Anthrax "For All Kings" (2016) new album

I think the last time they headlined was the reunion tour with Danny and Joey, but there wasn't any new material to promote, it was all about celebrating the past, which at the time was welcomed. They should sacrifice a few classics to play more new stuff, I agree.

 

I would recommend you get the "Chile On Hell" BD/DVD. It is easily their best concert DVD, and a great track list as well.

 

Just ordered it! (Bluray) Thanks for the tip. Didn't even know about it. I've rewatched the Big 4 bluray a few times this last week. I busted it out to watch the Slayer set. Knowing I'll be seeing Anthrax as well, I bought the "For All Kings" LP's. Then, went back & watched the Anthrax set on the Big 4 disc.

Saw them w Testament on the 12/13 tour....looking forward again. Can't wait for this BD to hit my mailbox.

 

I think you will enjoy it. Their performance on Chile In Hell is even better than the Big Four performance, which is great.

 

Thats what i want, I'll pay to see them play 2 hours and they can play most of the new album, i'm more than happy with that. Indoors as well, another thing i dislike about the whole metal thing in the UK. I have to wait for ages to Maiden to play a bloody headline/indoor show and likelihood of the same with Anthrax, who i've yet to see live. It always seems to be festivals and (being old and grumpy,) i'm now mid 40's and no longer want to go to festivals to see them play a short set. Give me 2 hours, indoor show, London, one of the many venues. Anthrax, you put the tickets on sale and i'll be there as your new album is bloody great.

 

This album is just fantastic!

And there's something very strange going on that I've never experienced with an album. To get to that I have to start with Blood Eagle Wings. This is just an epic song, a heavy metal masterpiece. For a band to write and record a song of this quality this far into their career is to be hailed. And here's the unique thing to me with this album. Blood Eagle Wings is the very obvious center point. Listened as a whole, the first half of the album seems to build to this epic, and then the rest of the songs seem perfectly placed to be heard after BEW. I've literally never had this sense from the running order of an album.

A couple of other things I'd like to mention in short. One is that the presence of bass guitar here is to be commended. I'll never understand why bass guitar isn't louder in the mix with just about any band. Certainly with the big four it's not nearly as featured as it is here. It should be. Props to Frank Bello.

Breathing Lightning is amazing.

For All Kings is a great song. I have no complaints about it at all...but, that cool first 20 seconds before the drums come in, that could have been repeated in the middle after a drop out of the music and I think it might have been really interesting.

The cd itself looks so cool with the shining silver and pentagrams that I'm going to give back the point I would normally remove for having to provide my own jewel case for storage.

Joey Belladonna is an amazing vocalist. The band can still sound unique in metal after all these years because he was never a stereotypical heavy metal singer. They messed up by getting rid of him in the early 1990's. 55 years old and sounding this good. But if all roads lead here....well there you go.

I really like the newest Slayer album but this is better. I honestly haven't connected at all with the new Megadeth album. So Anthrax is holding the title right now, Metallica, what have you got? If James and the boys can beat For All Kings I'll drink two shots of surprised and one shot of happy.

 

Really is a fantastic album, Joey hasn't sounded this good in years and the whole band really seems to be in tune (can't think of a better way to put it) with each other as for as the playing goes. Kinda feels like they stepped back to Persistence Of Time era Anthrax. Just a shame this came out so close to Repentless and Dystopia, haven't seen too much love for this compared to the others.

 

It works really well on vinyl also as Blood Eagle Wings is the final track on side 2.

Agreed on all points, bloody excellent album.

 

A breakdown to just drums and vocals would have been cool.

 

I can't remember an album from recent years where I've liked every single track. Perhaps out of the 11 the weakest, and by that there's no criticism, is the final song, Zero Tolerance. I'd quite happily go and see them live and have them play the entire album. 1 hour - For All Kings, 1 hour of the hits/classic album tracks.

Of course that wont happen but as they start to play headline, non festival appearances I hope they plenty of the new album live.

Will they play Blood Eagle Wings? That would be superb.

 

Now i am kicking myself for not seeing them in January when I had the chance. Next time they are in the area I am there.
This album is my go to commute album for the past 3-4 weeks now.

 

I think they've only really played a couple of new songs on the earlier tour this year, Evil Twin and Breathing Lightning, same on the Maiden support shows and festivals. The hop is as they start to play their own shows they'll play more from it. So back then you'd have heard 2 songs max from FAK.

Agreed on being a great commute album, on the tube in London blaring this one through my AKG-K450'S quite a lot in recent times.

 

Charlie said in a recent interview that he's looking forward to dropping a few old songs and playing more new ones. Also, it's probably safe to say "Monster At The End" will be one of them because Frank said a lot of people are asking to hear it.

Someone said that the last time they headlined was the reunion tour. I've seen them headline after the reunion.

 

You're right. I saw them post - with Testament opening.

 

Perfect review

 

...and another with Exodus opening.

 

It's utterly baffling to me that Anthrax isn't currently playing Blood Eagle Wings live. Forget that I think it's an epic, they filmed a video for it in 2016 that obviously cost more than $10 so they must have had some sense that it's an important track on the album.

I saw a poster for their current European tour that specifically labels the shows as headlining gigs. So last night (June 8) they played in Nancy France as a headliner. This is the set list...

1. Impaled (sounds like this was an intro tape)
2. A.I.R.
3. Caught In a Mosh
4. Madhouse
5. Got The Time
6. Fight 'em Til You Can't
7. Medusa
8. NFL
9. Evil Twin
10. Antisocial
11. Among The Living
12. Breathing Lightning
13. Indians

There's no room in there for Blood Eagle Wings?

Anyway, here's Breathing Lightning from about 10 days ago. Joey Belladona for the win. And I'm the late guy to the party, I'm sure you've all heard Anthrax doing Neon Knights. Damn, Joey just kills on that song. You could nearly convince me that's Ronnie himself singing!

 

Totally agree with everything you said and I will add that they should nix "Got The Time". Never dug that one live. Comes off as a goffy novelty type song.

 

I would rather they drop Antisocial, but agree they should be playing Blood Eagle Wings.

 

For me....

1. Get Blood Eagle Wings into the set list.

2. Keep Breathing Lightning as it's awesome and catchy as ****.

3. Evil Twin is fine but it's not a future classic so rotate it in and out with Monster At The End and/or For All Kings. Both of these songs are better than Evil Twin, and I think both would really work live. Even the chorus of All of Them Thieves would sound huge live.

4. How about a medley? It's a dirty word for some people but I'm a fan if it gets more songs into the set, even if it's only partial versions.

5. Does Joey have a hard on about the first album? There's several songs on there that I would love to hear live. Again, even in medley form would be better than nothing.

 

Joey did a version of Metal Thrashing Mad on the Armed And Dangerous EP, and he did Deathrider on the reunion DVD, so he has at least done those two. I would love having Metal Thrashing Mad in the setlist.

 

If that's a headline set, it's pathetic. 12 tracks played as a headliner?! How long of a set could that have possibly been? And only 3 tracks played from their 2 latest releases? Enjoy that stay in nostalgia land, guys. Again, shaking my head at creating a kick-ass album and then refusing to support it live. Makes 0 sense.

 

I agree about playing the new stuff. I can see playing 2 or 3 older tunes. New album is too good to not be playing live.

 

Sometimes I wonder why these veteran bands don't release ep's instead of full albums. They're not going to play more than 5 new songs live anyway.

That's from their angle. For the fan, it would be maddening to think that a full album of songs like For All Kings would never be made, or that half the songs would be put aside and potentially fall through the cracks.

Could they release all the songs on 3 ep's and stagger the releases?

 

Well, that is what Down is doing currently, supposed to be on a 4 EP release schedule but they've only managed 2 so far. I think it might be hard to support from a record label viewpoint, I'm wondering if it's as profitable to release 4 EP's instead of one full album, not sure. I guess if you're a live concert attendee still, it matters more to you if they play new material than if you just care about listening to the album and that's it. But metal/hard rock seems built on the live experience so not playing it seems crazy to me.