Published on Jun 1, 1999
It’s amazing, sometimes, when I walk through the Pierce Memorial
Archives and discover all these albums I once couldn’t (or
wouldn’t) take off the turntable or out of the CD player – albums
that have all collected a layer of dust, through no fault of their
own.
I had the chance to re-discover one of these albums, Anthrax’s
1987 classic
Among The Living, while nervously awaiting a call from
guitarist Scott Ian for an interview. (True story.) While I waited
for the phone to ring, I popped this disc in the CD boombox for the
first time in several years, and let the music take over me.
While this album was the one that turned Ian and crew into
bonafide superstars of speed metal, there are portions that have
not held up as well over time as one would hope they would have.
And while
Among The Living is still a marginally excellent album, it
has developed a few wrinkles over the past 12 years.
The band – Ian, lead singer Joey Belladonna, lead guitarist Dan
Spitz, bassist Frank Bello and drummer Charlie Benante, caused many
a jaw to scrape the pavement when this album first came out. I
still remember hearing the all-out power of the opening bridge to
the title track, wondering how Benante could play as fast as he
was, and happily slamming my head into my bedroom wall to the song.
(My parents say there are still dents in the wall that no amount of
spackle can fix.)
Among The Living is best remembered for a number of things.
First, with the song “I Am The Law,” Anthrax brought to many
people’s attention the undergorund comic strip character Judge
Dredd – though after Sylvester Stallone’s portrayal, one might
wonder if that was such a hot idea. Second, Belladonna and crew
showed the beginning of their crusade for social justice with
“Indians,” a track that opened up the eyes of many metalheads to
the plight of the original Americans. Third, they helped promote
Steven King’s works through the title track (based on
The Stand‘s Randall Flagg) and “A Skeleton In The Closet”
(from the short story
Apt Pupil).
Most importantly, they became one of the most popular speed
metal bands of their genre, ranking up there with Metallica, Slayer
and Megadeth. While their previous album
Spreading The Disease helped make people aware of the band,
Among The Living made them superstars.
All of this is fine and dandy as a history lesson, but how does
Among The Living hold up in 1999? Certain tracks, such as
“Among The Living,” “Indians,” “I Am The Law” and, to an extent,
“Imitation Of Life,” all have retained the pure power that they had
from day one – not an easy thing to do in a genre where it’s very
difficult to sound fresh even a year after the album comes out.
Unfortunately, some tracks do show signs of weakness. “Caught In
A Mosh” is still a fun song to listen to, but it remains trapped in
the ’80s and the “moshing is fun” mindframe. (Never mind the fact
it is still going on in concerts today.) “One World” and “A
Skeleton In The Closet” are the weakest tracks of the bunch; the
former doesn’t have enough lyrical development, the latter not
enough musical development.
Possibly the “diamond in the rough” on
Among The Living is “A.D.I. / Horror Of It All,” a track
that starts out with an acoustic guitar build, and evolves into an
intelligent, plodding track before finally exploding into a thrash
attack to hammer its message home.
While
Among The Living remains Anthrax’s most popular album to
date, and while I still think it’s a very enjoyable album that
belongs in any respectable metal CD collection, there is one other
Anthrax album that is nearer and dearer to my heart… and we’ll
talk about that one at a later date.