Review Summary: While it's certainly surpassed by Spreading the Disease and Among the Living, State of Euphoria is still a good album all its own that showcases their fun-loving side.
State of Euphoria was the first Anthrax album I'd ever heard. All I remember from my first listen is being particularly impressed with Be All, End All, but I know for certain that I greatly enjoyed it. So it was quite a surprise to go on the internet and see that this album was criticized so much, cited as a low point for the band even! How could this be? I remember State of Euphoria rocking damn hard.
Of course, now that I've since listened to Anthrax's repertoire, I can somewhat see why this record is an object of derision at times. State of Euphoria is consistently quality stuff, but the level of quality rarely elevates to the level of Among the Living or Spreading the Disease. It's also less balls-out heavy than Among the Living, still bringing the speed when necessary, but a bit more sparingly. By no means is this album bad, or even below excellent. It's just not as good as the amazing album that preceded it. There are definitely memorable riffs a-plenty, and the vocal lines are arguably catchier this time around, but while there are moments where I went "Wow, that was cool!" there were no moments like, say, the "war dance" in Indians, or that moment of amazing riffage from A Skeleton in the Closet. That's my biggest concern; the songs are definitely pretty good when you're listening to them...but they don't stick with you...if that makes sense.
I'll elaborate more about the differences in sound that this album has. The drums don't sound as pummeling as they did on the previous album. The bass doesn't stand out as much, which is a real shame because Frank Bello is the bee's shins. Scott and Dan again dish out some good riffs, but it appears that they aren't the standout musicians this time around. Rather, it's Joey Belladonna who
really shines here. On State of Euphoria, he appears to have found a good balance between the more aggressive style on Among the Living and the more melodic style found on Spreading the Disease. He really gives it his all here. Even the backing vocals have gotten more melodic, with less shouting than on Among the Living. This is still a release from Anthrax's thrash period in the '80s, though, and that's clearly apparent here. There's no shortage of speedy moments here; it's just not exactly in the surplus this time around. The mood here is different, too; Anthrax was known for having some fun on-stage, and this album is a great example of that. Hell, just look at the cover!
Rather than continuing with comparisons to the band's previous works (after all, that's what gains this album its undeserved bad rap), I'm going to head into the songs themselves now. Be All, End All, the very impressive opener, begins with an ominous, droning violin which leads into the same awesome riff played in guitar. Charlie pounds the toms here before the song picks up nicely. Pleasant midtempo metal, with more of the awesome riff. Just before it can begin to become played out, "YES! NO! YES! NO!" Joey comes in yelling as the song suddenly speeds up. When I'd heard this, I knew right away that Anthrax were definitely worthy of listening to often (and they really would be in my favorites if they hadn't released three disappointing albums in a row). Instead of summing up the whole song, I'll just say that it stays catchy and heavy throughout, nicely balancing midpaced and fast sections. The chorus here is particularly memorable. Out of Sight, Out of Mind immediately follows suit with a fun and bouncy riff. Fun's a pretty good word to describe this song, actually. After some pretty good midtempo and breakneck thrashing, this one suddenly shifts gears into a pretty cool little slower mosh section, which becomes a common trick deployed on this album. The lyrics here are a stark contrast to the last song's serious opposition to suicide, instead being a goofy rant against plagiarism. A lot of the songs on this album are like this; switching between fast and midpaced with cool riffs and catchy vocal lines, usually with a slower, heavy section at some point. The goofiness is almost in excess with this song, with shouts of "stupid, dumb, idiot, moron!"
Make Me Laugh has an ominous introduction, which develops into a pretty good five minute thrasher with biting lyrics about religious hypocrisy. "God says go and masturbate, God says file taxes late! God says paint your face all sick, God says be a
real prick!" The lyrics to this song were especially effective during the '80s, which was the time of the Moral Majority and televangelists. Antisocial is a cover of French heavy metal band Trust. Pretty good little tune, and one of Anthrax's best known songs, actually. I've always thought it odd when a cover ends up being one of a band's most known songs, but whatever, it's a good tune with some cool riffs. I definitely like it more than I'm Eighteen. This album's lyrics can't all be fun, though; Who Cares Wins is a dark, seven minute thrash epic dealing with the plight of the homeless and how no one really seems to give a *** about them. It's also another of the album's best songs, opening with an ominous clean guitar intro. "There but for the grace of God!" Once again, the chorus is pretty catchy.
Now It's Dark is about the 1986 movie Blue Velvet, and I'm pretty sure it's named after a line from the movie. It lifts lines from the movie, too; "One ***in' WELL DRESSED man!" I haven't seen Blue Velvet, though, so I can't really understand the lyrics 100%. This song actually isn't too memorable, really, which is part of a larger problem with this album; a lot of songs on here aren't exactly bad, but they aren't particularly awesome either, especially since they came a year after a masterpiece. Schism has yrics about racism and a lovably cheesy chorus. "SCHISM! Sca-sca-sca-schism!" Unfortunately, this one isn't super memorable either. Misery Loves Company, about Stephen King's 1987 novel (Yep, this was before it was a movie!) Misery, is better than the last two. There are more memorable riffs and lines in this one, and the mosh section is pretty cool. It's a bit repetitive, though; it wouldn't have hurt to trim a minute or two, no?
13 is a filler track centered around the bass, drums, some strange chanting, a nasally repeated cry of "Hey, hey, hey!", a strange sound effect of breaking glass, and steel drums for whatever reason. It's an instrumental that's less than a minute long and that doesn't seem to have much of a point. Finale is one of the album's better songs. I'm not really sure what it's about, but it seems to have more goofy lyrics. "I hear your momma's callin' you!"..."I drink three six packs just so I can look at your face!" It also seems to reference that it's the last song on the album. The phrase "Over, finished, done, gone, out!" is repeated, along with shouts of "Finally!" Out of nowhere, things crank up to a breakneck pace with some pretty cool thrash riffs, and more funny lyrics. "Don't be a faggot, now that's the key, don't you know it's easy as one-two-three?"
Anthrax had some fun and kept the speed in reserve just a little this time around. There are memorable moments, but I can't think of much that excites me as much as anything else they'd released. I had a hard time deciding whether or not to rate this as a 3.5 or a 4, but I think I'll go with the latter, on the strength of tracks like Be All, End All, Make Me Laugh, and Finale. Although this was the album that got me into Anthrax, I'm going to recommend newbies to not to jump in with this album. Just remember that it's still far from bad.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS/BEST OF:
Be All, End All
Make Me Laugh
Who Cares Wins
Finale
