Elektra Records - 1993
8.5/10
Heading into the decade that saw thrash go underground, Anthrax made dynamic changes with every step through the genre’s revival nearly two-decades later. Swinging off the progressive leaning direction that Persistence Of Time hinted at, new frontman John Bush would skew the band’s sound into the grunge/metal territory. Without lifting away the thrash metal bottom, Sound Of White Noise sees the longer structures of its predecessor pass through a ‘90s gradient with heavy metal roots that don’t go away. While a potential tough sell on paper, I find this to be incredibly serviceable.
Elements of all three remnants can be found everywhere one way or another. Despite John Bush being known for singing traditional heavy metal, he had an easy time blending into the time due to his snarly style and slight rasp that came through as early as March Of The Saint. It would be a stretch to say that Sound Of White Noise does much in the realm of advanced writing, but they certainly have the proper use of repetition down. As redundant as the grungier “Only” may sound, its blend of melodies mixed into slower riffs and a drawn out choruses work wonders. It’s also impossible to overlook the Alice In Chains influence on “Hy Pro Glo” not only in the dreary layers, but the depression progression and obvious vocal nods.
Most importantly, Anthrax don’t let go of any of the attitude that they displayed previously. “Packaged Rebellion” uses a solid, bass-heavy suspense intro to work towards an angrier call of bluff in the descending chorus/riff structure. This is more groove metal oriented due to the start/stop leanings, but it’s not gruff in the Pantera way. “Black Lodge” continues the cinema theme, this one being a soft and somber ode to Twin Peaks. “1000 Points Of Hate” rides on some incredible percussion with a doomier bridge between otherwise pummeling rhythms. Truly the entire record has a lot of weight in these combos, giving Dan Spitz the chance to exit the band on a bang.
Despite being a time where Anthrax’s brand would have lost popularity, they did an incredible job at not only selling new ideas, but letting them flow wonderfully together. Could a bit of fat have been trimmed from this? Probably. Coming in at nearly an hour in length, I always thought the opener “Potters Field” was a weak start, and maybe some others go on just a hair too much, but it’s hardly a big deal when so much is performed wonderfully. Many thrashers of this time were scramming to fit in; some were disastrous, others felt natural. This is an example of the latter.
No comments:
Post a Comment