ANTHRAX — We've Come For You All (review)

ANTHRAX — We've Come For You All album cover

Album · 2003 · Groove Metal

5/5 · 2018-04-03
Unitron

Anthrax is easily one of my favorite bands, and one that I've grown up listening to for much of my life. Some of my earliest memories of hearing the band come from both first hearing Spreading the Disease and being blown away by the sheer speed and fury of songs like "Gung-Ho", which to this day I still think represents thrash metal at its most pure form of crushing aggression, as well as We've Come For You All. This album has a great variety of all the elements that makes Anthrax one of the greatest bands out there as well as a couple well-placed experiments.

Anthrax is the only one of the big four that has never made a bad album, and when you look at what the other three bands were doing at the time, We've Come For You All easily wipes the floor with them. With a relentless combination of groove and thrash metal, as well as melodic traditional heavy metal and a little bit of death metal (yes, you read that right), We've Come For You All ended the John Bush-era of the band on an excellent note.

If there were any doubts of Charlie Benante deserving to be mentioned alongside Dave Lombardo and Gene Hoglan as greatest metal drummers, one listen to "What Doesn't Die" should get rid of any doubts. Just really take in the blistering speed and pounding blasts, it's amazingly tight without sounding too calculated. Benante is a master at his craft on all of the band's albums, but I think it really stands out on this record especially. "Black Dahlia" is another track with some spectacularly fast drumming, sometimes reaching death metal levels of intensity. Benante's drumming combined with the guitar riffing in parts of the song is what brings in the slight death metal element.

This is an album dominated by massive grooves and addicting hooks a plenty. Name almost any song, and you'll get a punch in the gut that immediately gets your head banging. "Superhero", "Refuse to be Denied", "Nobody Knows Anything", the thrash anthem of a title track, and the aforementioned two songs are just so fun to listen to. John Bush vocals are a huge part of what makes these songs so addicting. I could not imagine any other voice screaming in such a badass fashion. Obviously the grooves wouldn't be there though if it wasn't for Rob Caggiano and Scott Ian's riff wizardry and Frank Bello's killer basslines. Blended with Bush's delivery of 'Is that too much to ask?' on "Superhero", you just have to get into the groove.

As far as the more melodic tunes go, I've always loved "Cadillac Rock Box" and "Think About an End" the most. The former is one of two songs on the album that feature Dimebag Darrell contributing, the other one being "Strap It On". Another guest star was The Who's Roger Daltrey on "Taking the Music Back". Pretty impressive guest list if you ask me.

While It doesn't quite beat Stomp 442 as best of the John Bush-era albums, it's a very close second and the one that I have the most nostalgia for. If you want to hear groovy thrash with a melodic edge done at it's best, this should be an essential listen.

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