NEW ANTHRAX SONG IS EXTREMELY HEADBANGABLE, GOOD

Here’s the thing about new Anthrax, in my opinion (and opinions among the various MS staffers differ greatly): it’s pretty good! Sure, I would rather be hearing John Bush’s (or even Dan Nelson’s) low, gruff snarl instead of Joey Bellardini’s high-pitched wail; a lot of Worship Music sounds like it was written for Bush/Nelson and subsequently re-tooled for Bellardini, and recent interviews with the band have confirmed that. But the songs themselves are pretty great, and Bellardini (with help from vocal producer Jay Ruston, I assume) actually did a good job penning vocal melodies to fit the already-written music. The performances are solid all around, and in the end isn’t an album’s awesomeness vs. suckiness-factor about the strength of the songs? Bellardini’s vocals sound weird / very produced at times, but his overall performance is good enough and doesn’t distract from the songs at all. Most importantly, the songs rock.

SO. With that in mind listen to “The Devil You Know” over at GuitarWorld.com; it’s the latest track to be released from Worship Music and it’s one of my favorites from the album. This is definitely one of those songs that falls into the “these riffs are begging for John Bush’s voice” category, but it’s still pretty fuckin’ headbangable if you ask me!

-VN