Anthrax- Spreading the disease

Well, it took me long enough to get around to finishing this, but here it is at long last.
Background- Anthrax had gotten some notice with their first release Fistful of metal back in 1984. Then they parted ways with bass player Dan Lilker and singer Neil Turbin. They were replaced by Frank Bello and Joey Belladonna so then they were ready to begin work on their second lp. Prior to the release of that lp was an ep called Armed and dangerous which featured the title track, live tracks and a cover of God save the queen. This album also gave us one of the first pictures of the new line-up on the cover. Looked a lot like the old line-up with everyone very serious and wearing black leather. Yet this image would change when Spreading the disease came out as the pictures on that album showed them smiling and wearing very different clothing and shortly there after Anthrax would begin to wear jams and colorful clothing that metal bands didn't wear on stage before. This would turn out to be a smart move as it made Anthrax unique, but of course their sound is what really made the difference.
Spreading the disease came out in late summer of 85, I first heard this album in spring of 1986. I bought it just due to the reviews I read about it. The last time I listened to the whole thing from start to finish was probably just two or three months ago. So I am going to go put the cd in and see if it still holds up.


Review-
A.I.R comes on and sets the pace for the album. It's fast, but not chunky and the vocals are very clean for this style of music.
Lone Justice is a song about Clint Eastwood's Man with no name character so it earns points for that right away. The strength of this song is just the steady chugging riffs.
Madhouse comes across as kind of an anthem type song and it's a little less heavy than other songs here, but still good.
Next we have S.S.C./Stand or fall which picks the pace of the album back up again. Stand or fall might be the strongest song at this point mainly because it builds on itself and is a little less repetitive than the first few songs.
The Enemy is much slower, but no less heavy than other songs. This one really shows the strength of Joey Belladonna's voice.
Aftershock is another fast song that just plows straight ahead and never lets up. Charlie Benante's drumming really stands out on this one.
Armed and dangerous might be the most different song on the album just due to the opening. This song is basically two parts, the slow first part and the second fast part. Both parts are solid and the song works well enough.
Medusa might be my favorite song on the album. It's a good combination of speed and heaviness.
Gung-Ho is probably the fastest song here and it is very simple, but a good powerful song to end on.
The guitar solos don't stand out overall, but they don't need to because everything else is so solid and I think that's the real strength of this album. The songs are much more about the whole song than any parts and that's not always true with metal especially back in the 80's.

Verdict/Final word-
I think this album is easily as good as it was back then. I think a large part of the reason this album has aged well is that it is not overdone. No ridiculously high vocals, no excessive solos but just generally straight ahead solid metal. Not just solid, but also original for 1985 as Anthrax had a huge impact on speed and power metal. They had a very different sound as they weren't as heavy as Metallica or as fast as Slayer, but they had a very tight sound. I think Joey Belladonna's vocals added to the sound as well as he was a more standard metal singer as opposed to a growler or a screamer and that was indeed different for speed metal at the time. Another thing about Anthrax is that I believe they have done an album a certain way because it's what they wanted to do. I am not saying I like all of their albums evenly because I don't, but overall I respect them more than a lot of other bands . Having musical integrity is a hard thing to come by and I don't think any major label band truly has it, but Anthrax come closer than a lot of other bands. I think Anthrax did I'm the man because they liked rap not because they thought it was the thing to do. Just like I think they did the Sound of white noie because it was what they wanted to do at the time despite the fact that it was different from the style that had been successful for them for a few previous albums. I think Spreading the disease is one of the three great albums Anthrax did along with Among the living and Persistence of time. It still stands up well today and it's probably one of the best metal albums of 1985.
I will have another review of a 1985 album coming in early August. This time it will the album that was probably the most successful hard rock/metal album of 1985.