Sound of White Noise appreciation thread

[timmyc]

OK, so we all know how much of a killer metal record SOWN is.

With the new record only a few weeks away now I decided to have a serious listening session today on the ipod, and put SOWN on. I reckon it must be pretty close to being Anthrax's most consistent record, it is all superbly written tunes and there's not too many peaks and troughs...... Even the worst couple of songs are for me a 8/10 (for me these would be Burst, Packaged Rebellion, Hyproglo), but they're still killer tunes!!!!

Potters Field, Only, R41M, Invisible, 1000 Points, Black Lodge, and Sodium are all for me, supreme quality metal. Absolutely killer stuff. And those that complain that Only is overated.... I understand that being said but when I cranked it full-blast through headphones, it remains a great song for mine.

And one more point...... SOWN is for me, Anthrax's career peak from a lyrical point of view. Cool stuff indeed.

My 2nd (maybe 3rd depending on which day of the week it is!!!) favourite Anthrax record, that holds up brilliantly 18 years on.

SOWN - we salute you!!!

 

[sufferer]

Yes a killer record from start to finish. I still remember the day it came out and being so excited.

 

[Joecephus]

Just to get it out of the way, I'll take care of IMF09s response for him.

Blah blah blah blah grunge blah blah blah blah only good thing is Danny Spitz blah blah blah radio blah blah blah

 

[resumurofnikufesin]

Good album.!

 

[NevermoreTHC]

I'm not a huge Bushthrax era fan but SOWN is a good album. I believe "Poison My Eyes" was from the same sessions and ended up on the "Last Action Hero" soundtrack. I really like that song as well.

 

[fuelee2004]

Just to get it out of the way, I'll take care of IMF09s response for him.

Blah blah blah blah grunge blah blah blah blah only good thing is Danny Spitz blah blah blah radio blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah was that John Bush or Eddie Vedder singing blah blah blah

 

[vomit]

OK, so we all know how much of a killer metal record SOWN is.

With the new record only a few weeks away now I decided to have a serious listening session today on the ipod, and put SOWN on. I reckon it must be pretty close to being Anthrax's most consistent record, it is all superbly written tunes and there's not too many peaks and troughs...... Even the worst couple of songs are for me a 8/10 (for me these would be Burst, Packaged Rebellion, Hyproglo), but they're still killer tunes!!!!

Potters Field, Only, R41M, Invisible, 1000 Points, Black Lodge, and Sodium are all for me, supreme quality metal. Absolutely killer stuff. And those that complain that Only is overated.... I understand that being said but when I cranked it full-blast through headphones, it remains a great song for mine.

And one more point...... SOWN is for me, Anthrax's career peak from a lyrical point of view. Cool stuff indeed.

My 2nd (maybe 3rd depending on which day of the week it is!!!) favourite Anthrax record, that holds up brilliantly 18 years on.

SOWN - we salute you!!!

My fave Anthrax record by far. And I agree, this was there lyrical highpoint. I remember MtV playing "Only" a month before the release....I was pumped. I recall walking into the local record store, and hearing "This is Not an Exit" (although I knew it was Anthrax, at the time, I did not know the name of the song) the day of the release. Good times. Great album....one of the few albums, I can listen to in its entirety without skipping anything!!

 

[Thrashard]

in '93 'White Noise' and Sepultura's 'Chaos A.D.' were my 2 fav. metal-records of the year. i think i liked SOWN a little bit more than Chaos A.D., it turned me into a huge Thrax fan.

 

[gerardomosh]

good album with "poor" production

 

[scooterville]

good album with "poor" production

It's good, but not my favorite It's up there though.

 

[Social Distortion]

One of Anthrax's 3 most consistent albums for sure!

The only thing wrong about this album is not including Poison My Eyes on it.

 

[Thrashard]

true, PME is one of Thrax's best songs ever, criminally underrated, should be part of their setlist.

 

[ironmaidenfan09]

Well I am glad most others already posted for me so I will explain this album once again.

I was a huge Anthrax fans long before this album was released. I was anxiously waiting for the new album as Anthrax was one of my favorite bands at the time.

Back then there wasn't the internet to hear samples of the songs, you couldn't read about how John Bush was now in the band, why he was. You couldn't read about how how they were going to try to change their sound etc.

So based on their album Among, STD, SOE, POT, the very successful years of touring for the POT album. Huge tours with Iron Maiden, Clash of The Titans, and the Public Enemy tour.. Anthrax were now the biggest of the Thrash Metal bands... well maybe next to Slayer... Metallica already had converted to mainstream hard rock.... anyhow...

I had listened to KNAC in Los Angeles (the metal station) and they had announced that the new Anthrax was going to be played in a few days. So I was all excited, couldn't wait. I tuned in and waited all day for them to premiere the new Anthrax single. It was called "only". They had been pumping it up for what seemed months. Finally the time had come "only" came on the radio. After about 1 minute into the song I was seriously sick to my stomach. This didn't sound like Anthrax. This was alternative sounding and sounding. Sounded like a cross between an Alternative band and Armored Saint. Thats what I thought. After the song was over I called my friends who were also glued to their radio. They also were in disbelief.

Anthrax completely changed their sound. This single "only" was almost as big of a let down a "enter sandman" was to me when Metallica released that as their first single after the masterpiece And Justice For All.

It was clear to me that Anthrax just did the same thing Metallica did. Changed their sound at the height of their popularity. They knew that all the current Anthrax fan would buy the album and then hoped that the new sound would appeal to the more mainstream rock fans that weren't into the heavier/thrashier stuff prior to it.

That is exactly what happened. I bought the album in hope that "only" was just a fluke. But the majority of the album had alternative, grunge, hard rock influences. With very little familiar thrash material that I had loved.

So while SOWN may be a 'good' album. It might be written well, it was TO ME, and a lot of original Anthrax fans, a HUGE disappointment and ultimately led to the demise of Anthrax as we knew them.

I can listen to SOWN without wanting to throw it out my car window like a frisbee like I did with Volume 8 and Stomp. But it's still not the same band that I familiarize with when I think of Anthrax.

I know a lot of current Anthrax fans got into the band because of this album. The new sound got them a lot more mainstream publicity, got them a lot of radio play with Only and exposed them to a lot of fans that normally wouldn't have heard it. So their plan kind of worked. They still did a few big tour with the John Bush line up.... but once the next album came out they were all but done. The fans they got that stuck with the band went back and bought their Joey era albums and thats how a lot of them discovered those Joey era albums. But a lot of these newer fans still hold SOWN as the 'standard' for Anthrax as that is the album that got them into the band.

Thats my take on the SOWN album

 

[Stompmosher]

I have been into Anthrax since SOE. I also remenber the day, I think from memory May 5th 93. I also heard Potters Field, Only and Room on the radio before it came out. I admit, knowing what Anthrax was before, the 1st time I heard Only, it was a shock, I think it's human nature, but I loved the other tracks. Obviously, Only grew on me and I let go of what I thought Anthrax should be abd just embraced SOWN. I actually understand IMFAN09s point of view, but I think it's the production that gave it that alternative sound, the tunes are very Metal, some of thire heaviest stuff, but the production of the guitars......weak and thin, those songs deserved so much better.......anyway I still love the album.

 

[mrthrax]

there was alot of hype,epecially in australia,anthrax were very popular here at 1 stage,i remember buying the cd single,they had heaps of publicity here and full page adds advertsing only and the new album,i wore that single out but im a bit tired of that song now,overall im pretty happy with album,not to fussed on packaged rebellion or burst and sodium,when listening to the album i wasnt even thinking about belladonna,my dissapointment with that ended a bit after i read about it,i was very open to the new singer and he did a great job,the biggest thing about the whole sown cycle was that anthrax did not tour here,that was a big copout to all the fans,we had to wait till stomp for a tour and i think that long wait lost them alot of fans,weve come for u all and reunion tours have put them on the map again in australia.

 

[DumbAss]

 

[resumurofnikufesin]

I'd like to see Room For One More and This Is Not An Exit added to current setlists. I think Joe's voice could work well with those.

 

[Stompmosher]

there was alot of hype,epecially in australia,anthrax were very popular here at 1 stage,i remember buying the cd single,they had heaps of publicity here and full page adds advertsing only and the new album,i wore that single out but im a bit tired of that song now,overall im pretty happy with album,not to fussed on packaged rebellion or burst and sodium,when listening to the album i wasnt even thinking about belladonna,my dissapointment with that ended a bit after i read about it,i was very open to the new singer and he did a great job,the biggest thing about the whole sown cycle was that anthrax did not tour here,that was a big copout to all the fans,we had to wait till stomp for a tour and i think that long wait lost them alot of fans,weve come for u all and reunion tours have put them on the map again in australia.

Agreed 100%. I was pissed off they did not tour here for that album. Funny thing is I like Burst and Packaged Rebellion, to me Sodium is the weakest, still cool but weakest, it has more of a punk vibe to it.

 

[Sgt-D]

I agree that SOWN wasn't the best produced (though not as bad as SoE), but the songs are killer. Black Lodge is still a song I hold very dear. And frankly I can't think of a single bad song on it. My only beef has always been that they should have squeezed Poison My Eyes onto the record also; with this track the album would have been near perfect.

 

[Stompmosher]

The drums were horrid sounding on SOE, everything else was ok. I think they were trying to capture the sound from NFV which is "the" definitive Anthrax sound to me. I just whish a properly recorded version of Noisegate was done, now that's akiller song!