While “Fistfull of metal” put “Anthrax” as a tiny dot in the sea of thrash metal bands, it wasn’t until the departure of Neil Turbin and their second album “Spreading the disease” until “Anthrax” found their own stamp that will shape the band for decades to come.
A few days after the release of their debut album “Fistfull of metal” then vocalist Neil Turbin settled a personal beef with bassist and lead songwriter Dan Lilker, a childhood friend of Scott Ian. Turbin fired Lilker over the phone, with the rest of the band confirming his departure with the thought of they’ll more likely to find a new bassist then a new frontman. Charlie Benante’s cousin Frank Bello, who was a tech/roady of the band and part of the crew, auditioned for the role at the behest of his cousin. Bello’s inclusion changed the dynamic of the band with Neil Turban being described as “my way or the highway” guy imposing a certain look for the band and isolating himself from the rest when given pushback. While on the USA tour with “Raven” Ian, Benante, Spitz and Bello, decided to fire Turbin from the band with his last show being a hometown gig in the “Roseland ballroom” with “Raven” and “Metallica” who was added later, selling out the 3.500 tickets for the gig.
After the tour, “Anthrax” with two of the five members who recorded the debut album, out of the band, needed to come up with a new way of creating the songs, as Turban and Lilker were the two main songwriters on the album. Scot Ian stepped up as the main lyricist, while Benante was in charge of the music as he would come up with material. As the band had all the material ready, they traveled to Ithaca, New York to record the record while still searching for the singer. Luckly, the produced Carl Canedy new of one such a singer from a certain cover band “Black bible” called Joey Belladona. Johnny Z from “Megaforce” records called Belladona, who had no idea who “Anthrax” was with no indication of the bands style and what the job was. Belladona flew to Ithaca and after the band heard him warming up, decided to hire him on the spot. Impressed with Belladona’s vocal duties, as it was his vocals that set apart “Anthrax” from the rest of the thrash metal bands in the 80’s. In order to introduce Belladona to the “Anthrax” crowd and vice-versa, the band decided to take a pause from the recording sessions and do a two week tour run and release a new EP called “Armed and dangerous”.
After hearing a ruff mix of “Spreading the disease” both Benante and Ian felt that the record was missing something. As a lyricist Ian was mostly writing about what he knew, as a 21 year old man from urban New York that was mostly into comic books and horror films, it was mostly about comic books and horror films, but he also wasn’t blind to the social commentary that was surrounding him at the time. While social commentary was mostly prevalent in their next album “Among the living”, the band recorded an additional song “A.I.R.” and put it as the first song on the album.
“Spreading the disease” put “Anthrax” on the musical map of the world, a bridge between metal and punk, with unique vocals treated like a separate instrument, that separated them from the rest of the thrash metal scene, as they were more technical and more melodic. Slash from “Guns and Roses” credits the muted picking on the album to influencing his own way of playing, while Andreas Kisser credits the album for changing the musical style of “Sepultura” from death metal to them finding their own style. Robert Trujillo from “Metallica” and “Suicidal tendencies” fame was impressed by the band’s stage presence and movement which influenced him and his way of playing and stage movement. Live performances of “Anthrax” gathered even established musicians such as Gene Simmons who liked the band a lot more after seeing them live describing the experience as “an assault, physically and sonically”.
While some of the members changed during the years, with Dan Spitz leaving the band in 1995, Joey Belladona being replaced by John Bush of “Armored saint” fame in 1992, and the lyrics changing as the band grew older, the way “Anthrax” maps out the riffs and solo parts, as well as lyrics, never changed much from the “Spreading the disease”.
As part of their European tour, “Anthrax” will play their first headlining show in Serbia this Friday, 29th of May, at open air corner at Luka Beograd with “Quasarborn” and “Nadimač” courtesy of “Strangefear”.
Tickets are still available for the price of 5.700 RSD online through Cooltix
