Album of the Week 49-2022: Anthrax – For All Kings


In my earlier review of ‘Spreading The Disease’, I argued that I am not sure whether Anthrax deserves to be considered part of the so-called “Big Four” of thrash metal. That has nothing to do with Testament selling more albums outside North America, Exodus being more influential or OverKill’s seniority. Instead, I think Anthrax is at its best when they are not playing thrash metal. Their earliest work had distinct traditional heavy metal overtones. Their most recent album ‘For All Kings’ appears to confirm the band also thinks they work best as a thrash-tinged contemporary heavy metal band.

‘For All Kings’ largely feels like a logical continuation of ‘Worship Music’ (2011), with two key differences. Most notably, the band is a lot more sure about the direction they want to take. ‘For All Kings’ is every bit as varied as ‘Worship Music’ and even has a few songs that would not have sounded out of place on the likes of ‘We’ve Come For You All’, but Anthrax sounds far more focused here. Also, it is very clear that all of these songs have been written with Joey Belladonna’s vocals in mind, as Belladonna sounds much more convincing here.

The result is a fresh-sounding contemporary heavy metal album with most of the thrash influence heard in the rhythm guitar parts. Due to the way hardrock and traditional heavy metal elements are incorporated into the sound, ‘For All Kings’ occasionally brings Death Angel’s incredible ‘Killing Season’ album to mind, though it is not quite as playful. Songs like the title track, ‘Monster At The End’ and the excellent, energetic opener ‘You Gotta Believe’ would simply have been categorized as heavy metal if a different band had released them. There are still thrashy moments – ‘Evil Twin’ and ‘Zero Tolerance’ most notably – but on the other hand, ‘Breathing Lightning’ is closer to melodic hardrock.

Nearly every Anthrax album has one or more songs of which I don’t understand why they are not talked about more. On ‘For All Kings’, ‘Suzerain’ would be that song. The aggressive, pulsating riff that starts the song is accompanied by a creative, tom-heavy drum part that once again proves that Charlie Benante is one of the most underrated drummers in metal. The chorus and Belladonna’s vocal melodies are much more dramatic than such dense riffing would suggest however. Another highlight is the epic doomster ‘Blood Eagle Wings’, though that one did become a live staple. It feels significantly shorter than nearly eight minutes.

Some Anthrax albums seem to favor riffs over melodies. ‘For All Kings’ finds a perfect balance between those options and proves they are not mutually exclusive. In a way, the album feels like a more refined version of ‘Worship Music’ with all the fat trimmed. It is also remarkably how more nineties Anthrax-sounding tracks like ‘All Of Them Thieves’ fit alongside the more old school material without sounding like a distraction. Some people complain that ‘For All Kings’ is not thrash enough, but I’d personally say it shows Anthrax aging more gracefully than some of their peers.

Recommended tracks: ‘Suzerain’, ‘You Gotta Believe’, ‘Blood Eagle Wings’

Responses

  1. Art Snow Avatar
    Art Snow

    Hi Kevin, I completely understand your view about Anthrax being worthy or not belonging to the BIG4 of American Thrash Metal, after all, for years the band was kind of out of place, especially after 1993. But I tell you that in the late 80’s and early 90’s , Anthrax was indeed among the greatest American Thrash Metal bands, to the point of rivaling Metallica, before the quartet was thrown into the extratosphere becoming one of the best known metal bands in the world. Anthrax sold over a million copies of their “I’m the Man” EP, which let’s face it, wasn’t musically anything very noteworthy. But they also sold over 600,000 copies of “State of Euphoria” and over 560,000 copies of “Among the Living”. Which in a simple calculation already counts more than 2 million copies sold just counting these three releases, apart from the more than 500 thousand copies of “Persistence of Time’, 550 thousand of his other EP “Attack of the Killer B’s” etc… .Testament, Overkill, Exodus or any other name in American Thrash (except Slayer, Megadeth or Metallica) would probably sign a contract in blood to be able to sell an album with those numbers. // And I understand your point of view about some of your songs sounding more Heavy Metal than Thrash Metal, but what about Metallica after 1988? Or Megadeth of the 90s? Can we say that their albums were entirely Thrash Metal? But I agree with several points about your review of For all Kings. Stay well.

    Reply
    1. Kevin Avatar
      Kevin

      Hello Art,
      Thanks for dropping by and sharing your thoughts. By American sales numbers alone, your point absolutely cannot be argued. I’m fairly sure Testament outsold Anthrax here in Europe, but I don’t have the numbers to back that up at the moment. And those numbers almost certainly would not amount to a million. Still, from a European perspective, Anthrax is not necessarily an undisputed choice. I’ll give them one thing though: they knew how to market themselves. The cartoonish image that put me off them as a teenager really set them apart from the pack.
      As for the musical discussion… Your comment makes me realize I did not illustrate my point sufficiently, for which I can only apologize. I would say the nineties discussion is largely irrelevant, because the music that made people see Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax as the Big Four had already been released at the time. However, I do think the first two Anthrax albums are closest to traditional heavy metal of anything released by any of those bands by a considerable margin. And I personally think their more trad-leaning material is how Anthrax sounds best. By the time they had gone more or less full-on thrash with ‘Among The Living’, I personally think they were already on the decline. If I want to hear a separate Anthrax song, it would be the likes of ‘Lone Justice’, ‘Only’ or ‘Keep It In The Family’, none of which is full-on thrash. That is why I always ask myself: was Anthrax really ever best as a thrash metal band? There is no definitive answer to this, as it is one hundred percent a matter of preference, but for me personally, the answer would be that they never were.
      Thanks for your very insightful comment though! Someone disagreeing (ever so slightly, let’s be honest) with what I said, but keeping it civilized and using facts to illustrate his point is something several opinion outlets on the internet can learn from. Please stop by again if you like!

      Reply
  2. Art Snow Avatar
    Art Snow

    I agree that the band’s first two albums can be considered “Heavy Metal”, I think they could be inserted even among the USPM. But the band’s “Burst of Success” as a force to be reckoned with was precisely with “Among the Living”, which is one of their most Thrash Metal albums. // But as I said, the period of the 90’s of North American metal messed things up a lot (And I give thanks to several European bands for Heavy Metal still existing in the 90’s) to the point that Anthrax became almost a grunge band with influence of Pantera, which did nothing for them to be considered “great” for all generations to come. But the career adjustment made in “whorship Music” and especially “For All Kings” showed that the band’s strength was this sound closer to Thrash/Heavy than the alternative sounds heard in albums like “Stomp 442” or “Volume 8 “, as sales and looks have turned back to the band in recent years. // Views can be diverse, but respect for opinions should always be a reason for debate and not for discussion. Keep going.

    Reply

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