Among The Living 1987

""Among the Living" is a thrash metal classic by Anthrax, one of the thrash metal giants.

From beginning to end, the album is full of high energy thrash metal tunes which emphasize speed and aggression, and fast killing monster riffage. There are some non-thrashy passages, too, such as the epic intro of"Among the Living", the clean guitar at the beginning of "A.D.I./THe Horror of it all" as well as the intro of "Indians" which reminds me a bit of a blend of Thin Lizzy's "Massacre" and "A Passage to Bangkok" by Rush. I should mention that "Indians" is probably one of my favorite Anthrax tracks (an-trax?), because it contains everything they are good at.

Anthrax were one of the few first generation thrash metal bands whose vocalist sang rather than screaming and shouting, and his high melodic vocals suit the music very well. While he generally sings in a higher register, he does show in several places that he is able to sing in a lower register, too, and I think he is probably a more versatile singer than John Bush (not that I have any problems with John Bush - it was when Bush was in the band, I first got into Anthrax).

This is a thrash metal classic and certainly belongs in any thrash metal collection. Power metal fans and some fans of traditional heavy metal might like it too.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"

"Among The Living is to me one of the finest thrash-metal achievements of the 80's, Anthrax really defined their sound on this one and it shows them at their creative peak, in my opinion. It avoids the risk of being boring and all songs have powerful and thrashy riffs (some of the genres best) with tight playing from the band. The title track remains one of my favorite metal songs of all time! Of what I know from them, Anthrax have yet to top this one."