WORSHIP MUSIC IS THE NEW CHINESE DEMOCRACY

November 20th, 2009 at 1:00pm
Axl Rosenberg

Obviously, my headline is a little sensationalistic. We waited a decade and a half for Chinese Democracy; it’s only been six (almost seven) years since the last Anthrax studio album, We’ve Come for You All. And wile CD apparently cost somewhere in neighborhood of $13 million dollars… well, I don’t know what the budget was/is on Worship Music, but I’m guessing Anthrax wouldn’t know $13 million dollars if it pooped in their eye.

Still, Chinese Democracy – which was finally released almost exactly one year ago – is the closest corollary I can think of to Worship Music, which is starting to reach mythological status.

Think about it: like Chinese Democracy, this is the heavily-anticipated “comeback” album of the latest incarnation of a once-respected band; like Chinese Democracy, there’s been a substantial about of controversy over the comings and goings of key members of the group; and like Chinese Democracy, a handful of not-great-quality live bootlegs are really all we have to go by when judging the music. A number of people who have had the privilege of hearing the album have told me that’s it awesome, but I haven’t gotten to hear it myself, and my guess is I won’t until someone leaks it (And I’m convinced that, at some point, someone will leak it – it’s just a matter of time.).

So there’s all these murmurs and wondering if/when Worship Music will ever come out and who will actually be on it if/when it ever comes out, and yadda yadda yadda. We’re already reaching a point where no one is going to be able to give this album a fair shake. Finding an impartial listener for Worship Music will about as easy as finding an impartial jury for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s trial. It’s just not gonna happen.

So here are the aforementioned shitty live bootlegs. I think we’ve posted most of these before, but, hey, they’re worth obsessing over a little more. It sounds to me like the band was trying to please everybody – e.g., strike a balance between the thrashier Belladonna-stuff and the groovier Bush-stuff – but it’s hard to judge just from these clips.

“Earth on Hell”