Not!
For the weekend we'll take a break from the political stuff and discuss my latest CD acquisitons.
I've had an Anthrax jones of late, maybe due to Scott Ian's participation in the Supergroup show on VH-1, and I'm the Man has finally been added to my collection. Outside of Among the Living I think this is their finest work, even though 1/2 of it is comprised of three different versions of the same song, "I'm the Man." It's actually the other half of the CD, the excellent live renditions of "Caught in a Mosh" and "I Am the Law" plus a cover of Black Sabbath's "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," that make this worth having.
After realizing that with this CD I had almost everything they ever recorded with Joey Belladonna I went ahead and got the Armed and Dangerous EP and Attack of the Killer B's to round it out. (In a replay of the One from the Vault rip Armed and Dangerous just came in the mail and I got an Anthrax case with a Slayer CD inside. I can't believe a Slayer CD is in my home!)
In high school, when this stuff was quite popular, I had marginal tolerance for Metallica, disdained Megadeth, and Slayer wasn't even worth wiping my ass on. Only the I'm the Man EP from Anthrax got a thumbs up (I had Master of Puppets but more out of curiosity than anything). Much later on in my mid-20's when I was feeling frustrated at work I decided to give this stuff a chance and rounded up all of the pre-black album Metallica and Anthrax's four full-lengths with Belladonna. After you learn to take this stuff for what it was meant to be, stupid fun, it's actually quite all right. Anthrax is my favorite thrash band outside of Metallica.
I think my soft spot for Anthrax over Megadeth and Slayer exists because a good buddy of mine, who is no doubt lurking here right now, was a big Anthrax fan. He was from upstate New York, played drums and wore Bermuda shorts no matter what the weather, so I guess a drum-centric band from the same state who also favored Bermuda shorts was love at first sight for him. Turning on an Anthrax CD reminds me of the good times in his basement watching "Headbanger's Ball" on MTV and dreaming we could really be on there one day.
So I bought some Anthrax CD's lately.
Get "Metal Thrashing Mad!"
I dunno, they were proficient and didn't take themselves too seriously.