The 25 Best Metal Bands of All Time, #12: Anthrax
MetalSucks recently polled over a hundred of metal’s most revered musicians, critics, journalists, artists, publicists, and industry insiders to find out which 25 bands represent the very BEST in the history of metal. Today we continue the countdown with NYC’s own…
Anthrax
42 Votes
497 Points
We give Anthrax plenty of crap ’round here, but only because they’re kinda easy targets: lovable, huggable, fellow NYC-bred Jew Scott Ian loves to yap his mouth about pretty much everything which provides plenty of fodder for Internet wiseguys like us. And then there’s Joey Belladonna, who pretty much writes his own jokes.
But the truth is that Anthrax’s legacy and discography are unfuckwithable. Not many bands at Anthrax’s level can soldier on with a lead-singer change five albums into their career, but Anthrax did just that when John Bush took over for 1993’s Sound of White Noise. Bush’s legacy in the band might be controversial amongst fans, but this much is undebatable: Bush kept the band relevant through the doldrums of the ’90s and early ’00s. Even more spectacularly, Anthrax never released a truly bad record. No Load (or Re-Load, or St. Anger or Lulu). No Risk. No Diabolus in Musica. Even if you argue that Bush wasn’t a good fit for the band (a statement with which we do NOT agree!) you can’t rightfully claim that he brought the band down.
Let us also not forget that Dan Lilker (Nuclear Assault, S.O.D., Brutal Truth, etc) got his start in Anthrax, or that Billy Milano (M.O.D., S.O.D.) launched his career as their roadie. Or that Anthrax’s 1988 collaboration with Public Enemy was ground-breaking, although mixing rap and metal certainly seems quaint now. Or the fact that they wrote “Madhouse,” “Caught in a Mosh,” “I Am the Law” and “Antisocial” (a cover, as some of you have pointed out, yes… but still) four of the greatest thrash songs of all time. They don’t often get credit for it because their commercial success has been dwarfed by their three peers mentioned above, but Anthrax were more influential than anyone seems to remember.
And then there’s the band 2011 “comeback” album Worship Music, an album that bucked all expectations and proved itself worth the near-Chinese Democracian drama and wait. As unabashed John Bush fans we were skeptical that Belladonna’s return was the right move for ‘Thrax — especially given the fact that he wasn’t even the band’s first choice (what’s Dan Nelson up to these days, anyway?) — but, by all accounts (except for one stubborn MetalSucks writer) Belladonna knocked it out of the park. We may never know how involved Belladonna was with writing his own parts, or the extent to which the band had to re-jigger the songs to fit his voice, but whatever they did, it worked: so many of the songs on Worship Music are justifiable anthems.
Whether you’re jamming Spreading the Disease, Persistence of Time, We’ve Come For You All or Worship Music, Anthrax have always been consistently winning, and they’re incredibly deserving of being named the #12 Best Metal Band Ever by our esteemed panel of voters.
THE LIST SO FAR:
#13 – Sepultura (41 Votes, 444 Points)
#14 – Dio (33 Votes, 433 Points)
#15 – Mercyful Fate (31 Votes, 419 Points)
#16 – Morbid Angel (33 Votes, 406 Points)
#17 – Meshuggah (32 Votes, 377 Points)
#18 – Opeth (30 Votes, 364 Points)
#19 – Testament (33 Votes, 347 Points)
#20 – At The Gates (28 Votes, 331 Points)
#21 – AC/DC (17 Votes, 313 Points)
#22 – Celtic Frost (24 Votes, 310 Points)
#23 – Ozzy Osbourne (21 Votes, 290 Points)
#24 – Napalm Death (22 Votes, 278 Points)
#25 – Lamb of God (29 Votes, 277 Points)
THE ILLUSTRIOUS PANEL OF VOTERS:
Chris Alfano – East of the Wall, Gear Gods
Paul Allender – White Empress, ex-Cradle of Filth
Rob Arnold – The Elite, ex-Chimaira, ex-Six Feet Under
Alan Averill (aka A.A. Nemtheanga) – Primordial
Chuck B.B. – Artist
Matt Bachand – Shadows Fall
Micke Berg – Below
Chuck Billy – Testament
Randy Blythe – Lamb of God
Paul Booth – Last Rites Tattoo and Art Gallery
Jake Bowen – Periphery
Terry Butler – Obituary
Liz Ciavarella-Brenner – Publicist, Earsplit PR
Blake Charlton – Ramming Speed
Richard Christy – Charred Walls of the Damned, ex-Death, ex-Iced Earth, ex-Control Denied, The Howard Stern Show
Monte Conner – President, Nuclear Blast Entertainment
Bruce Corbitt – Rigor Mortis, Warbeast
Doc Coyle – ex-God Forbid
Sergeant D. – MetalSucks, Stuff You Will Hate
Topon Das – Fuck the Facts, Merdarahta
Anso DF – MetalSucks
Peter Dolving – Rosvo, ex-The Haunted
Ryan J. Downey – Superhero Artist Management
Sacha Dunable – Intronaut, Bereft, Dunable Guitars
Vince Edwards – Head of Publicity, Metal Blade Records
Excretakano – MetalSucks
Exmortus
Extreme Management Group
D.X. Ferris – Slayer Scholar
Ryan Fleming – Black Table
Jon Freeman – Publicist, Freeman Promotions
Matthew Friesen – Culted
Ville Friman – Insomnium
Mike Gitter – Senior Director of A&R, Razor & Tie
Frank Godla – Metal Injection, Meek is Murder
Mike Greene – Director of Digital Marketing, Razor & Tie
Shane Handel – Set and Setting
Jeff Hodak – Head of Sales, Razor & Tie
Terence Hannum – Locrian
John Hoffman – Weekend Nachos
Mark Hunter – ex-Chimaira
Don Jamieson – That Metal Show
Daniel Jansson – Culted
John Jarvis – Pig Destroyer, Fulgora
Gaz Jennings – Death Penalty, ex-Cathedral
Patrik Jensen – The Haunted
Rick Jimenez – Extinction A.D.
Kassa – Below
Mirai Kawashima – Sigh
“Grim” Kim Kelly – MetalSucks
Zeena Koda
Erik Kluiber – Gypsyhawk
Eyal Levi – Unstoppable Killing Machine, Dååth
Jason Lekberg – IKILLYA
Adam Lindmark – Morbus Chron
Ryan Lipynsky – Serpentine Path, Unearthly Trance, The Howling Wind
Jonah Livingston – Ramming Speed
Bob Lugowe – Director of Promotions/Marketing, Relapse Records, Brutal Panda Records
James Malone – Arsis, Necromancing the Stone
Jose Mangin – Director of Music Programming, Sirius XM Liquid Metal
Bobby Mansfield – 16
Misha Mansoor – Periphery
Morgan McGrath – Live Nation
Mike “Gunface” McKenzie – The Red Chord, Stomach Earth, Nightkin
Vince Neilstein – MetalSucks
Eventansvarig Biostaden Nyköping – Below
Chris Ojeda – Byzantine
Casey Orr – Rigor Mortis, Warbeast
Rob Pasbani – Metal Injection
Anders Persson – Portrait
Chris Pervelis – Internal Bleeding
Karim Peter – Artist Relations, IndieMerchandising
Raphael Pinsker – Booking Agent, 3Thirteen Entertainment Group
Polar
Markus “Rabapagan” – Metsatöll
Josh Rand – Stone Sour
Emperor Rhombus – MetalSucks
Gus Rios – Gruesome
Tobias Rosén – Noctum
Axl Rosenberg – MetalSucks
Travis Ryan – Cattle Decapitation, Murder Construct, Nader Sadek
Saturn
Marc Schapiro, Branch Marketing Collective
Zach Shaw – The Syndicate
Patrick Sheridan – Fit For An Autopsy
Alex Skolnick – Testament
Brian Slagel – Chairman/CEO, Metal Blade Records
Mark Solotroff – Anatomy of Habit, Bloodlust!, BLOODYMINDED
Steve “Zetro” Souza – Exodus, Hatriot
Kevin Stewart-Panko – Decibel, MetalSucks
Black String – Vampire
Jason Suecof – Audiohammer Studios
Bram Teitelman – Metal Insider
Nick Tieder – No Jacket Required Marketing, Indegoot
Tone Deaf Touring
Aaron Turner – Old Man Gloom, ex-ISIS, Hydra Head Records
Brody Uttley – Rivers of Nihil
George Vallee – Head of Publicity, Street Smart Marketing
Dirk Verbeuren – Soilwork, Bent Sea, Scarve
Jens Vestergren – Below
Jake Wade – Columns
Kelly Walsh – Publicist, Prosthetic Records
Mike Wohlberg – The Fat Kid Illustration
Wookubus – The PRP
Zodiac
