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Anthrax: We've come for you all

23/07/10 || Smalley

For the longest time, I just ignored Anthrax, having written them off as generic thrash, but I’ve found myself coming around to their older stuff lately, which is why I tried to review “Persistence of time”. Unfortunately, my write-up wasn’t turning out too interesting, so I decided to go for this instead, their most recent album (having come out in fucken ‘03; hurry the hell up, guys!). Anyway, WCFYA certainly isn’t a bad effort overall, with some decent-to-good songs, but it still falls way too short of full satisfaction nonetheless.

“Contact” is kind of an awkward, needless intro track (in other words, an intro track), but “What doesn’t die” almost gets the album on the right track, with catchy, stop-start riffing, strong, high-in-the-mix vocals from John Bush, and moderately intricate, energetic songwriting overall. But unfortunately, even though Charlie Benante’s a pretty good drummer, his kit sound here definitely needs work, especially the double bass, which probably has the crappiest sound I’ve heard in my life, or at least the most noticeably so, since it’s loud enough to make it fucken impossible to ignore (though it does get less noticeable on the following tracks). And besides that, “die” just doesn’t have enough of that important aggression that Anthrax needs; maybe the tempos should’ve been a bit faster, or maybe the song should’ve had louder rhythm guitar, but whatever the root cause, something is definitely missing here.

“Superhero” then kills whatever momentum that “die” built up, with a sluggish tempo, awkward spoken word sections/vocal effects, and a nu metal-y main riff, and “Refuse to be denied”, the wannabe power ballad “Safe home”, and “Any place but here” all turn out to be similarly disappointing. The songwriting on them just isn’t what Anthrax should be, and just doesn’t work; it isn’t catchy, entertaining, successful, or whatever other adjective you like to use.

“Nobody knows anything” finally gives us a satisfying song, with harder riffing, a catchy song rhythm, and high-energy drumming, but the inconsistent “Strap it on” takes us back to material that doesn’t fully work, despite an awesome lead guitar cameo from Dimebag Darrell (R.I.P.), then the relatively intense “Black dahlia” gets us back to material that does. The album as a whole is basically like that, taking us on an aural roller coaster of up, then down, up, then down, offering us intermittent glimpses high up of what this album should’ve been, interspersed with many weak, disappointing dips downward.

So, overall, WCFYA isn’t a bad attempt at modern (semi) thrash, but the maddeningly inconsistent songwriting quality, with too many tracks not consistently aggressive or entertaining enough, really prevents this from being a worthwhile listen in the end. Still, there are songs here where I can tell ‘thrax really put in the proper effort, so some of that old spark is still in ‘em, or at least, it was in them seven years ago. They’ve done better before, and I think they can still do better in the future, so here’s hoping “Worship music”, whenever it finally hits, will kick the asses “We’ve come for you all” failed to.

Information
Released: 2003
Label: Nuclear Blast
Website: Anthrax MySpace
Band
John Bush: vocals
Rob Caggiano: lead guitar
Scott Ian: rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Frank Bello: bass, backing vocals
Charlie Benante: drums, additional guitars

Tracklist
01. Contact
02. What Doesn’t Die
03. Superhero
04. Refuse To Be Denied
05. Safe Home
06. Any Place But Here
07. Nobody Knows Anything
08. Strap It On
09. Black Dahlia
10. Cadillac Rock Box
11. Taking the Music Back
12. Crash
13. Think About An End
14. W.C.F.Y.A. (We’ve Come For You All)

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