I've kinda taken to KD's voice which has a sad melancholy quality when he's up in the high range. This album's right up there with the first two MF albums.

I shamefully don't have any Mercyful Fate. That needs to be rectified.

0.o

Get a roadrunner "2 from the vault" for Mercyful Fate if you get the chance. You can snatch up their 1st album + a collection of early odds and ends for a reasonable price, reasonable considering it's from Roadrunner.

King Diamond is a bad ass mother****er. It's a real shame kid aren't giving the King proper respect.

You and my brother would be best friends jackhammer, haha. He has a large number of the albums on your list already. Sadly, I don't think I got the love-for-metal trait that my brother has. Not that I don't respect it, I just can't find myself enjoying the majority of it. :(

Great list Jackhammer, can't wait for the next one.

Keen for the next entry, some awesome picks so far!

So after joining and posting my newb "hello" this post was the first I came too and it made the site seem 100 times more exciting. I now have a list of bands I can't wait to dl.

Thanks!!

Anthrax were always a band that didn't quite fit into the equation regarding Thrash metal's 'Big 4'. Their first album 'Fistful of Metal' was a fairly average album that lacked focus. A change in lead singer with Joey Belladonna gave the band a much wider range in sound with his melodious vocals at odds with the more raw vocals of Metallica and Testament etc but the crunchy guitar sound of Scott Ian that was influenced more by Hardcore Punk than Metal gave the band a much more original dynamic than many bands around at the time.

Their second album Spreading The Disease arguably has better songs than Among The Living but the tone swayed from Speed Metal to straight up Heavy Metal and it took the album Among the Living to really give the band their own identity.

An album that generally focused more on speed bursts and guitar riffs that borrowed from the economy of Punk more than the sometimes convoluted traditional metal sound gives us an album with a much more clearer, unfussy sound along with shout out choruses and lyrics that step away from the usual trappings of metal. Judge Dredd and comics were more what the band wanted to sing about instead of the usual metal cliches.

Listening back to this album has also enforced my opinion that they were (unwittingly) influential in introducing the infamous 'breakdowns' that many Metal bands in the 90' and 00's readily adopted, even though those bands didn't understand the Hardcore punk homages that Anthrax were alluding to and instead adopted them as part and parcel of a new Metal sound that seemed to disregard the roots of Thrash Metal.

Of the 'Big 4' bands and albums that shaped metal for years to come in 86/87, Among The Living (despite the vocals) is an album that pays homage to alternate roots and because of this, still sounds fresh and original.


The obligatory breakdown that is widespread now was a revelation in 1987. 3.28 is where it's at for one of the finest breakdowns ever.

On another thread I also mentioned how ahead of their time Anthrax were despite never ever being a big fan of their music. Without doubt "Among the Living" was their best work and certainly worthy of a top 50 entry into any best of metal lists. They were certainly original in their style of dress and comic book themes of which drummer Charlie Benante was a hige fan. I always thought and still think that Joey Belladonna was such and odd choice of lead singer for the group. He has a great clean, melodic and powerful voice far more akin to say a rock band than to a metal band. Its all these combos that made Anthrax a very unique band in metal circles.

I loved quite a few of the entries on here, after spending NO TIME to look any other stuff up. the highlights for me were:
Slowly We Rot
Dopethrone
The Ultra-Violence
Abigail
Among The Living
it was great to see those last three all in a row. I've been listening to all of newer metal, and that breakdown in Indians definitely changed my view on breakdowns. I had always loved that song/album/band, but I had never really payed much attention to that breakdown. I love this mix so far.