Having spent my delicate early teenage years in the original thrash era, ANTHRAX were not only my musical heroes at the time, but their feel-good riff-o-ramas hit the soft spot in my heart so prominently that even during my prog-leaning music-snobbery phase a little bit later on, their classic albums were one of my guilty pleasures about which I kept very hush-hush in certain circles. Then again, their three-album run from the genre-defining “Among the Living” (1987) and through “State of Euphoria” (1988) right up to “Persistence of Time” (1990) was such a royal flush of metal-thrashing madness that it remains practically unrivalled when it comes to their sheer volume of bangers. However, when the band’s original vocalist, Joey Belladonna, was replaced by John Bush (ex-ARMORED SAINT) in 1992, I lost all interest in the band’s music. I guess I was being slightly melodramatic about it, but hey! I was eighteen, for fuck’s sake! About a million years and several lineup changes later, in 2011, the band returned to form with their critically acclaimed “comeback” album, “Worship Music,” featuring Belladonna back on vocals. Of course, I had already drifted too far away from the thrash-metal scene to even notice. When the band came through again with their next offering, “For All Kings,” released on February 26th, 2016, via Nuclear Blast in Europe and Megaforce in the U.S., it was too big a blast to remain unnoticed even by me. The question is: how do you rekindle a lost friendship with an old band you haven’t really connected with for aeons? Well, it sure fucking helps if the band is still firing on all cylinders!
The lineup on this album is practically as close to the classic ANTHRAX lineup as you could get. Their original lead guitarist, Dan Spitz, parted ways with the band back in 1995, and the lead guitar duties were eventually taken up by Rob Caggiano until, in 2013, he was replaced by new axe Jonathan Donais (SHADOW FALLS). Otherwise, it’s the legendary cast from those early classics – Belladonna on vocals, Frank Bello on bass, Charlie Benante on drums, and 33rd-degree rifflord Scott Ian on rhythm guitars. Thus, it’s no wonder why the album feels like a time warp to the glory days of thrash; those razor-sharp guitar riffs, sing-along vocals, and that frenetic energy – it’s all there, and then some! I reckon it helps with songwriting if you have chemistry with a triumvirate of bandmates you’ve known for, say, plus-forty years. Obviously, my high opinion of this endeavor was, and still is, every bit as biased as you could imagine for the said reasons, but “For All Kings” remains one of the best albums in the long ANTHRAX discography, and here’s my further elaborations as to why…
The album kicks off with a tight, vintage thrash anthem, “You Gotta Believe.” I guess the verb “kicks” is more than an apt word here. After my 20-something-year falling out with the band, the album opener felt like revisiting the very album that I first discovered from the band in a galaxy far, far away – “State of Euphoria,” released in 1988. You know the feeling – it’s like tumbling down through the cracks in time into a parallel universe where school kids still walk around in dirty sneakers, torn jeans, and DIY-thrash-vests. When it’s time for a guitar solo, the enchantment, or the time dilation effect, starts to wear off a little. I mean, back in the 1980s, the typical modus operandi with guitar solos was to show off how many silly little notes you could play in a given amount of measures, whereas Donais approaches his leads with a tad more contemporary mindset. I like it.
There are some further nuances, more or less subtle, that tip you off that this endeavor wasn’t released in the 1980s, on top of the modern production, of course. “Blood Eagle Wings” is unusually dark and experimental for an ANTHRAX track, and the lead single, “Breathing Lightning,” flirts with a catchy alternative sound, even. Then again, here’s a band that was one of the first metal acts to ever mix metal riffs with rap and hip-hop, so I wouldn’t say these novel touches were anything out of line. The overall vibe is that of a band paying homage to its roots while staying in touch with its immediate musical surroundings. These eleven new tracks are mostly high-octane bangers. There is only one song that feels slightly out of place – or simply misplaced; in comparison with the album’s monster riffers, the closer sounds almost underwhelming, but I guess that merely speaks for the instant-earworm quality of the other songs and not so much for the perceived lack of punch in “Zero Tolerance.” With the songs ordered somewhat differently, the feeling would probably be totally different. Ten out of eleven is still a damn good score! For me, this killer endeavor meant getting back in touch with my teenage heroes after a lengthy breakup, and in this respect, “For All Kings” feels like a twin to IRON MAIDEN‘s “Book of Souls” – a triumphant return to the band’s roots.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- You Gotta Believe
- A Monster at the End
- For All Kings
- Breathing Lightning
- Suzerain
- Evil Twin
- Blood Eagle Wings
- Defend Avenge
- All of Them Thieves
- This Battle Chose Us
- Zero Tolerance
Lineup
Joey Belladonna – vocals
Scott Ian – rhythm guitars, backing vocals
Jonathan Donais – lead guitars, backing vocals
Frank Bello – bass, backing vocals
Charlie Benante – drums, additional guitars, acoustic guitars
Label
Nuclear Blast
