Among The Living

Saved Prior: None Off Rip: Among The Living, Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.), A Skeleton In The Closet Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Loved the drums and guitars immediately, but took me a while to warm up to the vocals and lyrics. Never got all the way there, but still rips. So far I've graded 1 album from 3 of the Big 4 of Thrash and I've got 1. Megadeth 2. Anthrax 3. Metallica

Better than expected.

6/10

Rips so hard I want to black out on Bud Light and worship Satan

not a huge fan of thrahs metal but its alright, lyrics are kinda funny and its listenable

\m/\m/

Well, that was a fun little trip down memory lane but not a trip I care to make again. Anthrax was genre-defining in their day, for sure. But there are just so many better metal/hardcore bands out there now. With the perspective that comes with the 34 years between now and when this album came out, it's clear that the vocals are amateurish and the songwriting is ... really shallow. It's pretty lame, honestly. But the musicianship is excellent and the performances are on point. Anyway, it didn't suck overall but it wasn't as awesome as I remember it being.

Hard core metal. The singer sounds better than the Sepultura guy at least. This is ok. Lots of talent in there - drummer is insane. Guitar is driving everything. NFL made me laugh. Some songs are just derivative, like Skeleton in the closet. I'm giving it 2 stars, but that's like 5 stars for this genre.

3/10

yuck

CHUGGA CHUGGA CHUGGA

I feel like most of these songs are pretty good. Actually love the more punk approach to thrash on this thing. With that being said, this album is very one dimensional. Especially after a couple of listens, this wears it down a fair bit. One of the few acts I'd rather listen to songs instead of an album. Still I can' t be to critical of this.

I honestly can’t tell if this is a cover band. So many of the songs sound the same: exact same tempo and drums. Not sure how this became seminal in the genre.

I like the sound of it but wasn't in the mood for thrash today. I'll have to return to it.

I was slightly surprised I liked this album as much as I did.

Pretty good

I'm sure that is something that I will enjoy much more in my teenage years. Classic metal with all the pros and cons of this loved music style. "I am the law" is an instant success.

Eipä tarjonnut ihmeitä mutta silti jätti pienen poltteen kuunnella lisää. Pitänee perehtyä Anthraxin tuotantoon tarkemmin.

Loppua kohden aloin lämmetä ja hyvä kokonaisuus

This takes me back. My mate Tim loved this record when it came out, and we listened to it a lot. We both liked thrash, but were much more attracted to the skateboard friendly end of the genre (Anthrax, plus local faves like the Hard-Ons, Massappeal, the Hellmenn) rather than the metal-dude end (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer). I didn't skate, but Tim did. And they were a bit funnier and relatable. This album really took me back, and I enjoyed the clean, unpretentious production (by Eddie Kramer, which surprised me to read). This is a really minor note, but I find the use of double kick on this album tasteful. many bands just run the double kick the whole way through songs, and I find it exhausting and, ironically, reduces the impact of the speed.

Fun.

The drumming is the most consistent element, and holds the album together as well as it can through the slog of a middle section. The pace of the rhythm section fits the race through a collage of rock styles extremely well, but somehow gets stuck in the mud for fifteen minutes. A more focused effort would be insanely entertaining, even recorded.

I’ve been shouted at and I feel angry

trasheira

Not for me

Previously, I had dismissed Anthrax as bog standard metal but that was refreshingly progressive.

Well-polished metal album

Nah.

Fun ride.

Being generous here because there's a song about Judge Dredd, but thrash metal is not for me, and neither is this album.

It thrashes, which is what it set out to do.

Bad metal.

Everything about this is super cool and good except the vocals, which I do not dig at all.

Huulu störande hugh hat? I en av sångerna helt based gitarrdel i en annan dock 2/5 ja börjar btw from nu me att måst dom lyssnas före död eller ej. Den här måst int!

Mostly disparate elements that don't form a cohesive sound, occasionally odd mixing too. I hope the drummer enjoyed himself, at least

Every song sounds the same and has very little emotional depth imo. Don't like it aside from some funny lines.

Uh, this was harder to listen to than, say, Pantera. It's a little like fruit roll-ups. I remember liking them when I was young but they just don't appeal to me now. Good memories of Anthrax though, long live skate thrash!

Not a fan ...but yeah could get into some of it

One of the prime albums in Thrash and helped establish Anthrax as a force to be reckoned with in 4 way of ‘best thrash band’

Klassieker onder de metal-albums. Duidelijk te merken dat deze band inspiratie was voor vele recentere groepen. Volume op 11 en genieten!

Just a bunch of shouting people 2/5

Antes eu considerava que não precisar escutar mais opções de metal, assim perdia riffs fundamentais como do Anthrax

An already biased opinion as a metal head! The Metallica homages are evident. Crisp, dry drums that are synonymous with thrash metal hammer away with barely intelligable lyrics encourage head banging. A properly adjusted equaliser makes more difference than it has rights to in order to elevate the sound.

Two next albums are much better

Good for the Genre. I enjoyed it more than expected. I would gladly listen again.

Yeah, its kinda good. I honestly like Anthrax better than Iron Maiden.

Damn I liked this. I'm actually shocked. For me this is closer to Never Mind the Bollocks then it is to Paranoid, which I did not expect. The guitar histrionics tend to be short blasts then long drawn out wank-fests. 3 🌟

I used to listen to this album before my parents moved me from the armpit of Ohio, aka Toledo. I think I left the cassette in our old house and never missed it and hadn't listened to it until today. uhhhh.... One time, a long time ago... this spoke to me, but I guess I'm old because it was really hard to enjoy again. My younger self would've hated me.

Surprised that I enjoyed this album. Metal is not normally my favorite but Anthrax seems to add a punk sensibility to there metal ethos. The guitar histrionics are kept to short bursts and the songs have a punk attitude. 3 🌟

- definitely dry mixing - strong pace and energy - not the strongest anthrax album but maybe the most influential?

Pretty good metal album. Wasted on me.

Wasn't looking forward to this one, and I couldn't make my mind up whether I loved it or hated it, veering between the two as the album went on. Loved the energy throughout though.

I listened to a little bit of Metallica recently. These albums have led me to question whether I remember stuff I loved back in the day through rose-colored glasses, or however that metaphor goes. How much is nostalgia impacting how I review something I liked as a teenager? Well, listening to Metallica again, I realized I don't like it as much as I did in the late 90s (not a huge fan, but like them enough to own a few albums). Still some damn-impressive guitar playing and drumming, but the vocals and the whole package just doesn't do it for me anymore. Anthrax is worse Metallica. Much worse. The only question remaining is if Anthrax is worse than Venom... (If I had hair long enough to whip it around when headbanging, would I like this more?) Of the "big four" metal bands of the 80s (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax), Anthrax is the only one to never win a Grammy for Best Metal Performance. They even lost out to Tenacious D once, and Tenacious D is at least 1/2 loving parody. We'll see when the other metal bands come up on the list, but I think Anthrax just isn't that good.

I'd been holding off listening to this album for a while because I was sure I wouldn't like it. And while it's surely not my style of music, we've listened to so many worse albums in the interim that I don't think I can just damn it with one star. Were this a 10 star system, I'd probably give it a 2 - MAYBE a 3. But in this 5 star system, I've got to go with a 2, because it's not nearly as bad a some of the albums that have been virtually unlistenable. So cheers to Anthrax. You've earned this 2 by not sucking as much as others!!

I can handle the music for a couple songs, I can’t handle the “singing”. I just can’t get sit through more than a couple tracks, so it’s a hard pass from me.

Some nice guitar shredding.

Meh

Fucking metal. Great rhythms and riff. It's just powers through, every track with driving energy. My only complaint (and why I'm not giving it 5 stars) is that it does lack variety.

nicht so mein Ding

Bang your head.

Viel besser als gedacht. Teilweise richtig kluger Pop aber auch darüber hinaus

I've never been a fan of thrash metal. I tried listening to Slayer and Anthrax as a teenager, but didn't really get it and went back to punk music. However, I'm amazed I didn't enjoy Anthrax at least, since this album is basically as close to hardcore punk as metal gets. I like it. It's tightly controlled, fast and melodic. The singer sounds good. It's fun, but without becoming full-blown cheesy nonsense. My only complaint is the shouted gang vocals, which sounded dumb in NYHC punk and still sound dumb here. 4/5 - maybe even a 4.5.

Mi acercamiento con el metal como experiencia estética tiene ya muchos ayeres y nunca incluyó a Anthrax, aunque sí los ubicaba como una banda importante para el género. Más allá de que no sé nada del aspecto técnico de la música (y mucho de lo que se le celebra al metal va más por ahí), este disco me pareció ok, por decir lo más jajajaja, pero no me dejó nada, amsory

Ok but a bit to fast and furious.

Brings the noise. Not one I'll have on while the vicar is round

hate hate hate this. 1 star is an affront to the other albums ive given it to

Tried playing Anthrax in a glass house on the Oregon coast and the ocean disapproved. Anthrax is a serious infectious disease caused by gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria known as Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax can be found naturally in soil and commonly affects domestic and wild animals around the world. Although it is rare in the United States, people can get sick with anthrax if they come in contact with infected animals or contaminated animal products. Anthrax can cause severe illness in both humans and animals.

With the first strum of a bad guitar effect I was like, “I’m going to hate this.” But once the pounding double kick came in I was open to it being cool. It’s very heavy, which is what I found Metallica lacking. The band is definitely talented, at least technically. I like the punk rock chanting. I heard a lot of influences, Rush, Prague, Punk. I could see a direct line leasing from Anthrax to Rage Against the Machine. But overall, I found that after the effect of the driving metal wore off, my toes stopped tapping, I found it repetitive and boring. I also found the singer pretty lack luster—except for his wild banshee like screams—he doesn’t seem up to snuff compared to the technical skill of the band, his voice was just sort of bland/flat. I started out thinking it might top Metallica, but eventually I realized this album lacked the song craft of Metallica. But my toes were tapping the whole time and I was pumped. I’m thinking barely a two or a 1.

It's heavy in a way Metallica wishes they were. I was excited and hopeful when I clicked play, but that heaviness came at a cost of variety. I pretty quickly lost interest to the repetitiveness. Made for an interesting soundtrack as I sat in on a DE&I meeting.

An absolute thrash/NYHC classic

Thrasher

A esos mens los vi una vez que cubría un festival de metal para una marca que te vende derechos sobre la música del mundo por 100 pesos. Estuvo verguísima. Algo que se olvida un poco es que el thrash fue un tipo de música pop. Esta mierda vendía millones de discos. Anthrax me gusta porque son divertidos. Gente divertida con riffs fenomenales. Tienen una onda ahí callejera muy de Nueva York, muy italiana-judía que me encanta, me recuerda al NYHC en ese aspecto.

The brutal rhythm guitar work of Scott Ian and the explosive drumming of Charlie Benante relentlessly push the songs along while still maintaining a solid groove, and more than make up for some lyrical awkwardness. Among the Living remains arguably Anthrax's foremost achievement.

This was fine - some good riffs, production is a little light.

Bad. Unlistenable.

But much for a Saturday morning.

You can smell the monster energy drink sweating out of every pour of this album. Its not the worse of its genre as there are elements of an actual fucking tune on each track. Not my genre. Can't really mark in fairly. I like the cover so extra point for that. 2/5

2/5

Como todo el trash metal, me pareció chistoso, pero he de admitir que sí termina haciendome querer regar sangre por todas partes XD y convertirme en un no-muerto sádico. Nunca había escuchado un disco de estos abuelos del trash, fue una buena experiencia aunque este subgenero de plano no creo que entre a mis playlists de metal, supongo por esa insistencia en hacer un sonido sucio que no es realmente sucio remanente del punk pesadon que no me convence. Pero en fin, divertidín disco. Mood: Que llueva la sangre.

Recognized some songs, used to like anthrax a lot but not really my vibe anymore. Good for what it is

“Among the Living” by Anthrax (1987) Never heard this album, nor anything by Anthrax, as far as I know. Since I’m not very familiar with the thrash genre, these comments will be limited in context. The musical settings are appropriately harsh and foreboding, evoking the rage of the generation that had had just about enough of Ronald Reagan. High energy and aggressive beats. Makes me want to just sit back and listen. A little Anthrax in the morning! Very entertaining, with plenty of variety in tempos (mostly fast) and rhythms (mostly driving) with extremely abrupt turns and shifts. No toe-tapping to this music. The only dancing one could do to these rhythms would be in a mosh pit. Drums and bass very disciplined, and excellent lead guitar colorings. Nice synchronization of rhythm guitar and bass. Drum work displays significant virtuosity; very well rehearsed. Overall, the band is talented, consistently able to carry the creative motivation of each song to its intended effect. Excellent technical production. Drums recorded with good separation and depth. Good mix. Lead vocals are suitable for the genre, a little weak on diction. Backing vocals are crisp, with good pitch control and range. “I Am the Law” is appealing, intentionally derivative of the artistic theme of the Judge Dredd character from “2000ad”. Musically and lyrically it captures the milieu. “N.F.L.” is a generationally appropriate homage to the life and death of John Belushi. Kind of a “thrashumentary”—a fitting tribute. I think Belushi would have liked it, and then paid tribute in return by satirizing it. The intro to “Medley: A.D.I./Horror of It All” all is a refreshing variation in the album’s sound texture, before jolting back into the thrash style. Nice work on acoustic twelve string. The Anthrax approach to musical and lyrical composition seems to be “commentary” on well-chosen cultural events and the common themes of rebellion and “anti-establishment” protest. But they don’t express it as well as predecessors Bob Dylan, Stephen Stills, Joni Mitchell, etc. Lacking subtlety and nuance in its moral judgments, Anthrax would seem somewhat immature to more thoughtful adolescents and young adults, who might be put off by the denunciatory and condescending sermonizing. “Imitation of Life” is a great example of this shortcoming, but it runs throughout the album. Overall, a good album, but not on par with Black Sabbath or Metallica. I liked listening to it. 3/5

This album gave me anxiety!

I was never super into Anthrax. Not a huge fan of Joey Belladonna's vocals...but this is still a pretty classic album.

Metallica but not as good

Yes yes yes

That's a nope from me.

Ya me di cuenta de que el hard rock y el metal no me provocan tantas emociones. No me disgusta, pero escucho los discos como ruido de fondo, sin tanta atención. Creo que siento que vale más la pena para un concierto, pero no me motiva a escucharlos a menudo o cotidianamente. Se diría, que no es para mí. En ese espíritu, escuché Among the Living sin detenerme en minucias, pero logré destacar dos canciones "I Am The Law" e "Indians". El medley también tiene partes muy padres. 7/10

Probably translates well to a live show, attracting longtime following fans. A bit too clinical and clean to begin with, but losses up and gets funner as the album goes on. really like the music to ‘I am the Law’, but vocals are pretty annoying

thrash metal, nope.

No me gusta

Tasty thrash metal treat if you need a punch in the face, and today I needed one. Guitarist Scott Ian described this album as... “It really felt like we were being guided by the power of metal and it was out of our hands. Satan was channeling his will through us and we couldn’t help but succeed.”

Isn't what I would usually listen to, but that might have to change now. Really fantastic.

I just couldn't get into this one. The guitar work is clearly skilled, but the vocals just sound so whiny and the lyrics are so silly that it kept me from staying engaged with it.

Like listening to an angry 10th grader C-student who doesn't understand symbolism. Holy shit this album sucks. I would ratherdeal with actual Anthrax than listen to Anthrax again.

Glad thats over

Still prefer John Bush 🤘

good band drug down by a bad drummer

Rulez

It is one of the better meatal albums I've heard, but I still don't find it nice.

Like most thrash I can appreciate the technical skill, and in this album the lyrics have more variety and invention than the run of the mill, but the style just doesn't do anything for me, and a fair bit of it felt awfully monotonous, though there were some standouts.

Too much head banging

This is putting me in a bad mood. DNF.

the last half of this album goes hard as hell

Althoug having done the sound for them, in 1984 I think, on one concert in the Netherlands, this is not my music. I could bare to listen to the whole album to pick up memories.

I wouldn't call this an album you have to listen to before you die. Maybe it represents a genre that you should listen to, so that you know it exists. Like in the way you might try to share all of Earths music to an alien. I don't hate Antrax style metal at all, it's just not my thing. With the notable exception of Bring the Noise with Public Enemy. Aaaaaaaah shit!

I feel like the farther away I get from this period of heavy metal, the worse I assume it will be. There's actually a decent musical element to this, which I don't hate. Pretty good for a metal album.

Had a teacher who was a roadie for anthrax

Better than expected

great guitar and drums but the singing had little musicality or interesting meaning

Doesn’t get any more metal

Shreds.

Fast af

Heavy Drums and heavy guitars put together with top production quality. Has many pop reference and is a tribute to Cliff Burton. It's definitely a change of pace for this list. Although technically interesting many of the songs blend together.

Reminded me a lot of a slightly worse Metallica

Mörk Borg af

Banger!

Not my cup of tea, but had glimpses of Melody in places.

Spotify. Not my thing.

There are catchy riffs, I guess. From a general standpoint I struggle to get behind this genre, and this album did not seem to show me anything different to what I've already heard.

Nah

Though I don’t necessarily mind Thrash, it’s hardly my thing; but this was surprisingly catchy and almost punk-ish at times.

Thrash Classic

I didnt expect to enjoy this at all, but honestly it surprised me. Its incredibly energetic, and unlike on other metal albums that Ive listened to (and hardcore punk), the speed didnt bother me as much on this one.

Not into it