Is Bush like the Blaze Bayley of Anthrax?
Out of the new one and Worship Music, I like the new one a lot more.
No no no, Bush is not the Blaze of Anthrax.
What was amazing was that Anthrax was still arcing in 1992. They were never more popular, and their current album, Persistance Of Time, was arguably their strongest to date. It really made no sense to bail on Joey at that time.
I think they could tell that with grunge getting more popular, they'd lose some appeal as Belladonna's "80's voice" wouldn't translate into the 90's. But to me, they completely panicked. Yeah, Armored Saint, though they also made there strongest album at the same time, seemed to be on their last legs as well.
So the move was made. Now John Bush is all kinds of awesome, so I was curious about this. I was a bigger Armored Saint fan than Anthrax, but I loved both.
The first album was Sound Of White Noise. It has aged very well, but I could not wrap my head around Bush singing for Anthrax and it took some time for the album to sink in. It a good album though. I saw the tour a couple of times, and they even had a big MTV Headbanger's Ball promotion on it. Original guitarist Dan Spitz left after the tour.
Stomp 442 was next, and I love it. A lot of the solos were done by Dimebag Darrell. This album, especially lyrically, has Bush's fingerprints all over it. I think that's what I like the most.
Volume 8: The Threat Is Real is completely all over the place. Not sure WTF they were thinking on this one.
and after a loooooong time, We've Come For You All was released and I personally cannot get into it. It's very heavy, but to me, it goes nowhere. Still a lot of guys I respect love it, so there.
One thing they did which was cool was release The Greater Of Two Evils, which was band rerecording live their older stuff with Bush singing on it. It's great.
I think all in all, during the Bush era, Anthrax could never figure out that kind of band they wanted to be, and just ended up wasting 20 years. I think ultimately it was a case of the Whole NOT being greater than the sum of its parts.
I feel like the new one is more immediate than Worship Music. It feels a bit more direct. But Worship Music is awesome.