Review Summary: Ditching thrash metal and Joey Belladonna, Anthrax's first album with John Bush is, occasional boring track aside, their last solid album for years to come, featuring some terrific songs. The only worthwhile Anthrax album featuring John Bush.
In 1993, Anthrax released Sound of White Noise. Their highest charting studio album to date, SoWN sounds pretty distinct in comparison to anything the band had ever released before.
First and foremost, there's new vocalist John Bush. Bush, formerly of Armored Saint, certainly sounds pretty different from Joey. He's a terrific singer and a great fit for the new sound that Anthrax wanted to achieve here, sounding much gruffer than their previous vocalist. Yes, things are quite different here musically. There's a lot less speed here; riffing is much more reserved and melodic, while still being heavy when necessary. The production is also a lot thicker and more modern than before, further complimenting the new direction taken here. The lyrics are different; there really isn't any goofiness here, nor are there really any songs ranting about horrible things in the world like homelessness or intolerance. Instead, expect John Bush to be shouting about hypocrisy and liars and the like. The lyrics certainly sound like they're written by the sort of person who would often rail against that kind of thing. There's a song from the perspective of an aborted fetus, but I wouldn't really call that a rant about social issues.
I'd like to just go ahead and start with discussion of the tracks themselves already, rather than prattling on endlessly about how this album sounds different than anything they'd ever released before. It is worth mentioning, though, is that this album is much moreso unique from their earlier releases. Spreading the Disease was both faster and more melodically proficient, Among the Living was their fastest release yet, Spreading the Disease toned down the brutality a bit, and Persistence of Time was progressive and really heavy. Sound of White Noise isn't a thrash metal album, instead being a more standard early '90s metal/hard rock album. Decent '90s metal/hard rock album it is, though.
Potters Field opens up with some white noise (Clever, I guess...) before adding in some strange sound effects and shouting from what sounds like Scott Ian. Pounding drums come in and introduce this song, which is pretty heavy and aggressive. This track showcases John Bush's lower range and gruffness, as well as his melodic capabilities. This one's actually pretty fast in quite a few parts, and features biting lyrics about abortion. Cool shouts from Scott, too. ("I was born to, I WAS BORN TO!") Only is less heavy and a fair hit for the band. I heard that James Hetfield called this a "perfect song". I don't know about that, but it's still pretty damn good, packed with super-memorable moments. Of special note are the chorus and the little solo section starting at about 2:50. The last minute of the song is also really good.
Room For One More is also super catchy, but a lot heavier at the same time, with a super crushing intro. The chorus here is insanely infectious, as are the riffs towards the end of each verse. The song's "main" riff through the verses is really damn heavy and kind of gallops. A bit before the three minute mark, this song goes into this really awesome and heavy part where said near-end-of-verse riff is particularly prominent, leading into a solo. That riff is also pretty prominent in the outro. Packaged Rebellion features a cool guitar intro. The song as a whole took a while to really grow on me, but once I gave it more of a chance, I found a really good little hard rock/heavy metal type song. The lyrics are pretty nice here, and seem to deal with posers that talk about how they're all rebellious and hardcore and ***, but are really just in it for "packaged rebellion", basically just trying to seem cool and edgy. It's a bit hard for me to explain, but you'd understand what I'm talking about if you read the lyrics. Right when the song seems to be over, it suddenly goes into this
uber heavy conclusion that would be really awesome if it was just a bit longer. Hy Pro Glo seems to be another great heavy metal/hard rock type number with some cool riffs, but it kinda peters out about halfway through. Sorry, but this one doesn't do it for me. Neither does most of Invisible, for that matter, which also boasts an incredibly annoying intro. It gets better halfway through, though, with some super heavy, slow, crunching riffage that leads into a pretty good solo.
1,000 Points of Hate isn't particularly interesting either, some cool riffage aside. Boring songs like this and Sodium Penthanol would go on to plague the remainder of the band's Bush era. Black Lodge, which is in between these two songs, is a pretty good listen, though. It's a well-written ballad with a really, really good (if brief) solo, titled (and maybe about, I've never watched the show) after a location from Twin Peaks. The show's composer helped write the song, too. (Interesting note: Twin Peaks was co-created by David Lynch, whose movie Blue Velvet inspired the song Now It's Dark from State of Euphoria.) If you needed a quick blast of breakneck speed that was formerly common on their earlier works, and Potters Field's switching between midpaced and fast wasn't sufficient for you, the appropriately titled Burst will do the trick. The riffs are at maximum velocity here, and the vocals are loud and freaking
angry. Back to the slower and heavier approach with the longest song of the album, closer This Is Not An Exit. The riffs here are crunchy and heavy, and the drumming certainly matches this approach. Like many other songs to be found here, this one features a pretty heavy and cool riff just before a solo. This one gets louder and faster as it builds up to a conclusion...or so you'd think.
"Be dangerous...and unpredictable. And make a lot of noise." And then white noise. That's right; they used the same-sound-at-the-beginning-and-end gimmick. Think Dark Side of the Moon, which begins and ends with a heartbeat.
It's a bit hard to rate this album overall. I'll give it a 4/5 for the strength of its best tracks. There are certainly some very good songs here. The ones that aren't really good are simply boring. Nothing memorable or interesting, while also not being memorably or interestingly bad. This problem would get worse and worse on Stomp 442 and Volume 8: The Threat Is Real. Neither of these albums are worth your time, and neither of them are memorable or interesting at all. When it comes to John Bush-era Anthrax, Sound of White Noise is really the only album worth getting. It's certainly one worth getting on its own, though, because while there are boring songs like 1,000 Points of Hate and Sodium Penthanol, there are really great tracks like Potters Field, Only, and others.
RECOMMENDED TRACKS/BEST OF:
Potters Field
Only
Room For One More
This Is Not An Exit
