Album review: ANTHRAX – Kings Among Scotland

Nuclear Blast [Release date 27.04.18]

Hard to believe that it is 30 years since the release of the ‘Among The Living’ album from Anthrax. This was the album which spawned some of the band’s biggest songs and raised their profile to one of the ‘big four’ of thrash metal.

To celebrate this landmark the band embarked on a tour which included the playing of ‘Among The Living’ in its entirety. The guys brought along mics and a film crew to the Barrowlands in Glasgow to record the set for posterity and this album, coupled with the DVD release, perfectly captures Anthrax in full flight. The band clearly enjoy a Scottish crowd as Scott Ian also chose Glasgow as the venue to record his spoken word tour DVD a couple of years back.

The first half of the album is made up of a mixture of old classics and a few new numbers from the band’s last studio album ‘For All Kings’. ‘A.I.R’ and ‘Madhouse’ get things off to a good start in fine thrashing style. There are three tracks featured from the ‘For All Kings’ album including the excellent ‘Blood Eagle Wings’. The highlight for me in this first section though is ‘Be All, End All’ which is a personal favourite from the ‘State Of Euphoria’ album, thrash at its best.

We are then treated to the whole of the ‘Among The Living’ album including the big hitters ‘I Am The Law’ and ‘Indians’ along with hidden gems like the relentless riffing on ‘A Skeleton In The Closet’ and ‘Imitation Of Life’. The band were clearly having a ball throughout the set and the crowd reaction shows why the band wanted the DVD to be filmed in the Barrowlands, great venue, great crowd!

This is an excellent live album which is a must buy for any lovers of thrash metal. The combination of Anthrax, a set including one of the best thrash albums ever and a crowd of mad Scots has proved to be a winner, the title of ‘Kings Among Scotland’ is well deserved. ****

Review by Dave Wilson

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