Anthrax – Sound Of White Noise
What better way to start this blog off, than with one of my all-time favorite albums? Seriously, this album kicks all kinds of ass. Fresh from the departure of Joey Belladonna, and with the addition of John Bush on vocal duties, Anthrax was one of a very few bands who successfully “upgraded” their sound in the early nineties.
Gone were the songs about comic book heroes and Stephen King novels, as well as their rap/metal crossovers (it always pisses me off when people say rap metal appeared in the late 90′s, with Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. “I’m The Man” came out in 1987, people!). This was “serious” Anthrax.
When a friend bought this album and we listened to it, I was blown away. From the white noise fade-in intro to “Potter’s Field” to the white noise fade-out of “This Is Not An Exit”, there is hardly a moment on the album I don’t like. Tracks like “Only”, Room For One More”, Hy Pro Glo” and “Invisible” (as well as the aforementioned “Potter’s Field”) can be easily marked as stand-out tracks, but make no mistake, every song on this album is awesome.
Lyric-wise, there are a few items that have “spoken” to me in different periods of my life (this has also happened with later albums – not so much with “Spreading The Disease”). This maturity is part, I think, of what made Anthrax an even better band than it had been.
This would be the last album with a consistent line-up. When Dan Spitz left the band (to pursue a career in watch-making, of all things), the band became a revolving door of musicians.
“Sound Of White Noise” was the first album in an Anthrax trilogy that will always rank very high in my music collection. Here’s the video for “Hy Pro Glo”.
The Iceberg.
