Anthrax
The Devil You Know

Worship Music is one of the most anticipated releases of the year. Not only for me personally, but for the entire metal community. Till now things have been pretty tightlipped with the album, at least for a small fry like me! Although I had sort of heard the leadoff single Fight Em Till You Can’t a few years ago when Dan Nelson fronted Anthrax at the Kobetasonik festival, kudos to the band for making the material impossible to hear until said song was made available for free download a few weeks back.

As the release date of Worship Music approaches, I anxiously check my e-mail, and all of the pertinent label sites on a daily basis to see if additional content off of the album has been made available. No dice, so I actually went out and purchased the single once it became available on iTunes.

At first listen I recognized a riff I had seen Scott Ian playing on an album teaser. I thought, ok, let’s see how this progresses. To my surprise/delight, the track has a good mix of old, and new Anthrax. For everyone wanting this to be a 100% throwback to Spreading The Disease or Among The Living, this song isn’t that. It also has equal parts of the darkness of The Persistence Of Time, and Catharsis off of Volume 8 injected into the soul of the track.

For as much as we’ve all seen Lars Ulrich try to not play something “stock”, Charlie Benante once again proves that just following the norm isn’t his style. Gauging from the two tracks that have been released this could be the most anthemic Anthrax album to date. Although the track seems as if it was geared towards the aforementioned Nelson, Joey has managed to make this track his, something a lot of other singers would not have been able to do. His singing sounds reminiscent of The Persistence Of Time, which happens to be my favorite album by the original line up. Rob Caggiano’s solo on the track is possibly his strongest to date with the band. Frank Bello brings those classic backing vocals, and pummeling bass line to the mix, and what can be said about Mr. Ian’s right hand that hasn’t been brought up before.

The album is shaping up to be very strong and very worthy follow up to We’ve Come For You All. That said; let’s not forget Winston Wolf’s famous line. That said, this track really has me pumped for the release of Worship Music.

Rated: A+

Today we reveal an assorted number of members of the musical community that aren’t known for being musicians, and are part of the “big project”. Well the first part isn’t entirely true.
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During this episode we speak to Blitz from Overkill and Jose from Bonded By Blood. The original intent was to release this episode sometime back in July, but with all of the circumstances revolving around my life it made things difficult to do so. For those of you that don’t know my wife had been pregnant, and was bed ridden for most of two months. Unfortunately she had a miscarriage a little after this interview was conducted, and life was pretty much put on hold. A little after this happened my company had to make some difficult decision to help the company stay a float, and anyone that had unemployment benefits was let go. And you guessed it I was given the pick slip at the time. With all of this said, things could be worse and as my brother always says, no matter how bad things are, there is always someone that’s worse off than you are. Luckily, things are looking good for the future, so I can’t really complain.

In any event, the interview with Blitz was done back in January before Ironbound, Overkill’s latest album came out. Among the items discussed during this interview are Ironbound, and subsequent tour, the early days of Megaforce Records, the “Big Four”, his 30 year musical partnership with DD Verni, Randy Blythe of Lamb Of God, Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater, the NY Steel Benefit Show, the project he did with Dan Lorenzo called The Cursed, Hail! and his involvement in Turtlehead!

During Jose’s segment we discuss how the band was started, comparisons to other bands, some of the festivals they were about to play when the interview was conducted, and the recording of their latest album Exiled To Earth

Items discussed during both interviews include:

Korn, Iron Maiden, Angelwitch, Raulph Patland, Cannibal Corpse, Twisted Sister, Brutal Assault Festival, Bloodstock Open Air, Suffocation, Thrash Assault Forum, Exodus, Exiled To Earth, Feed The Beast, Alex Lee, Jerry Garcia, Overkill, Forbidden, Big 4, Suffocation, Bobby Blitz, Overkill, Ironbound, DD Verni, Immortalis, Dave Linsk, New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, Iron Maiden, Feel The Fire, Killers, Punk Rock, Warbringer, Hardcore, Pop, Green And Black Army, Exodus, NY Steel, In Union We Stand, 9/11, Sid Falk, Sebastian Marino, Merritt Gant, Rob Cannavino, Bobby Gustafson, Tim Mallare, Rat Skates, Joe Comeau, Megaforce, Metallica, Anthrax, Testament, Alex Parialas, Terry Date, Chris Tsangarides, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Anvil, Colin Richardson, Pete Townsend, Peter Tagtgren, Death Angel, Megadeth, Slayer, Kreator, Destruction, Randy Blythe, Lamb Of God, Gigantour, Dave Mustaine, Willie Adler, Chris Adler, Jamey Jasta, Dan Lorenzo, Hades, Non-Fiction, The Cursed, Black Sabbath, Turtlehead, John Ostronomy, Fuse, Motorhead, Mike Portnoy, Frank Bello, Hail!, Tim “Ripper” Owens, Andreas Kisser, Dave Ellefson

The following tracks are featured during the episode:

Bonded By Blood (off of Exiled To Earth) – 600 A.B. (After The Bomb), Genetic Encryption and Prototype – Death Machine

Overkill (off of Ironbound) – The Green and Black, Bring Me The Night, Give A Little

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During this episode we interview legendary Thrash Icon Bobby Blitz from Overkill. Among the items discussed during this interview are Overkill’s new album Ironbound, and subsequent tour, the early days of Megaforce Records, the “Big Four”, his 30 year musical partnership with DD Verni, Randy Blythe of Lamb Of God, Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater, the NY Steel Benefit Show, the project he did with Dan Lorenzo called The Cursed, Hail! and his involvement in Turtlehead!

Here is a full rundown of topics covered:

Bobby Blitz, Overkill, Ironbound, DD Verni, Immortalis, Dave Linsk, New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, Iron Maiden, Feel The Fire, Killers, Punk Rock, Warbringer, Hardcore, Pop, Green And Black Army, Exodus, NY Steel, In Union We Stand, 9/11, Sid Falk, Sebastian Marino, Merritt Gant, Rob Cannavino, Bobby Gustafson, Tim Mallare, Rat Skates, Joe Comeau, Megaforce, Metallica, Anthrax, Testament, Alex Parialas, Terry Date, Chris Tsangarides, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Anvil, Colin Richardson, Pete Townsend, Peter Tagtgren, Death Angel, Megadeth, Slayer, Kreator, Destruction, Randy Blythe, Lamb Of God, Gigantour, Dave Mustaine, Willie Adler, Chris Adler, Jamey Jasta, Dan Lorenzo, Hades, Non-Fiction, The Cursed, Black Sabbath, Turtlehead, John Ostronomy, Fuse, Motorhead, Mike Portnoy, Frank Bello, Hail!, Tim “Ripper” Owens, Andreas Kisser, Dave Ellefson

During the episode you’ll hear the following Overkill tracks:

Ironbound
Bring Me The Night
Skull & Bones
In Union We Stand

Behind my banter you’ll hear The Green And The Black