Worship Music 2011

"After two turbulent decades and plenty of downs and disappointments, the 'Thrax is back in full force with "Worship Music", a beast of a metal album, and perhaps their best release since "The Persistence of Time". Having operated within groove and alternative metal territory (with a couple of heavier things, too) in the John Bush era, Anthrax have returned to a more melodic thrash oriented style which is very similar to their classic 80s albums. Thus, Anthrax bombard the listener with crushing thrash riffs and fast drums intermingled with more melodic and traditional heavy metal elements, and, while this album represents a return to the band's traditional metal and thrash metal roots, Anthrax have not completely abandoned the alternative groove metal that they experimented with in the 90s, and there are a couple of very groovy passages which fit perfectly into the overall sound of "Worship Music". The album starts out with a solemn atmospheric intro called 'Worship', which is abruptly interrupted by the chaotic, noise-accompanied blastbeat that is the introduction to 'Earth on Hell' - and the thrash-fest starts. 'Earth on Hell', 'The Devil You Know', and 'Fight 'em 'til You Can't' are primarily uptempo rockers, with "Earth on Hell" and 'Fight 'em...' being melodic thrashers and 'The Devil You Know' being more of a traditional metal tune. 'I'm Alive' is more akin to the Bush-era alternative metal style of Anthrax and is based on some pretty cool riffs, while Joey Belladonna adds a melodic aspect above and beyond what could be heard on Anthrax's output in the 90s. 'Hymn 1' is a dark and almost intense cello-intermezzo which is followed by the heavy riff-ladden "In the End" which draws on thrash metal, power metal and traditional metal and contains a passage with the same sort of drive as in 'Belly of the Beast'. 'The Giant' speeds things up and has the same sort of intensity heard on "Persistence of Time", which is neatly balanced by its melodic rock-ish chorus. After 'Hymn 2' which is a snare drum solo of sorts, 'Judas Priest' kicks in and delivers delivers the goods in the form crushingly solid metal riffs galore. 'Crawl' is is an Alice in Chains-tinged affair, while 'The Constant' combines Southern groove with the characteristic 80s Anthrax melodic thrash sound, and the solid 'Revolution Screams' is a multifacetted tracks with lots of changes and impressions going on. The musicianship is top notch across the board: Scott Ian's rhythm guitars are crushing and precise, while Rob Caggiano's guitar solos are multifacetted, combining both melodic leads and shredding, and the Bello-Benante rhythm section is as rock solid as a really solid rock. The highlight for me is the return of Joey Belladonna, though, and, while he does not hit the same high notes as he did on the 80s releases (his singing style is more akin to his performance on "Persistence of Time", his performance adds both power and melody to the overall sound on the album is a manner that no other vocalist can, and his voice is just as integral a part of the Anthrax sound as the guitars and bass and drums are, and he proves that his voice fits both melodic thrash metal and groove metal. 'Thrax is back and, combining the best of the power-thrashing 80s with the best of the groovy 90s, they have committed what I think is their best album in more than fifteen years, and "Worship Music" is both retrospective and prospective at the same time. It's a riff-fest. It's a melody-fest. It's a thrash-fest. It's a groove-fest. It's Anthrax! (review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"