Customer Reviews

Music of Mass Destruction - Live in Chicago

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This live CD was *amazing* to listen to. The hair on the back of my neck was standing straight up from beginning to end. The crowd was singing along with John Bush's vocals, Charlie's drumming was *amazing* and Frankie Bello's bass playing just knocks you on your backside. It's a shame Frankie left the band - especially after hearing this. At least he had one heck of a swan song.

First off I have to say that my DVD/CD set is not the same as this one. The track list for Disc 1 is the same as my DVD and the music CD is identical with 4 songs cut from it. 'Belly Of The Beast', '604', 'Indians' and 'Bring The Noise' are not included on the audio cd. No big deal. Still a cool set because the DVD and audio CD are not from the the same night.
It has been my experience that watching the DVD first will make you appreciate any live show better. I've seen Anthrax several times live, but this is the closest I've come to seeing them live with John Bush. The sound on both is spectacular.
As with any band you like a lot, that has more than 10 cd's released, there will be songs you like that aren't included. I had hoped 'Tester', 'Invisible' and a couple others would've been included, but then you have to decide which songs included here should be cut....none.
If you are an Anthrax fan of the Joe Belladonna years, this is definately not for you. Bush's rendition of the old Anthrax tunes is less than perfect. If you are a Bush fan or just a hardcore Anthrax all-time fan, like myself, this set is awesome. 'What Doesn't Die' will have your ceiling fan trembling from the double bass drum and the show never slows down from there.

I became an Anthrax fan from the first notes of Potters Field from Sound of White Noise. How could something sound so heavy? It was awesome. I loved the first Bush era album, and then came Stomp which was a setback. Volume 8 was awesome, and the new cd We've come for you all is pretty awesome as well. This live album captures a rare feeling in which an entire crowd is so into the performance that their singing overcomes the band. Its pretty awesome sounding. The DVD that came with this is pretty cool as well. The album is pretty awesome. I wish the performance of Bring the noise from the dvd was on the cd, but that's okay. Great cd to jam in the car.

Even 20 or so odd years into their career, Anthrax still more than deliver the goods live and this CD/DVD shows why. Often compared to such heavy luminaries as Metallica,Slayer and Megadeth, 'Thrax(especially deep throated frontman John Bush) pummel through guitarist Scott Ian's tight,precise rhythms on "Fueled" and Charlie Benante's impressive double bass drum thump on "What Doesn't Die," like they're literally trying to beat the listener into submission. They accomplish this quite convincingly, as you can almost feel the sweat coming through the speakers. Older classics like "Antisocial" and "Got The Time" mix very well with the patriotic call of "Refuse To Be Denied," which John Bush dedicates to "all the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan." Clearly the band has not mellowed with age and more than likely never will, thankfully.

The DVD portion of this rates a 5 on its own, because of the inclusion of the entire raucous Chicago show, where the band rips through such masterpieces as the protesting "Indians" and "Bring The Noise," possibly the first rap/metal hybrid song ever created. If you want to know what real metal looks and sounds like, this is it.

Seeing Anthrax live in the late 80's was a truly amazing experience. To this day I have never seen a band that played tighter than Anthrax did (the Among the Living tour stands out particularly for me in this respect). Being at an Anthrax show was like hanging out with a bunch of rowdy friends and breaking stuff.

For some reason, and I don't know what it is, on the "Persistence of Time" tour, the band started sounding a whole lot less tight. If you think I'm nuts saying this, try and get your hands on a copy of their old VHS show NFV from the Among tour and then a copy of their second live VHS from their tour with Public Enemy (the name of it eludes me) and you will see what I mean. By the way, that show from NFV NEEDS to be released on DVD. It was absolutely amazing how good they sounded.

The band got a shot in the arm again when John Bush joined the band and released "Sound of White Noise", which I feel is the band's best work and the tour for that record was unreal. I saw their show in Cleveland that year and it is still one of the top 5 concerts I've ever seen... and I've seen many.

I've seen them twice since that show and both times were mediocre at best. They're just not as fun as they used to be. I attribute part of that to the loss of Danny Spitz who always seemed to be having a lot of fun when he was on stage and was a heck of a lead guitarist to boot. Why they booted him, I'll never understand.

This DVD/CD combo isn't half bad. They do seem to be playing a bit tighter than when I've seen them (most recently in '02 opening for Judas Priest), but I think the song selection is the weakest part. They seem to be picking some of their most mediocre new stuff (though What Doesn't Die and Safe Home both sound great), and the old stuff are songs that they've had in their repertoire non-stop for well over 10 years in most cases. They need to mix it up a bit. The only true stand out track on this is "Be All, End All" mainly because I haven't heard it played live in years.

I'm hoping the day will come when I hear a live Anthrax CD (or DVD) where songs like "Panic", "Gung Ho", "Among the Living", "Black Lodge", "Tester" and some of their more obscure stuff takes the forefront again instead of hearing "Metal Thrashing Mad" and "Got the Time" for the 6000th time. I think that would bring me back to the die hard Anthrax fan I once was.

not being the biggest we've come you all,vol #8and stomp 442 fan i thought i might not enjoy this that much but i was wrong live the songs will impress you more than on cd.I got the one with the cd/dvd both in one there is some more early classic songs on the dvd than the cd.bush definity pushes the crown to the limit and drives them to energize the band with singing along.this may be better than the other 2 live anthrax cds and the other dvds in my opionion.this is well worth the money and deserves it's place in any thrash collection

Most people think that belladonna is the best anthrax vocalist. This is not true he is an awful singer. I recently listened to some of his best stuff with anthrax its terrible. This album with the best singer John Bush (IMO) is brilliant. You cant fault it he is way better than belladonna. Just listen to John Bush on Caught in A Mosh compared to Joey Belladonna so dont listen to anyone who says otherwise. Everthing else about Anthrax is also stunning, just listen to the DRumming(Amazing) and the guitars sound Brilliant.
BUY THIS ITS BRILLIANT EVEN IF YOUR NOT A FAN OF ANTHRAX
THATS HOW GOOD THIS IS

Unlike this New York Wigger Clown who probably wears his Yankees hat sideways and says yo yo dawg. And was too much of a coward to leave his ID. The fact is without John Bush today it would be Anthrax who? With John in the band they rock harder and more melodic than they ever did. He should just stick to M&M and F-off. P.S. Armored Saint is 10,000 times the Heavy Metal Band that Anthrax will ever be!!! And if any more members of Armored Saint go over to help Anthrax out because there members keep dropping like flies then they should change the name to Anthrax Saint!!!

i never big fan of the band but i think they're always a great band and this live album sounds good, but the set list not contain most my fav tune like anyplace but here, indians,AIR, madhouse(one of their best song ever), among the living,etc

but for anthrax fans this is must have!

the album is great, anthrax finally has an official live album now. my only gripe against this and any other anthrax release in the 90'is john bush. sure, he works fine for bands like armored saint, but bush doesn't have the charisma of joe belladonna or the vocal power of neil turbin, hes just a generic vocalist, hell, not even a vocalist, he barely registers as a singer. well the hell did scott ian get rid of joe belladonna? surly the david lee roth of thrash metal for this john bush guy who doesn't even fit anthraxs music? thats the only thing i really don't like about this album, you have the rest of the band roaring and bush can't even catch his breath, he almost ruins classic anthrax songs because of his crap vocal ability (anthrax is one of those bands where the vocals are an important part of the music, and it takes a skilled vocalist to deliver the lyrics right) but that can be overlooked because the rest of the band is in such fine shape hear. buy it if you are in to anthrax, just be bewarned about bush.