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 Anthrax
Music of Mass Destruction - Live in Chicago (CD with bonus
DVD)
Sanctuary Records
April 2004
By Melanie “Sass” Falina
On December 5, 2003, Anthrax played a sold-out show to a feverish
crowd at the Metro in Chicago. Originally built in the late
1920’s as a Swedish Community Center, the Metro now is
one of the country’s hottest music venues. When you walk
into the Metro it’s dark and a little edgy - the quintessential
place for hard and heavy rock and roll. Last December, Anthrax
put on one of the best shows of their entire career –
and the best part is that they got it on tape. Music of Mass
Destruction, released this past spring on both CD and DVD, captures
the sheer magic of that concert.
“We were happy to do it in the Chicago area,” explains
Anthrax vocalist John Bush in an interview with Sass. “We
promised the people of Chicago we were going to do a live record
there a couple years back when we toured with Judas Priest.
And then it came to reality that we were probably not going
to have the opportunity to do it right because we were supporting
them and playing shorter set. We figured why would we do a record
in an opening slot, why don’t we do it when we headline?
We nixed that idea at kind of the last minute and we felt bad
about it, so we always figured that Chicago was going to be
the place we did it. Then we realized why are we going to do
just a live record instead of a DVD too?”
If you were torn as to which to purchase, the CD or the DVD,
I’d have to recommend the DVD. Beautiful, crisp colors
with the occasional dash of black and white flashes and a multitude
of various angles, this is probably one of the best visually
produced concert videos I’ve ever seen. There are lots
of crowd shows of rabid fans having the best time of their lives,
and also 18 cuts on the DVD as opposed to the 12 on the CD.
However, if you did opt only for the CD, Anthrax’s performance
is top-notch. If you can listen to this recording while sitting
still – you’re deaf. Each song is just as tight
as if they were recorded in the studio. Even if you’re
not a fan of Anthrax’s music, you can’t watch or
listen to this performance without gaining respect for the band
both musically and performance wise.
Some of the highlights of the DVD are:
“Safe Home” – You’d think someone forgot
to tell this band that “live” usually isn’t
as smooth as the record. Amazingly clean and solid, and watching
Scott Ian’s feral onstage antics is a whole show in itself.
“Antisocial” – Who doesn’t love this
song? In addition to enjoying a classic Anthrax song, the audience
is just going nuts.
“Nobody Knows Anything” – With it’s
dizzying drum solo.
“Only” – My all time favorite Anthrax song.
The performance has all the power still that made me fall in
love with it when I first heard it, and the audience doesn’t
miss a beat singing along either.
And “Bring The Noise” - With John Bush’s
swimming pool-ish high dive into the audience and simply more
insanity from the crowd.
Bonus cuts on the DVD include “Fueled” and “Metal
Thrashing Man” filmed the following night at The Machine
Shop in Flint, Michigan.
There’s also backstage footage of the band, which is
always nice when included because that’s the kind of material
that fans generally don’t ever get to see. One snippet
in particular however shows Frank Bello forcing band mate Rob
Caggiano to take off his leather jacket for a photo shoot the
band was about to do because of the fact that no one else in
the band was wearing a jacket.
(Hey Frank…So what?!)
Other bonus features include a conversation with artist, Alex
Ross, who designed the album and DVD’s cover art. Charlie
Benante chats with Ross about movies like Spiderman and The
X-Men, and then receives a tour of Ross’ comic book “museum”
over his garage.
This is a visually stimulating recording of an amazing show…my
only regret is that I was not at the Metro that night in December
to see it in person. Music of Mass Destruction is a must have
for Anthrax fans everywhere.
http://www.anthrax.com/
http://www.alexrossart.com/
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