitars are on fire, riffing away and coming dangerously close to the thrash sound they are most associated with. \u2018The Devil You Know\u2019 and \u2018Fight \u2019Em Till You Can\u2019t\u2019 continue the breakneck, riff-heavy metal that the album is forged around (which also includes \u2018Revolution Screams\u2019, the album\u2019s closer, and \u2018Judas Priest\u2019). Belladonna just tears it up like a man possessed, hitting every note with precision and passion, especially on the opening trio of songs. \u2018I\u2019m Alive\u2019 and \u2018The Giant\u2019 change the dynamic a bit, adding more groove and a darker feel to the big picture, reminding me a lot of the material on We\u2019ve Come For You All<\/em> (2003) and, to a lesser degree, Stomp 442<\/em> (1995). \u2018In the End\u2019 and \u2018Crawl\u2019 are of the more commercially viable (bright sounding, anthemic, and slightly more thought-provoking lyrically) variety that Anthrax fans have gotten used to over the last 20 years and sound as if they could have been extremely comfortable on We\u2019ve Come For You All<\/em>. \u2018The Constant\u2019 and \u2018Judas Priest\u2019 are the only real stinkers here and, really \u2018Judas Priest\u2019 isn\u2019t all that bad musically; it\u2019s just goofy to hear these guys acting like fanboys. <\/p>\n

With all the chaos at camp Anthrax over the last few years, it\u2019s kind of hard to listen to this album and stay objective. As a matter of fact, I\u2019m not sure it can be done with so many questions looming, the big ones being \u201cWhy was Joey Belladonna the band\u2019s third choice for a vocalist (and was Neil Turbin considered)?,\u201d \u201cWould they even have extended a hand to Belladonna had it not been for The Big Four shows?,\u201d and \u201cHow much of this album was actually written with Dan Nelson in mind?\u201d In the end, we\u2019ll likely never know and all we have to judge the band by is Worship Music<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Despite my annoyance with Anthrax\u2019s treatment of vocalists and the fact that I prefer the John Bush years, Worship Music<\/em> is a damn good album and a career-defining performance by Joey Belladonna. I hear a lot of people comparing this to Persistence Of Time<\/em> but it\u2019s a lot more straightforward sounding than that. As a matter of fact, I\u2019d say that this is the most balls out, straight metal album Anthrax have recorded to date. It\u2019s a logical follow-up to We\u2019ve Come For You All<\/em> and an excellent addition to any metal fans\u2019 collection. <\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANTHRAXWorship Music Nuclear Blast (2011)Rating: 7\/10 After a lengthy series of setbacks, Anthrax returns in 2011 with Worship Music. The album is the band\u2019s first to feature vocalist Joey Belladonna (who fronted the band during the height of their popularity) since 1990\u2019s Persistence Of Time, an album long considered to be the band\u2019s seminal offering. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthrax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3884"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11880,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3884\/revisions\/11880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}