I know you've all been dying to hear my two cents on the new album 
Well, tough shit, I'm going to tell you anyway.
Let me preface this by saying I've listened to the album about 30 times over the past weekend. Opinions stated in this review may change between now and listening #300 (ie. by the end of the month).
Let me also state potential biasing factors up front: (1) I firmly believe that Anthrax has been the best band in existence since John joined in 1993. (2) This album has been a long time coming, and hyped as their best album ever.
Overall, WCFYA is a good album, but not a great album. There's some good tunes on here, but nothing that blows me away. After their last 3 releases, and all the hype and wait, I was expecting more, and so I was left a little disappointed. That being said, it will probably still be the best album released in 2003, because even Anthrax's weaker material is better than 99.9% of the crap that gets released everyday.
I won't bother doing a track-by-track breakdown, but rather I'll just make a couple points. "Contact" is a cool intro, but cuts off too short and IMO doesn't blend well into "What Doesn't Die". It might have been better to expand it into it's own song, or at least blend it better with the following track. "Crash" is pure filler, and could have been left out without anyone noticing.
My favorite tracks so far are Refuse to Be Denied, Superhero, and WCFYA. The weaker tracks IMO are Safe Home, Cadillac Rock Box, and the previously mentioned Crash. As I've said on other threads, at the best of times hidden tracks annoy me, especially the filler that ends off WCFYA.
In some places, it sounds like Anthrax was trying too hard to be everything to everyone...it sounds like they were trying to write songs that appealed to people looking for a return to heavier thrash, to get radio play, to have choruses that people can chant to live, all at the same time. On one hand, you've got songs like Taking the Music Back and Cadillac Rock Box that wouldn't sound out of place on a Motley Crue album, to Black Dahlia that in places could fit onto an In Flames album. On Volume 8, the variety of songs was a strength, but it kind of sounds contrived on WCFYA.
All the Thrax albums in the John era have gotten better with every listen, and I don't expect this one to be different. However, with SOWN and Volume 8, they blew me away right from the first listening. Stomp didn't do that for me as a whole, but there were specific tracks that had that effect. The disadvantage of WCFYA, is it didn't do either. Again, maybe it was the high expectations, but as it stands now, this is my fourth favorite Thrax album with John on vocals.
Overall: 8.5/10
Well, tough shit, I'm going to tell you anyway.Let me preface this by saying I've listened to the album about 30 times over the past weekend. Opinions stated in this review may change between now and listening #300 (ie. by the end of the month).
Let me also state potential biasing factors up front: (1) I firmly believe that Anthrax has been the best band in existence since John joined in 1993. (2) This album has been a long time coming, and hyped as their best album ever.
Overall, WCFYA is a good album, but not a great album. There's some good tunes on here, but nothing that blows me away. After their last 3 releases, and all the hype and wait, I was expecting more, and so I was left a little disappointed. That being said, it will probably still be the best album released in 2003, because even Anthrax's weaker material is better than 99.9% of the crap that gets released everyday.
I won't bother doing a track-by-track breakdown, but rather I'll just make a couple points. "Contact" is a cool intro, but cuts off too short and IMO doesn't blend well into "What Doesn't Die". It might have been better to expand it into it's own song, or at least blend it better with the following track. "Crash" is pure filler, and could have been left out without anyone noticing.
My favorite tracks so far are Refuse to Be Denied, Superhero, and WCFYA. The weaker tracks IMO are Safe Home, Cadillac Rock Box, and the previously mentioned Crash. As I've said on other threads, at the best of times hidden tracks annoy me, especially the filler that ends off WCFYA.
In some places, it sounds like Anthrax was trying too hard to be everything to everyone...it sounds like they were trying to write songs that appealed to people looking for a return to heavier thrash, to get radio play, to have choruses that people can chant to live, all at the same time. On one hand, you've got songs like Taking the Music Back and Cadillac Rock Box that wouldn't sound out of place on a Motley Crue album, to Black Dahlia that in places could fit onto an In Flames album. On Volume 8, the variety of songs was a strength, but it kind of sounds contrived on WCFYA.
All the Thrax albums in the John era have gotten better with every listen, and I don't expect this one to be different. However, with SOWN and Volume 8, they blew me away right from the first listening. Stomp didn't do that for me as a whole, but there were specific tracks that had that effect. The disadvantage of WCFYA, is it didn't do either. Again, maybe it was the high expectations, but as it stands now, this is my fourth favorite Thrax album with John on vocals.
Overall: 8.5/10
