The Greater Of Two Evils Alaska

The Greater Of Two Evils

Anthrax

Sanctuary Records, 2004

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 11/30/2004

You've got to hand it to John Bush and the boys in Anthrax -- they're not ones to play it safe.

Coming off of a live CD/DVD combo Music Of Mass Destruction, one would have expected the band to burst forth with a collection of new songs. Instead, the band turned to their fans, asked them for their favorite songs from the pre-Bush era of the group, then went in and re-recorded those songs.

The end result, The Greater Of Two Evils, dares the older Anthrax fan to see how the music has grown in nearly two decades while staying true to the structure of the songs made famous by vocalists Neil Turbin and Joey Belladonna. While these songs will never take the place of their original counterparts, they do hold up surprisingly well.

First things first: Bush is neither Turbin nor Belladonna. His vocal style is in a much lower range, so anyone expecting to hear Bush go for the high-pitch screams in songs like "Panic" and "Metal Thrashing Mad" are going to come away disappointed. And, I admit, I included myself in that category at first; it seemed like Anthrax was daring to disinter the corpses of their past and try to make those old skeletons dance -- never mind the fact many of these songs have been part of their live repertoire for some time now.