Metal Hammer spoke exclusively with Scott Ian today about Dan Nelson’s departure from Anthrax, working with John Bush again, and the future of Anthrax in general.  The controversial back and forth about Dan Nelson’s firing, I mean quitting, oops, I mean illness is actually getting quite old.

In my opinion, while talented, Dan Nelson wasn’t with Anthrax long enough for the story of his leaving to warrant more than 3 days or so of front page metal news. So unless John Bush decides to permanently rejoin the band, I’ll probably leave this story with Scott Ian’s words.

Says Ian:

“We stand by every word in our official statement. Because all we’ve done is make public exactly what Dan told us. He certainly was not fired – he quit the band, and we accepted his resignation. As for those comments about being fit to go on the road, and that we pulled the tour for other reasons…since Charlie (Benante, drums) join us in 1983, we’ve only ever cancelled one gig. That was in Düsseldorf in 1987, when Charlie was running a really high fever, and we had to send him to London for treatment. When we didn’t make it onto the plane to go to Sweden recently, to start our European run of dates, it went against every molecule in my body, and the same goes for the rest of the band.

“As a band, we learnt a long time ago that in these situations, it’s always best to tell the truth, If you lie, then it comes back to bite you in the ass. That’s why we were careful at every step to put things exactly the way Dan had told them to us. Why has he changed his story now? I can only assume it’s to save his own skin, and to avoid being seen as the bad guy. I can’t say that I blame him. But we have absolutely been completely truthful.”

Read the entire story at Metal Hammer, and tell me what you think… fired? Quit? Does it even matter why it happened?

[image: Newscom]

Post from: Metal Martyr

On the advice of counsel, I have remained silent to the statements issued by Anthrax in recent days and now must address these issues to my loyal fans and others. I want to set the record straight.

I was never seriously ill or sick at all, as reported in Anthrax’s July 17 press release. This extremely inflammatory statement hurt me tremendously. This statement misled fans, friends and family members into believing that I was seriously ill when I was not. I was not aware such a statement was being issued and it came as a total shock to me, as I’m sure it did to all of you. It was the other band members’ decision to cancel the tour dates, not mine. I was ready, willing and able to do my job.

After issuing the press release, the other band members decided, on their own accord, that I had ‘resigned’ from the band. I never resigned from the band.

Even in view of this action and stance taken by the band, as late as earlier today I made it clear that I was ready willing and able to continue to fulfill my obligations. After that offer was made, the most recent press release was issued which announced my ‘confirmed’ departure from the band. I was not aware of the contents of this release until after it was issued, nor was I aware that Anthrax was canceling the European and Slipknot tours.

I regret any disappointment and confusion this situation has caused.

Anthrax’s new album has been pushed back, likely to replace the vocals with whoever replaces Dan Nelson.

[via: Metal Insider]

[image: PicApp]

Post from: Metal Martyr

I was in my mid teens, working as a dishwasher during the time. My coworkers were all in to the grunge thing and were neo-hippies to boot. We had a prep room where we would prep food and had a cd player in there to listen to music while we worked. I would often get ridiculed for my music and get the typical “Kill your mother, kill your father!” mocking when they walked in to the prep room while I was working. I would either turn it up louder or change it to something a little heavier, darker or evil sounding. I didn’t mind grunge so much, but disliked a lot of people that listened to it for their total lack of having an open mind. Most of them were in to it because it was the popular thing at the time.

During that time you had to already be an established band or release an album of epic proportion in order to survive. Even the ones that struggled or didn’t pull through during that era still live in our hearts. The bands on this list were the ones that survived by releasing truly amazing work and deserve the recognition. I know I’ve missed a load of albums that deserve to be on a list of this sort, but keep in mind it’s just “10 Metal Albums” and not a “Top 10″ list.

Flotsam And Jetsam: Cuatro. Released in 1992, Flotsam And Jetsam were a radio hit band and had already been on the scene for almost 10 years when Cuatro was released. Their fourth album and their fourth bass player, Cuatro took a slight step away from their the thrash metal roots. Often overlooked and forgotten about, Cuatro was and still is a great album.

Anthrax: The Sound Of White Noise: (1993) Anthrax’s first album with, in my opinion their best singer, John Bush previously of Armored Saint, The Sound Of White Noise had so many killer songs on it. Beginning with Potter’s Field, Only, Room For One More, Packaged Rebellion, the list goes on until the end.

Iron Maiden: Fear OF the Dark. Released in 1992, Fear Of The Dark is never considered one of Maiden’s best albums but it’s not their worst. Sure it may not be a classic like most of the 80’s albums, but it was one of their best of the 90’s and has plenty of great tunes on it. This was also Bruce Dickenson’s last album before his return to the band in 1999.

Death: Individual Thought Patterns. Death’s 3rd release in the 90’s came in 1993 with Individual Thought Patterns. I bigger, cleaner sounding album than any one before it. ITP was my first taste of exceptionally technical death metal. If there is one subgenre of a subgenre you could label Death as, it would be Progressive Death Metal. Chuck Schuldiner always raised the bar a little higher with each album, but Individual thought patterns took it up a few notches.

Carcass: Heartwork. In 1993 Carcass were criticized by a lot of long time fans as breaking away from the grindcore sound and heading in more of a death metal direction. You can actually hear that transition in Necrotism, but regardless of what specific sound direction Heartwork took, the sound was amazingly clean, fast and ferocious. Still quite underground and unrecognized by the outside world, their Heartwork video put them on the map all around the world.

Entombed: Wolverine Blues. Another album criticized by their fans due to a lesser death metal feel and more of a “Death N’ Roll” sound to it, Wolverine Blues was still a great album. It may not have been fast but it was still heavy as all hell and punchy enough to be a classic. The title track and others such as Hollowman, Full Of Hell and Out Of Hand, you can’t go wrong with this album.

Suffocation: Pierced From Within: Suffocation released their last album for a long time in 1995. Pierced from within was the best sounding album of their first 3. The production was cleaner and Roadrunner Records was taking off like a bat out of hell. Unfortunately this was almost the end of Suffocation as touring as a death metal band at this time was barely livable income. 9 years later the legacy would begin again.

Fear Factory: Soul Of A New Machine. Before Nu-Metal actually had a name there were bands like NIN and Fear Factory releasing albums in the early 90’s. I don’t think it was until Korn’s self titled release that people started to truly hate what was to become a monster mainstream metal genre. Soul Of A New Machine was just considered a new metal band with their first major label release. Not an album that catapulted them in to the nu-metal world like Demanufacture, but a great album.

Helmet: Meantime. Helmet’s 1992 release introduced a slightly different sound to the metal scene. Coming out of NYC, The post hardcore band still brought a slight hardcore sound to them with stop-and-go riffs that were heavy enough to be called metal and a sound that was still raw enough to keep them out of the mainstream. Most people can only name one song from Helmet, that being Unsung.

Sepultura: Chaos A.D. Another band that was raising the bar with every release was Sepultura. With a consistently small change of sound to each album, Sepultura released, arguably their best album with Chaos A.D. in 1993. This was also a turning point as we saw more down-tuning that ultimately lead to Roots, the worst album of the Cavalera, Sepultura era.

Metal never died during the grunge era and it was never mainstream. Hair metal/glam rock was sort of mainstream, but the metal we love with the ferocity, controversy and darkness was still well underground. If anything Grunge did us a favor by decimating glam and weeding out the bands that weren’t quite good enough to make it. Sadly there were some bands that were good enough but fell to the mass-marketing of grunge. No big label wanted to sign another metal band when grunge was the money maker. Lucky for a lot of metal bands there was still the independent labels like Roadrunner, Metal Blade and Nuclear Blast that knew that grunge was only a fad and believed in their metal bands and fans. Every genre has it’s fads and trends, but sooner or later they die or fade away and the true warriors and torch bearers of that genre keep marching strong. The rest end up on VH1 classics…

(all images: Amazon.com)

Post from: Metal Martyr

Off of the top of my head I can think of two bands that should get inducted, well before Metallica, such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. There are other bands that I’d like to see get inducted…after the previously mentioned bands. I don’t want to see Dave Mustaine inducted under Metallica. He deserves to be inducted for his band, Megadeth, not a band that he contributed to. So with them on top, here are five bands of the Metal Genre that I believe should be inducted.

• Megadeth: A given. If Metallica can get inducted after releasing albums such as St. Anger then Megadeth deserve a nomination, right?
• Motorhead: A huge influence on so many of the rock and metal bands of today. How has this not happened yet?
• Pantera: Seriously, they had a huge impact on the metal scene and they don’t get enough credit for persevering and pushing through the grunge era.
• Danzig: With the contribution of The Misfits, Samhain and , well, let’s at least say the first four Danzig Albums, Glenn has made some great music that has influenced a lot of bands to include Metallica. Though I get tired of the satanic overtones in everything that he does these days, Glenn is a a great composer of music.
• Slayer: If Metallica can get inducted, why can’t Slayer? They had some totally awesome albums over the years, even though everything kind of went bland after Season In The Abyss. they still have had a huge impact on the metal scene since their inception.

Sure these are some old school names, but there aren’t many other bands that deserve recognition. There are a handful that deserve an honorable mention such as Exodus and Anthrax. Sadly Motley Crue will probably be inducted before any of these bands, even Maiden or Priest. That’s how the corporate jack-offs in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame roll.

So, the ultimate question; who do YOU think deserves to be inducted in to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame from the metal (in general) genre?

Post from: Metal Martyr

You know, this is pretty cool but if I’m going to make shelf space for anything it would be for this Mister T. “I ain’t gettin’ on no plane!”

Image Source: Scott Ian: Actionfiguresinsider.com

Mr. T: Entertainmentearth.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

Anthrax Sound Of White Noise

In 1993 I was a BMG Music member and they sent Anthrax’s Sound Of White Noise to me because I didn’t respond to that bullshit scam they have been playing for years with the Featured Selection. My mom wanted me to send it back, but it was some new music and I kept it. I would listen to it every now and then because I liked the song Black Lodge and Only that they played on the radio.

This afternoon I had to take the family to Dollar Tree to pick up the usual crap you pick up from the dollar stores. I was in the section where they have dvds, VHS tapes and sometimes cds. Normally there is some crap like some 98 Degrees cd that never sold in the record stores so you know how it works. The dollar store gets crap that no one else can sell. So long story even longer, I started to shuffle through the garbage they had there and to my surprise I found Anthrax Sound Of White Noise Expanded Edition with the 4 extra songs on it including the string mix of Black Lodge. I pawned my copy in 94 for a few extra bucks towards an acoustic guitar that I later traded for some crappy 10 watt amp.

If I’m not mistaken, this is the first CD with John Bush on vocals and I think he did a great job while he was with them. For the most part this CD is really good and I enjoyed listening to it and kinda reminiscing today.I’m not a big Anthrax fan and this is the only other disk I own beside Stomp 442, which was a garbage cd in the first place.

The Best songs on this CD are (In no Particular Order) Potters Field, Black Lodge, Hy Pro Glo, Room For One More and Only. If ever you come across something like this in your local dollar store by all means pick it up! This was a dollar well spent in my opinion.

Image Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c4/AnthraxSoundOfWhiteNoise.jpg

Post from: Metal Martyr

I saw Slayer at The 9:30 Club in D.C. back in 97 during the Diabulos In Musica tour. System Of A Down opened the show with Clutch following…it was a long wait through System Of A Down because I had never heard of them before and their live show was absolutely excruciating. Clutch was pretty cool but when you have 500 or more people waiting anxiously to see Slayer your kind of screwed no matter who you are. Imagine your in a band going on before Slayer and while your an established band everyone in the venue is screaming “Slayer-Slayer-Slayer” before you even get through your first song.

Not only was this a great show because it was Slayer but I got to go to signing session up in Baltimore before the show and got one of my prized possessions autographed by the band. I have a copy of ‘Til Death Do Us Part, a studio rehearsal session recordings from 1984 on vinyl from Jester Productions that I found in a record store in Woodbridge Virginia that actually sold records and cassettes. As far as I know and from what the sleeve says there are only 500 of these out there and I got Slayer to sign the back of it. Unfortunately this was back in 97 and Paul Bostaph was the current drummer and while he is a great drummer, Dave is the one in the picture from ‘84 so he signed off to the side. Maybe one day I’ll get to see Slayer again and get Dave Lombardo to sign it. That would allow me to die happy.

Post from: Metal Martyr

After keying in the basic bands that every metalhead should be listening to I would try to bring it more modern by introducing bands that have come and gone like Guns N Roses. There is someone out there right now saying “But GNR aren’t gone, Axl just hasn’t put out the new CD yet”…trust me…G n R are dead but they are not forgotten. While more hardrock than metal in my opinion, you can’t deny the fact that they ruled their world during their day.

Moving on. I would also try to convince them to listen to some death metal to get a feel for what is to come in the present day metal. Bands like Carcass, Entombed, Morbid Angel, Grave, Sepultura, Obituary, etc., etc. And of course I would have to include some GOOD nu metal (your scratching your head wondering if there is such a thing). Bands like Nothingface, Slipknot, Mushroomhead, Fear Factory, and yes, even some Korn. Limp Bizket can kiss my choclate star fish, the only thing I would recommend for them is the trash can.

Moving Forward I would show them bands of today like Lamb Of God, Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, Yakuza, Hatebreed, Mastodon, Shadows Fall, Machinehead. Bands that are still on top of their game and just continue to get better with time.

I would also urge them to sit down and see just exactly where metal has gone and see what trends have come about in metal and show them how much carbon copy bands there are being signed by every other label out there. I would show them bands that have stood the test of time and bands that are fighting to stay in the scene due to the digital era.

These are just some of the things I would recommend to a new metal enthusiast. So that brings me to my question,(which may in turn introduce me to some new bands)…What would YOU recommend?

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Post from: Metal Martyr

What ever happened to Odin. You remember those guys from The Decline Of Wester Civilization: The Metal Years. Yeah…(laughing) that dude that was wearing the big hair and ass-less chaps. The band that swore they would be the next huge thing and were so close to closing a huge record deal. The band whose singer said he would kill himself if he didn’t make it big.

I did some digging and this is what I found out: Randy “O” (Frontman)didn’t kill himself. He actually went on to form another shitty band called The Lostboys. Along with him went Jeff Duncan (guitar). They somehow got a record deal from Atlantic Records (bet Atlantic lost on that deal) and they released their lone album Lost And Found (wasn’t that a Mudvayne record?). The remaining members of Odin tried to keep on keepin on…but to no avail. The Duncan Brothers (Jeff and Shawn are currently in a band called Dc4. You can google them if you have brain cells to waste. Randy “O” does charity work with his family, so I guess he’s done something productive with his life besides front the greatest (or worst) band that never was. It was actually rumored that he said in an interview last year that the original members were making a record.

There were a slew of other bands that swore up and down that they would make it big in that movie and there were actually a few that did. The ones that did were the ones that had already established themselves in the world of metal like Megadeth, Anthrax, and Motorhead. And if you like these kind of things you can see Ricki Rachtman in all his poser prowess in this flick.

Post from: Metal Martyr

“Anthrax is excited and proud to introduce their new singer, Dan Nelson. Nelson is a virtual unknown, having fronted several local bands in the Long Island/New York area in the past. Says drummer Charlie Benante, “Rob [Caggiano] called me and said, ‘I have a singer, you should check him out.’ We gave him a shot, and he floored us.”

After a successful reunion tour with former singer Joey Belladonna in 2006, there were rumors of recording a new album with that lineup. However, talks fell through and the band was left, once again, without a singer. Enter Dan Nelson.”

Click here for the full story Anthrax Announces New Singer

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Post from: Metal Martyr