When Anthrax made this album in the mid to late 1980's, it's easy to forget just how little thrash metal had already been made.
We had Slayer, Megadeth, Voivod, Nuclear Assault, and Metallica - and of course Anthrax - though it was still a fairly new genre in music.
Anthrax's first album, ... Read review
Among The Living - Anthrax
If Metallica and Slayer invented speed metal, Anthrax brought it to the East Coast and ... more
imbued it with the attitude and excitement of New York hardcore.Among The Livingis their finest hour--a roaring, adrenaline-pumped collection of flailing beats, prec...
Among The Living - Anthrax
If Metallica and Slayer invented speed metal, Anthrax brought it to the East Coast and ... more
imbued it with the attitude and excitement of New York hardcore. Among The Living is their finest hour--a roaring, adrenaline-pumped collection of flailing beats, pr...
A review by chaosmongers on Among The Living - Anthrax March 5th, 2005
Author's product rating:
Originality
Groundbreaking
Lyrics
Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks
A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases
Outstanding
Value for Money
Excellent
Advantages:
80's thrash at it's best
Disadvantages:
production
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
When Anthrax made this album in the mid to late 1980's, it's easy to forget just how little thrash metal had already been made.
We had Slayer, Megadeth, Voivod, Nuclear Assault, and Metallica - and of course Anthrax - though it was still a fairly new genre in music.
Anthrax's first album, the lacklustre and totally generic 'FISTFULL OF METAL' offered very little new from the usual American metal of the day. The subsequent album 'SPREADING THE DISEASE' however, with it's line-up change and new vocalist, showed an originality, speed, and indeed humour, in metal songwriting that promised so much, especially for future albums.
AMONG THE LIVING, signalled Anthrax's departure from being an underground cult metal band on an independent label, to semi-mainstream metal, newly signed with ISLAND RECORDS. And whilst the slightly politically incorrect lyrics of the former album's classic 'Madhouse' were not carried on with this release, the band, to it's credit, maintained it's integrity by producing an album of exactly what they wanted to do - not what a major label dictated.
This album features it all - Speed and thrashing guitars on "Imitation of life" and "Caught in a mosh", combined with socially aware and political comment, on tracks like, "Indians", "Skeletons in the Closet", and "One World"
Not to be known as an 'un-fun' band though, their humour shows through with the 2000AD inspired "I AM THE LAW", (which along with Indians, were released as singles).
The title track, is also inspired by the classic Steven King book 'THE STAND".
If there's anything bad about this record, is that the production sounds a little weak. Frank Bello's bass sounds twangy and quiet, and can barely be heard in parts of the record where he isn't playing solo.
I kind of can't help wishing that this album had been produced by Rick Rubin (of Slayer's Reign in Blood fame) - if only to bring out the tightness and technical merit of the songs.
An important album in the scheme of things, and maybe perhaps a swansong for Anthrax, who showed so much promise - perhaps peaked just a bit too early. Yes, Anthrax made many more records after this, but only this, and SPREADING THE DISEASE, are what you'd call 'MUST HAVE' albums that made a real mark on the history of metal.
Album Notes: Anthrax: Joe Belladonna (vocals); Dan Spitz (acoustic & electric guitars); Scott Ian (guitar); Frank Bello (bass); Charlie Benante (drums). When Anthrax released AMONG THE LIVING in 1987, the band was a part of a then-burgeoning heavy metal sub-genre called speed or thrash metal. This was an inversion of glam metal. The band members wore worn-out jeans and T-shirts, their long hair was hairspray-free, and not a smudge of make-up was applied to their unsightly mugs. Their music was dense, borrowing speed from punk and hardcore and mammoth guitar riffing from metal, and featured thought-provoking lyrics. AMONG THE LIVING not only served as Anthrax's commercial breakthrough, but (along with seminal releases by Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer) the album brought this new musical form to the forefront. The members of Anthrax were a bunch of comic-book-reading, jam-wearing heavy metal fans from NYC, and the music reflects the lifestyle. The band based it's U.K. Top-30 hit single "I Am the Law" on a favorite comic-book character (Judge Dread). "Imitation Of Life," a song about phony people that contains one of thrash metal's strongest riffs, was pointedly directed at '80s glam metal bands. The frantic "Caught In A Mosh" is an album highlight, as are "Indians" (which deals with the plight of the Native American), "N.F.L.," "Skeletons In The Closet," and the title track.
Titles on disc 1
1.: Among The Living
2.: Caught In A Mosh
3.: I Am The Law
4.: Efilnikufesin (NFL)
5.: Skeleton In The Closet
6.: Indians
7.: One World
8.: ADI Horror Of It All
9.: Imitation Of Life
Ciao
Listed on Ciao since : 05/03/2005
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