Whats wrong with Anthrax anyway?

[Don Gately]

Yeah that's a good point Anthrax have mixed it up quite successfully over the years. Slayer basically repeated themselves endlessly, Megadeth really struggled to find their niche and are all over the place since the mid 90s. Metallica became paralysed after Load and Reload and reverted to pretty poor quality thrash since.
Testament I think managed to maintain focus and grew heavier and have still some decent records recently.

[Carnage]

The only Anthrax album I got into was Persistence of Time.  I loved it as a young lad but, alas, the tape grew wings and flew away at some point over the years. Very catchy album. I've been meaning to replace it on CD as it would be a great one for the car.

'Deluxe' reissue coming out soon, hold out 'til then.

[Floss]

Agreed on the image issues they may have had, and also that Benante is a killer drummer and always was highly innovative - Id also agree that they put out consistently good albums during their career, while their peers dropped the quality, some never recovering. As great as ATL was (and it really was great) I am just tired of hearing it - that happens. Persistence is probably my favorite too from the Joey era, but the Bush albums are probably what I listen most these days, all of them great with Stomp being my least favorite.  Recent albums are pretty good too to their credit.

WCFYA is an overlooked gem of an album. Outstanding.

[son of the Morrigan]

Fair play. Nice to see good stuff being written about them for a change.
Re. Bush versus Belladonna - for me Belladonna is the man. Nothing wrong with Bush like, great singer actually, but to my ear Belladonna is the real sound of Anthrax, in a similar fashion to Bonn Scott being the real sound of AC/DC. Could never take to the Johnson.
Re. Persistence Of Time - just a personal opinion but I could never get into it, Id put on Among The Living or Spreading The Disease ahead of it any day of the week.
Re. Testament - feckin class, better than Anthrax if ya want to compare the two. Into the fucking pit. enough said.

[Anton Arcane]

I think one of the reasons that they get such hostility directed at them is that many people are of the opinion that they had no business being as big as they were and that other bands such as (insert your favourite thrash B listers here) deserved it more.

Also, in terms of legacy (no pun intended) Anthrax pioneered some of the worst aspects of the genre such as party thrash and rap metal.

But yeah, musically they had some great stuff.

[Floss]

Nice clip out from them re POT today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6meOa-5ZXg

[Blackout]

Always found them to be like a parody thrash band and choc full of Cringe.

[Carnage]

Nice clip out from them re POT today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6meOa-5ZXg

Jesus Benante got old. Not fooling anyone with the Just For Men, though.

[Paul keohane]

I actually thought the opposite tbh,hes 57,he lookd fresh for years!

[Kurt Cocaine]

I actually thought the opposite tbh,hes 57,he lookd fresh for years!

He's 57? Jaysus he does look great actually.

Never Say Die. Say "Hair Colour".... 

[mugz]

...

[Paul keohane]

You know who looks  decent for their age but should be haggard beyond belief given the lifestyle for years,Nikki Sixx,hes 61!.

[leatherface]

I have no problems with Anthrax personally, grew up on them, heard 'State of Euphoria' first back in the late 80s ('Misery loves Company', 'Now it's Dark'- great tracks). Then 'Persistence of Time'.

They were goofy yes, but they have some solid tracks that don't mess about ('Gung Ho', 'Deathrider', 'Stand or Fall', 'I am the Law'). I liked 'Sound of White Noise' at the time too, good songwriting ('Only').

[Bogmetaller]

Maybe one of the controversial opinions, but if Speak English or Die came out under the Anthrax name there'd be a much different view of them

I was reading through the comments to see woudk someone say this and I think you're right - that album is far superior to anything Anthrax did. I'd personally have it in my top 5 metal albums - short, snappy, fast and catchy as fuck!

[jobrok1]

Always have time for Anthrax...
Particularly"Persistence Of Time", "Sound Of White Noise" and "We've Come For You All".
Easily their 3 best, in my opinion.
The OP's three picks and "Attack Of The Killer B's" directly follow them, then!