Spreading the Disease
| Spreading the Disease | ||||
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| Studio album by Anthrax | ||||
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Publication |
USA: October 1985 |
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| Label (s) | Island Records | |||
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Title (number) |
9 |
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running time |
43min 40s |
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| occupation |
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Anthrax, Carl Canedy |
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Studio (s) |
Pyramid Sound, Ithaca (New York) |
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Spreading the Disease is the second studio album by the American thrash metal band Anthrax . It was on the Billboard 200 for a total of 18 weeks from December 1985 and reached number 113. The music magazine Rock Hard counted the album among the 25 most important Thrash Metal albums in 2009.
With Spreading the Disease , the band laid the foundation for their commercial success by combining fast guitar playing with melodic vocals and thus appealing to fans of thrash metal, conventional heavy metal and hardcore punk . The appearance of the musicians with surfers -Clothes, baseball caps and Skateboards was founded in the 1980s as a fashion trend among rock fans.
Songwriting
When the songwriting for the album was supposed to start, the band was without a singer and therefore without a songwriter . With Armed and Dangerous and Gung-Ho there were two finished tracks that were still written by the former singer Neil Turbin . The lyrics for the other songs wrote Scott Ian , who in turn took less part in the compositions. Drummer Charlie Benante provided the basic melodies, on the basis of which the music for the pieces was written together with second guitarist Dan Spitz and bassist Frank Bello . The text on Medusa comes from John Zazula . According to Charlie Benante, the album is more likely to be classified as Speed Metal and he refers to the melodic pieces on the album such as Armed and Dangerous and The Enemy .
Emergence
With the debut album Fistful of Metal and the EP Armed and Dangerous , the band aroused the interest of various major labels and they switched from Megaforce Records to Island Records . The studio recordings took place in Ithaca and lasted several months. Shortly after the recording began, Matt Fallen, singer and successor to Neil Turbin at the time , left the band. Charlie Benante later gave the reason that traps were not involved. The band initially continued recording without a singer, the idea of using Scott Ian and Frank Bello as singers was discarded. Producer Carl Canedy then recommended that Joey Belladonna be engaged as a singer. He had enjoyed a vocal training and so far worked in classic rock and hard rock . With his demo version of the piece Medusa he was able to convince the band. The aim was to incorporate influences from traditional metal singing like that of Ronnie James Dio into the music of Anthrax and thus to differentiate themselves from other contemporary groups like Metallica .
The song AIR was recorded afterwards. Drummer Charlie Benante had already left but sent a demo version of the piece to Scott Ian, who was still in the studio. The band decided to include this song on top and Benante returned to the studio. Speak English or Die , the debut album of the band project SOD , was recorded during a three-day studio break . In addition to Scott Ian and Charlie Benante, the former anthrax bassist Dan Lilker was also involved. Rumors that the character on the later cover of Spreading the Disease bore an intended resemblance to Lilker, Benante denied. The band did not give the commissioned artist any specifications.
Track list
- AIR - 5:45
- Lone Justice - 4:36
- Madhouse - 4:19
- SSC / Stand or Fall - 4:08
- The Enemy - 5:25
- Aftershock - 4:28
- Armed and Dangerous - 5:43
- Medusa - 4:44
- Gung-Ho - 4:34
reception
Herbert Chwalek from powermetal.de describes the album as a "milestone of metal" and as "the New Yorkers' best record to this day". He sees the band stylistically somewhere between Thrash and Power Metal, the titles are "fast, hard and yet melodious". Frank Trojan from Rock Hard states in his contemporary review that "this LP ... [will] set standards", the album has more potential and intelligence than its predecessor Fistful of Metal . He sees Anthrax with Spreading the Disease "on the same level as Metallica or Metal Church ". Steve Huey of Allmusic describes the album with its "rhythmic and pounding guitar riffs " as a "big step forward" and calls it one of the best in the band.
2014, the album was ranked 100 on the list the 100 best metal and hard rock albums of all time of Rolling Stone .
literature
- Ronny Bittner: ANTHRAX: The extra portion of milk . In: Rock Hard . No. 343 , December 2015, p. 44 f .
Web links
- Spreading the Disease at Allmusic (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Spreading the Disease. billboard.com, accessed May 12, 2010 .
- ↑ Götz Kühnemund : 250 Thrash albums that you should know . In: Rock Hard . No. 265 , June 2009, p. 75 .
- ^ Ian Christe: Sound of the Beast. The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal . It Books, 2004, ISBN 0-06-052362-X , pp. 146 .
- ↑ Essi Berelian: Anthrax . In: Peter Buckley (Ed.): The Rough Guide to Rock . Rough Guides , 2003, ISBN 1-84353-105-4 , pp. 33 .
- ↑ Kory Grow: Web-exclusive Interview: Anthrax's Charlie Benante on the 'Among the Living' Reissue, the Band. Revolver Mag, November 3, 2009, archived from the original on June 14, 2010 ; accessed on May 12, 2010 (English).
- ↑ a b c d e f Rock Hard # 343, December 2015, p. 45.
- ↑ a b c Rock Hard # 343, December 2015, p. 44.
- ^ Herbert Chwalek: Anthrax / Spreading the Disease. powermetal.de, November 29, 2002, accessed on May 12, 2010 .
- ^ Frank Trojan: Anthrax: Spreading the Disease . In: Rock Hard . No. 15 .
- ↑ rollingstone.de