Customer Reviews

Persistence Of Time

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Of all the albums that Anthrax released with Joey Belladonna, this is most definately the best. It has the thrash of all the preceeding albums, it has serious and topical lyrics (unlike State of Euphoria, Spreading the Disease, etc), it has the longest songs of all the Thrax albums, it has the best production of all the Thrax albums and is the best musically. Joey does much less screaming on this album and sounds [mad] all the time. It is one of Anthrax's darkest albums.

1-Time: Time starts the album off great, a ticking clock builds into rapid fire drums and killer guitars. It's dark, melodic, and fast! The lyrics are great and the singing is some of Belladonna's best. The solo is scathing and the outro is amazing - Charlie Benante's drumming = incredible.
2-Blood: Filled with thought provocing lyrics this one is anchored in a heavy throbbing rhythm and powerful chorus. Charlie's drumming is unique and guitars are great.
3-Keep It In the Family: This is one of their best song. It starts off with a grinding heavy rhythm that builds into a fast metal song. The chorus is catchy and the lyrics are great. The song is not the fastest on the album, rather, it plods along with a slow, seething, feroicity.
4-In My World: This one was released as a single and it is worthy of it. The drums are first rate and the guitars progress in a building up to a surprisingly melodic chorus. The solo is amazing - the best on the album! The lyrics are angry and straightforward, but don't come off as pitiful or whiney. Scott and the boys are capable of writing truly great lyrics at times.
5-Gridlock: The albums only pitfall, this one is good, but it's not really up to the caliber of the album. The lyrics are a tad uninspired and the guitars, while good, are nothing ground breaking.
6-Intro Into Reality: This is one of the best instrumentals I've heard. It is a haunting, melodic, introduction to Belly of the Beast. It starts off slow and builds slowly in complexity and speed. Halfway through the drums come in and it picks up. It foreshadows parts from the following song. The greatest hits compilations leave this one off, I don't know why. Personally I don't think you can get the full effect of Belly of the Beast without hearing this first.
7-Belly of the Beast: The albums dark masterpiece. I think it has to do with the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, but some parts of it remind me of the Soviet Union. Either way it is a great track. The lyrics are some of the best they've ever written: "Who is evil, who is blind? In the name of who do you fight?" The bass work is exceptionally really showing off Frank Bello's talent. The solo is top notch. Pure Anthrax magic.
8-Got the Time: A break from the dark sound of the album, Got the Time is a cover of Joe Jackson. The subject matter actually fits well with the rest of the album. Frank again demostrates his skill in a great bass solo. The guitars are innovative and entertaining.
9-H8 Read: This song is a very thrashy one. The lyrics again are thought provocing. It deals with racial hatred as well as general animosity. The solo is good and the drums are great.
10-One Man Stands: Another masterpiece. This one deals with the Teanimen Square Massacre. The lyrics are amazing and moving. The way the vocals are arranged is intersting and the chorus makes you want to sing along. The guitars are bellicose thunder and the drums are a steady roll. Very political, very intense, Thrax at their best.

11-Discharge: The angriest song on the album, this one is straight up thrash. The guitars are just as dark as Slayer and so are the drums. The solo is great and the vocals are frantic until the chorus where they burst into an amazing dark melody. A very good way to end the album.

Persistence of Time(1990). Anthrax's Sixth Album.

In the 80's, Thrash was created in the San Fransisco Bay Area, with bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Exodus, Slayer, Testament, and Overkill aweing fans and releasing some of the finest and fastest albums ever heard. While San Fransisco was Thrash's breeding ground, New York band Anthrax would soon prove themselves to be one of the one of the best bands of the genre. Blending the fast and furious spitting and raging electric guitars with the often humorous and punky vocals/lyrics, their 80's albums, most notably 'Spreading The Disease' and 'Among The Living', became massive underground hits. Around the time of 'Persistence of Time's release, the world saw the release of '...And Justice For All' and 'Rust In Peace', two albums that revolutionized and popularized the genre. Instead of repeating themselves and using punk influences, Anthrax decided to drop everything but the speed and the heaviness, and the Thrash classic 'Persistence of Time' stands as one of the darkest, heaviest, and breathtaking releases of its time. Although they would go on to tour with Public Enemy and incorporate Rap elements to their music, and go on to Top Ten success with 'Sound of White Noise', 'Persistence of Time' finds them thrashing and rocking, all the while scaring the hell out of the listener. So, is 'Persistence of Time' one of Anthrax's best or weakest albums? Read on to find out!

Track Ratings-

Time- "Tick, Tick, Tick"... BOOM! Anthrax explodes out with the progressive "Time", a track that you won't soon forget. Think Slayer's dark? Just listen to Spitz's riff and you'll see they give Slayer a run for their money. Belladonna's sneering vocals spew out hate-filled lyrics with precision and ease, and the chorus is headbanging gold! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G-!

Blood- Wow. Think Lars Ulrich is metal's premiere drummer? Tell that to Charlie Benante and he'll shove it in your face. Sure to get your blood curling, "Blood" has incredible, creepy vocals from Belladonna with constant shouts of "MURDERER!" that are only a taste of the lyrics. Want kick-ass Thrash Metal? Listen up!

Keep It In The Family- "We Are Family"? Hell no! If you want that, go to a disco parlor. On the other hand, if you want headbanging electric riffs, creepy vocals and lyrics, incredible solos, and good-old Thrash metal, I suggest you unpause this song.

In My World- In my world, bands like Anthrax would be at the top of the charts and Good Charlotte and Blink- 182 would appear to be smears on the highway. Unfortuneatly, that won't happen, but we've still got the song "In My World", which features gloomy riffs and dark vocals, not to mention a Spitz solo that's sure to give everyone their daily dose of Thrash.

Gridlock- Muy Bein Benante! Combine Metallica's 'Hit The Lights' and Megadeth's 'Mechanix', with Belladonna's melodic vocals and a wicked solo from Spitz, and you've got yourself 'Gridlock'. Great musicianship here!

Intro To Reality- An intro to "Belly In The Beast", "Intro To Reality" finds Spitz and Scott Ian combining the forces of Rhythm and Electric Guitars to create a breath-taking 3 minute plus song. Great!

Belly of the Beast- Bearing a strong resemblance to Testament's 'Souls of Black', 'Belly of the Beast' is a bass-heavy Thrash rocker that practically bleeds sarcasm and pessimism. Gotta love the chorus!

Got The Time- Although Anthrax officially dropped their punk influences, this clearly points otherwise. Bello's addictive bassline behind Spitz's punky riffs give Belladonna the perfect punk beat to sing his heart out. An energetic, fun Thrasher!

H8 Red- Spitz spits(*) out a demented guitar beat, and Belladonna's questioning vocals only enhance the headbanging quality! Belladonna's melodic vocals work wonders here, and the chorus will simply blow you away. "Do I Hate You?!"

One Man Stands- 'Persistence of Time's masterpiece, "One Man Stands" is a dark, moody Thrash Metal standard not unlike the sound of late- Alice In Chains, except with melodic vocals and a beat sure to give you nightmares. I just can't describe it.. Anthrax progresses through many musical measures with ease, and the chorus is simply phenomenol.

Discharge- Simply *great*. Benante's super-fast pitch, Spitz's record-breaking guitar speeds, and Belladona's powerful vocals deliver a performance you'd come to expect from 80's Metallica and Megadeth. Powerful, ambient musicianship.......crank it up!

Overall, 'Persistence of Time', while not equalling its neighboring albums 'Among The Living' and 'Spreading The Disease', still stands as a terrific looks into one of Thrash's finest bands, Anthrax. The musicianship is *top*-notch, the tone dark, and the volume loud, so if you enjoy that, I suggest you take a listen. After this album, Anthrax would fire Joey Belladonna and hire vocalist John Bush, and would go on to create a Top Ten record and put Rap influences into their music. Unfortuneatly this technique didn't work out and ended up keeping the albums from ever retaining the glory of 'Among The Living', 'Spreading The Disease' and 'Persistence of Time'.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! FANS OF THRASH, HEAVY METAL, AND ANTHRAX WOULD HIGHLY ENJOY THIS ALBUM! THE LAST BRILLIANT ANTHRAX ALBUM!

Killer Kuts- "Time", "Blood", "H8 Red", "One Man Stands", "Discharge", and pretty much everything!

Also Recommended-

Among The Living- Anthrax
The New Order- Testament
Master of Puppets- Metallica

Thanks For Reading!

First off,I will confess to being a long-time Anthrax fan.I grew up with The Ramones as much as Black Sabbath,but I'll admit to being bored with metal by the time 1990 rolled around.Then came Persistence Of Time,scarcely a year before grunge was forced down our throats by music execs at MTV.Persistence saved metal as far as I was concerned and got me interested in the scene at large again.Its amazing,but there's not a bad song on this album.The opener Time sets the pace,chugging riffs,melodic leads(melody being unknown to bands like Slayer),and thoughtful lyrics about life,particularly their plea for us not to waste ours.Belly of the Beast is masterful,eloquent,and I feel inspired in by Orwell's 1984 as well as what was going on during George's reign in office.Even though all the songs on this album are worthy of a mention,Discharge definitely struck me.Everyday it seemed we were hearing about celebrities overdosing on heroin,driving too fast too drunk,and instead of Anthrax telling you to feel bad for the poor little self-indulgent hedonists,they point the finger squarely back in their faces and force people to take a look at their excessive lives.This album showed me there could be positive outcomes to tragedy.If you're an old school metal fan like me,more than likely you own this.If you're a newebie,you need to own this.You will not be disappointed.

When people think of Anthrax, their breakthrough album, Among the Living, always comes to mind as their best. Brilliant though that album is, I feel I got to give this album the edge, and I, personally, feel that it is the best old school thrash album not made by Metallica.(better than Rust In Peace, Peace Sells, and Seasons In the Abyss. Easily.)

After the somewhat disappointing and not terribly innovative follow up to Among the Living, Anthrax got things well back on track with this album. Though it is distinctly an Anthrax album, they still managed to change their signature sound quite a bit with out losing their identity. Time is generally slower than the 2 previous albums, but it's also heavier and much more dense sounding, particularly with the crushing rhythm work from Charlie Benante and Frank Bello, who make up one of the best rhythm sections in all of rock. Ian's riffs are thicker and more staccatto than his previous work, all of which makes the music a quite a bit darker than their previous albums. The lyrics are also darker, largely because they removed all the attempts at humor, as well as pop-culture tributes. Anthrax never wrote great lyrics, but they are generally at least passable on this album. These tend to focus on social problems, all surrounded with a healthy dose of misanthropy. Belladonna's unusual vocal style is the weak point, as it always is, but the music is so good that these don't matter to much. It's too bad this album wasn't recorded several years later with Bush doing the vocals. It would absolutely awesome if it had been.

Song by song this album is extremely consitent. The only real weak spot is H8 Red, which is fairly acceptable, since the songs that follow it are all pretty good, and all the ones preceding it are true classics. Time is a solid opener, with some solid pounding by the band, and some of the better lyrics on the album. The next 4 tracks are all standouts as well. Blood has got an awesome introduction, and Keep It In the Family has got an incredible bassline. Gridlock is faster, as well as more raw and punkier, like some of their earliest stuff. It's quite possibly the single best track. Introduction to Reality is essentially just an intro to Belly of The Beast, which is something of a centerpiece to the album. This is the other main candidate for best song. The rhythm work i simply spectacular, and Ian throws out some of his very best riffs. The rest of the album isn't as good, but still rocks. Got the Time is frequently called the best track, though this couldn't be further from the truth. It's fun, but sort hurts the continuity of the album, and simply doesn't stand up to the great stuff from the beginning of the cd. It gets back on track fully the final 2 tracks. One Man Stands has got another great intro, particularly in the use of the drums, and Discharge is a great closer, similar to the brilliant Imitation of Life from Among the Living, and is another frantic, barely controlled hardcore-like composition.

Anthrax is probably the least readily recognized of the 4 main thrash bands, which is tragic because they stand up well to anything released by any of those other bands. In my opinion, they are easily the better than Megadeth or Slayer. So if you don't have any Anthrax, go pick some up.

I listened to this cd after its been in my cd folder for awhile. I was blown away by the guitar playing, Scott Ian is an amazing guitarist and one of my faviortes now. Then I realized that every metal band out there, like Avenge Sevenfold, is ripping off this cd. A lot of riffs on this cd, have been stolen it seems. I dont see Anthrax getting a whole lot of credit for it either. Anthrax is a great band and need to have more credit then what they are given, they basically shaped the way speed metal is done today and bands attitudes.

Anthrax didn't have an easy time putting PoT out. For one thing, the studio they were working in caught fire, costing thousands of dollars of destroyed equipment. And for another, the band's relationship with vocalist Joe Belladonna was as pleasant as the relationship you have with your stomach if you drank a gallon of milk right before running the Boston marathon. But that didn't stop them from putting out this great platter. It had all the elements that made their past albums classics: Benante's technical drumming style, Ian's take-no-prisoners riffing, Spitz's unique leads, Bello's Steve Harris-like bass playing, and Belladonna's magnificent voice.

It also contained a few new things as well. The lyrics became more introspective and political. The Stephen King and Judge Dredd lyrics were now a thing of the past, which disappointed fans - myself included at first - that liked Anthrax because they were a "fun" band. The only "fun" song on the album was the remake of Joe Jackson's "Got the Time". The arrangements of the songs also took on a more somber tone. I do not doubt the sincerity of the more serious approach, but it seems like they were somewhat out of their element. It wouldn't have hurt if they had just lightened up a little bit. But that's only a minus-half-star gripe. Nothing major.

For those of you that don't know, this is a worthwhile album from a band that never got the respect that they deserved. And while the band may be little more than a joke to the mainstream music press, they inspired bands as diverse as Creed, Deftones, and Meshuggah. I highly recommend PoT, but Among the Living or Spreading the Disease is the best place to start.

Overall rating: 4.5 stars

For me, Persistence of Time is the top of the Anthrax hill. After this album Belladonna left. They released Attack of the Killer Bs which had Belladonna singing, but it wasn't new content (mostly). Then we got John Bush. Don't get me wrong, John Bush did a fantastic job. The problem is that THIS is the album that stands as the epitome of Anthrax. I don't feel they attained this level with any release since, even with Belladonna's return.

Every track is worth listening to. Musically, to my ears, this album is a masterpiece from start to finish. My personal favorite is Belly of the Beast (when attached to Intro to Reality).

If you loved John Bush, then this probably won't be an album you'll want to bother with. If you want the best of Belladonna Anthrax, pick this up without question or hesitation. 20+ years on and I still enjoy listening to Persistence of Time; can't say the same for all the other Anthrax albums (which I still enjoy, but not like this one).

Thrash metal is the bastard child of the NWOBHM and hardcore punk. Anthrax was always my least favorite of the Big Four because they always seemed to lean more on the hardcore side of things, whereas I prefer my metal bands to be... well, more metal. However, in 1990, they released Persistence Of Time, their best album. This was the one that won me over and got me to re-evaluate their other records. I've since come to love and respect this band for their unique contributions to the heavy metal genre. A number of east coast bands aped their style, but there's no topping the originators.

The reason this is my favorite Anthrax album is because it's their darkest. There was apparently some rising tension in the band around this time and it shows. They sound PO'ed here. Songwriting is great and the riffs are killer. Too bad Belladonna couldn't stick around for one more after this.

As the years wane on, it seems like Anthrax is slowly being pushed out of the company of Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer by newer metal fans and relegated to second tier status. My advice to these new fans is to check this album out. If Among The Living didn't do it for you, this one surely will.

I think so. Far darker than anything prior, and more mature (overall). Joey's vocals even seem to be in a slightly better register, not as piercing as before. The whole band just seemed tight and focused, even though Joey's departure and a whole new sound would emerge within the next two years...

The songs are longer than typical for ANthrax, but don't drag. Darker subject matter, written about in a more serious vein than usual, as well. Not that the fun is all gone... the killer cover of Joe Jackson's "Got the Time" is an absolute blast, and Frank Bello shows that bass players CAN be a good thing in metal (for once)!

Personal favorite, the last track "Discharge"... an awesome and slightly underrated album. Start here first, then move on to "Among the Living".

This I admit is not an album I listened to quite as much as others, but some very strong tracks here, as Joey Belladonna ended his tenure with the band.

The band rocks again with Ian anchoring another series of heavy groove from Bello and Benante. "Time" and "Keep it in the Family" stand out, along with "In My World."

For me, this album was one you had to sit and really listen to, and it would make that impression that the boys wanted you to get. It did indeed for me.