Published on Feb 5, 2000
Sometimes, how I choose to review an album on these pages is a
strange process. Maybe it’s because I hear a certain song on the
radio or I watch a special on VH-1, and a fire is lit under me to
pull one of that artist’s albums out of the Pierce Memorial
Archive.
In the case of
Spreading The Disease, the 1985 major-label debut from
thrash metallers Anthrax, it came about because of an eBay auction
I won. I had bid on a lot of 10 tapes in the hopes of landing an
Overkill album I didn’t own (I’m
still trying to get my filthy little paws on
Feel The Fire), and a copy of
Spreading The Disease happened to be part of the bunch. It
also assured me that I didn’t have to go sorting through the vinyl
to find this album.
This disc was a transitional one in more ways than moving up
from an independent label for the band. Previous vocalist Neil
Turbin had been replaced by Joey Belladonna – a move which seemed
right for the band. (They also tested out the new line-up with an
EP,
Armed And Dangerous.)
But you can feel a little bit of uncertainty in the air of this
music, as the band – Belladonna, guitarists Scott “Not” Ian and Dan
Spitz, bassist Frank Bello and drummer Charlie Benante – tried to
find what niche the band belonged to in a musical field that was
starting to get crowded.
The first thing that strikes me about this album, even 15 years
after it first appeared, is that you can understand almost every
single word that Belladonna sings. It’s almost as if the band
decided that his vocals would be mixed to the forefront stronger
than many bands. What’s magical about this is that it doesn’t take
away any of the power from any of the other instruments.
The second thing that hits you is that Anthrax isn’t singing
anthems to demons or witty ditties about getting laid. If anything,
their music tended to make you think. Sure, there were moments of
abandon, even in the more cerebral songs, but here was a band
singing about Greek mythology (“Medusa”), positive thinking
(“S.S.C. / Stand Or Fall”) – and even about the Holocaust in a way
that left no doubt as to its horrors (“The Enemy”). It was a bold
move – and it works well.
Musically, Anthrax was just as capable as their thrash brothers
(Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer), even though their popularity was
never quite as high as the other named bands. Spitz whips out many
a tasty solo on this album, while Ian’s rhythm guitar work provides
a solid backbone (along with Bello’s bass riffs and Benante’s
powerful double-bass work).
Yet, in a sense,
Spreading The Disease seems like a disc whose full ambition
was left unfulfilled in a few ways. For every killer track like
“A.I.R.” there’s a song like “Aftershock” that doesn’t quite live
up to its potential, nor does it seem to fit in with the prevalent
songwriting motif. And, as stated before, Anthrax was still
discovering what they had in Belladonna – a discovery that would
manifest itself one album later on their breakthrough disc,
Among The Living.
By no means is
Spreading The Disease a bad album; I loved it when I first
bought it back around 1987, and I’m having a hard time taking it
out of my car’s cassette deck these days. It’s well worth your time
and effort, but in retrospect, it seems to be only a hint at what
was to come from this band.