UMUR
Armed and Dangerous is an EP release by American thrash metal act Anthrax. The album was released in February 1985 by Megaforce Records.
There are 7 tracks on the 27:02 minute long EP. The first 5 features the, at the time, new lineup with new vocalist Joey Belladonna and new bassist Frank Bello. The last 2 tracks are taken from the Soldiers of Metal (1983) single and features the original lineup with lead vocalist Neil Turbin and bassist Dan Lilker. The first 2 tracks on the EP, which are the title track and Raise Hell are new tracks. The first mentioned is an excellent track which starts out with an acoustic intro and then builds into a thrash metal frenzy. An absolutely excellent thrash metal track that one. New lead vocalist Joey Belladonna really gets to show his wide vocal range on this track. The Armed and Dangerous track would also appear on the band´s 2nd full-length studio album Spreading the Disease (1985), which was released in October 1985. So of course that devaluates the track if you already own Spreading the Disease. Raise Hell is a fast rocker and while it´s a pretty good song it doesn´t reach the hights of Armed and Dangerous. The third track is a cover of God Save the Queen by punk act Sex Pistols. It´s well played but doesn´t do much for me. I much prefer the original with it´s wild and fierce attitude. The two live tracks that follow are great. Both Metal Thrashing Mad and Panic are taken from the debut album Fistful of Metal (1984) but these live versions with Joey Belladonna on vocals are much more powerful than the studio versions. A great treat. The last two tracks which are taken off the 1983 Soldiers of Metal single are more of a curiosity than anything IMO. They are both good heavy metal tracks but a far cry from the more powerful thrash metal tracks that the band would produce only a couple of years later.
All in all Armed and Dangerous is a very good release by Anthrax and quality wise a 3.5 star rating is warranted. Instead of searching out the original EP ( unless you´re a vinyl fanatic) I would recommend getting the 1998 SPV re-release of Fistful of Metal. That version of the debut album includes the full Armed and Dangerous EP.