Anthrax - State of Euphoria (1988) and Among the Living (1987)

Metallica has brought me to another dimension of heavymetal music; the genre they called it 'thrash metal.' Soon I began to learn about the existence of another thrash metal band (though I did not necessarily listen to them). One band that particularly caught my attention was Anthrax.

In 1988, Hai magazine reviewed their recently published album, State of Euphoria. They gave it four stars out of four. Around the same period I also bought a copy of Metal Edge (after saving for a couple of months), in which Anthrax appeared in one of the articles. I was interested in the band. Unlike other thrash metal band, their appearance was more relax, even humorous. They wore surfing t-shirts, caps, and shorts, made silly faces (not scary) and seemed to have fun on stage.

So on a journey during a school break, I took a bus from Bintaro to Blok M. The mission: to buy a copy of "State of Euphoria." In a small cassette store just opposite Aldiron Plaza, I found the album for Rp5,000 (worth ten days of pocket money at that time). Aldiron Plaza is now gone, so is the cassette store. Blok M area is now a mixture of new buildings and in some corners we could see urban decays.

Be All, End All opened the album. For the first time I heard a song played with double-bass drums, creating sound just like a helicopter. Wow, this is awesome, I thought. I listened to the rest of the albums with much enjoyment. Antisocial became my new favorite. Later I learned that it was not their original song. But Anthrax really put their stamp on the song.

In many articles I read, the writers compared this album with their previous one, "Among the Living." It took me another year or two to be buy a copy of "Among." It's hard to compare the two albums - they could simply be a double-album. As a whole, I slightly liked "Among" better. It was supposed to be in every lists of the best rock album in history. Although, I consider "Be All, End All" as my favorite track. (Unfortunately I missed their 2010 concert in Jakarta. I heard the crowd could force them to play "Be All, End All" which was not in the set list initially. Yeah!)

In addition to their humorous appearance and persona (remember the Indian headdress they wore in the videoclip, and later on stage?), Joey Belladona's voice was their trademark which differentiated them from other thrash metal bands. Some critics said his voice was 'non-metal.' But I thought this was more an asset rather than weakness. Their rap performance was also an interesting experiment.

Well, they are not considered one of the "Big Four" (with Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer) for no reason, aren't they?

Favorite tracks: Be All, End All, Antisocial, Among The Living, NFL (Efilnikufesin), I am The Law, Indian