Soul on a roll, but you treat it like soap on a rope
‘Cause the beats in the lines are so dope

Anthrax PE Bring The Noise 07

Yeahh Boyyyyy!! Friday night is fun night* and los amigos my records don’t get much funner than Anthrax & Public Enemy Bring The Noise.  Well, actually it does because I own a copy that has been scientifically enhanced by top NASA scientific funologists, just check out the fun overkill here:

  • It’s on 10″ – 10″ records are 32.59% more enjoyable than bigger, or smaller ones.
  • It’s a picture disc – picture discs, as everyone of school age and above knows, offer 52.13% more happiness than black vinyls.
  • It comes in a three-part gatefold pull-out boom box style pack!  Oh, yes!
  • It’s limited edition** which always makes me feel a bit select and special (I know, I know it’s a character defect of mine).
  • It has one of my fave noisy tracks ever on the A-side and My third fave Anthrax track on the B-side.

It is as though scientists were trying to harness the raw power of fun in order to create the perfect doomsday ray! Seriously.

'scuse my wonky photography
‘scuse my wonky photography

Run DMC first said a DJ could be a band
Stand on its own feet, get you out your seat
Beat is for Eric B. and LL, as well, hell
Wax is for Anthrax, still it can rock bells
Ever forever, universal, it will sell
Time for me to exit, Terminator X it^

Anthrax PE Bring The Noise 02

Okay, so I need to get off the fence here and just say this version of ‘Bring The Noise’ is one of my favourite tracks ever, I’ve always been a real sucker for the whole rock/rap hybrid ever since I first heard Run DMC.  I was a Beasties fanatic and I can remember buying a cassette copy of It Takes A Nation Of Millions in WH Smiths in Carmarthen when I was 18, a couple of years after it came out.  The density and intensity of the noise was like nothing else I’d ever heard, bits of it frightened me, honestly! The track ‘Bring The Noise’ was the main one I fastened on to during my first few listens, it was somehow poppier and they name-checked Anthrax in it, which I thought was way cool*^.

My friend Paul had a boom box just like this - I was so jealous.
My friend Paul had a boom box just like this – I was so jealous.

I had no idea at the time, but there was a big mutual appreciation society thing going on, thanks in the LP credits, constant wearing of PE T-shirts.  We’ll gloss over the execrable ‘I’m The Man’ though for now, if that’s okay with everyone. The upshot of it all was their collaboration in 1991 and their recording of ‘Bring The Noise’.

Anthrax PE Bring The Noise 04
Check out Scott’s beard!

Bring The Noise is just like a musical version of the Large Hadron Collider, smashing two aggressive, loud, uncompromising styles of music together and monitoring the Particles of Ultimate Perfection (P.o.U.P) formed in the carnage.  It’s just perfect.  I have heard it so many gigazillion times, I could rap the whole thing acapella – I tried in my car this morning (it’s the scene of most of my vocal experiments) and only got unstuck twice.  I love the track, the message, the silliness – what are those noises Anthrax are making at the end? the whole thing just trips the adrenalin pumps in my aged, decrepit body and has me stomping around the room like a deranged gibbon.  In a good way.  Seriously, I don’t think heavy music gets any better than this.  I’ve seen both groups play ‘Bring The Noise’ separately and incredibly well, what I wouldn’t give just to see them do it live once for me.

Anthrax PE Bring The Noise 03

B-side is ‘I Am The Law ’91’ which really is a curio.  This track doesn’t seem to exist anywhere else at all that I can see, it certainly never made it onto Attack Of The Killer B’s or any later Anthrax compilation.  It is listed as 5:59 long, as opposed to 5:54 for the original version.  I am also struggling to detect much of a difference, unless it is better, deeper production – but that may just be the difference between hearing it on vinyl and Spotify (I’m too lazy tonight to walk 20 feet away and get my copy of Among The Living out).  Whatever, it is a great track and a true and proper homage to old Joe Dredd – who rated big during my whole childhood/adolescence/current extended adolescence.

Anthrax PE Bring The Noise 05

Anthrax PE Bring The Noise 06Anthrax PE Bring The Noise 01

In a word? yadirfnikufsin.

623 Down.

Sorry – vid is crap quality, I couldn’t find a better one anywhere online:

*despite diet, teetotalism, constant rain and big bomb scare in Liverpool today, a street away from where I toil.

**possibly to only 52,000,000, or so – I’m guessing that neither set of my elderly neighbours owns a copy.

^PE score massive 1537 bonus points for having the audacity to rhyme ‘exit’ with ‘Terminator X it’, it’s the sort of thing that makes me smile all day long.

*^even though I didn’t like thrash metal at all then, they were still part of my metal family/tribe/sinister cult.

90 thoughts on “Wax Is For Anthrax

  1. I had ‘Attack of the Killer Bs’ on cassette the summer before my senior year. I played it in my 1977 Chevy Nova till it nearly warped(partly because of the playing and partly because it was a really hot summer.) “Bring The Noise” was a perfect melding of heavy metal and hip hop, mainly because the guys in Anthrax were genuine fans. They got it. “I’m The Man ’91” was a great update of the original. There were some great live versions on that album as well, like “Belly of the Beast” and “Keep It In The Family”.

    This is a nice piece of wax you got here.

    1. Some cool tunes for your cool ass ride? (as I think you American types say).

      Anthrax were definitely the big thrash band you’d want to hang out with, I couldn’t see myself spending time with Metallica, Megadeth or Slayer. Anthrax and I? we’d listen to cool tunes and lend each other comics.

      I love this record – the boom box packaging just rocks!

      1. Yep. Cool ass tunes for my cool ass ride. I miss that car.

        Anthrax were some cool guys, for sure. And 4 out of 5 of them are still together making albums. Dan Spitz left years ago.

  2. In that second dot point, did you really write “vinyls” or was that a typo? I really really hope the latter. Answer promptly and the six pack of hairy Canadians coming round to beat the bejezuss out of you and repossess all your vinyl will be called off.

    1. No! ‘Vinyls’ is the plural of ‘Long-Playing Records (and/or 10″-ers). I read that in a learned dictionary, so it must be true.

  3. “Bring the Noise” is a powerful song and, subjectively speaking, an end to the classic eras of Anthrax and Public Enemy. I do like “I’m the Man,” but dare you to listen to Anthrax’s collaboration with UTFO called “Lethal.”

    1. I quite agree, although I did see Public Enemy a few years ago and they were still an immense live outfit AND my face Anthrax LP is ‘Sound of White Noise’.

      I prefer the 91 re-recording of ‘I’m The Man’, but the original … I’d rather listen to ‘Lethal’ for a second time!!

    1. Thank you, I’ve only started modifying a couple of spare ones recently – Alice Cooper, Bowie, Scott Ian – all the greats! .

      1. That’s tons of fun! I just got another junk shop bag of Lego for the kids and there’s a Santa Clause in there. And the upper half of an Emmett (from the Lego Movie) haha.

        I also got a Bowie on cassette. So hot.

      2. Yep, except that it’s not always in stock and it’s almost always just random pieces. Very rarely are there minifigures in it, and there’s usually Mega Bloks mixed in too. So it’s pretty hit and miss. But when I find a likely looking candidate bag, I do not hesitate to snap it up!

        My dream is a garage sale where some old lady has a big rubbermaid tub full of it from when her kids were little, and worries that asking $5 for the whole bin of it is too much. HEAVEN!

  4. Ohhhhhhh this is a thing of beauty! What a way to start the weekend, thanks for sharing this! You have really cool records, man. I’m still gonna move in, but now the kids are saying they wanna come too…

    You must also like the Judgement Night soundtrack. JUST ANOTHER VICTIM!

    1. I do, one of my very fave LPs at university. To make it even better I taped it added this track at the end of one side and ‘Walk This Way’ and ‘Bodycount’ on the other.

      And thank you, this is a damned cool little record. I only hope to prove myself worthy of it one day.

  5. As always, I am intrigued by your graphic novel collection…I spy some Harvey in there! Fine choice mi amigo! We should exchange pix sometime. (of course, now that I look at my shelves behind me my collection is all over the place…)

      1. Baha! 1537 is no strange man. Ok, maybe a little strange…but always a gentleman.
        Ok, fine. I’d prefer book spine shots of your GRAPHIC NOVELS to your sauseege pls and thx… 😛

      2. Haha! Marvellous. Best thing I’ll read today …

        I can imagine the strange dude’s look of disappointment when you sent him some pictures of a CD (or whatever it was!)

    1. I love Harvey and I think I have all the graphic novels. Some shelfies? Mine are mostly pretty scattered too, which offends my sense of order.

      1. Do you happen to have Unsung Heroes in your collection? That one was awesome (checked it out from the library, via interlibrary loan), and I can’t get my hands on a copy to own it. I’ll have to scour ebay, methinks. But, bar none, my favourite is Ego and Hubris (and I own it).

  6. Oh and I love the Large Hadron Collider analogy. Honestly, sometimes I get mad coming here to read. Every fucking post, you write several things that make me say “I wish I wrote that”. It pisses me off. Don’t ever stop!

    1. Thank you, sincerely that’s such a kind thing to say. It just came to me as I was listening to it – I’m going to use it in every god damned post from here on in now!

      1. I’ll look for that and if you don’t, I’ll be very upset.

        SInce I’m such a fan of science and physics I just loved that analogy! I want to go to the Large Hadron Collider and whip me up a batch of Lemminium.

      1. Weren’t they a strange race of aggressive gaseous beings in Star Trek, anyway? I’d imagine an episode called ‘The Vault of the Kre O’

      2. Hm, ok. I believe you. These guys are cool whoever made them. Amazing Lego doesn’t call these guys out for copyright.

      3. Lego’s trademarks are two: They always have a little “LEGO” logo on every stud. Also they are the only brick with the “stud and tube” design. Look under each Lego brick and see the tube that goes between the studs. That’s their proprietary design.

        But you know there are even more brands, such as Mega Blocks.

        I think 1537 is a purist, like many Lego fans, and he probably ONLY has Lego is his collection.

      4. Buy a brand like Star Wars. A set that is harder to find at retail. Keep it in your attic for 10 years. Sell on eBay. Double or triple your money. Repeat.

      5. Truly it is. There are so many angles to it. From the creativity to the design even to helping kids learn basic numbers. When I was a child and they first came out with “Space” Lego, they finally had angled wings. Remember that? I tried making a Star Destroyer. Now, you can buy a Star Destroyer! There are so many different kids of bricks now, you can build anything. No limits. And there are serious builders out there who really push the limits of design.

        My favourite design ethic, but the hardest to work in, is called “SNOT” – Studs Not On Top. It simply means you use pieces with side-studs to change the orientation of the pieces, so you have a flat surface on top, and studs on the side or bottom for example. A skilled builder can use SNOT to have every surface appear flat. Not to mention it really breaks you out of building upwards, you can go in any direction and any shape really.

      6. It always was my fave toy and back in the 70s they had a policy of not making weapons, for ethical reasons. So basically I had to improvise them! I totally used to improvise all manner of Star Wars Lego and act it out.

        I rediscovered it through my kids and then one day my daughter got a Lego DJ figure and ….

      7. Holy cow you’re right. I remember that, even in the 90’s they had no guns. They had the bullhorn things and you’d use that as a gun. Then around the time they licenced Batman, that changed, and they had bad guys with tommy guns. At the same time they started giving Star Wars guys actual blasters. I would say that was around 2002-ish.

      8. Good memories! Of course Lego have since perfected the minifig, but it’s so fun to look back at the evolution of it. There was a time when the only minifigs I ever saw were Space Lego men.

      9. I don’t recall having ANY of those. My sister really wanted the big Lego castle, the big yellow one. Remember that? But when Space came out, that was all we bought. I got the small blue space cruiser for Christmas, and a space base. My buddy Bob got the medium size cruiser. But nobody — not one of our friends or anybody I knew — got the LARGE blue space cruiser. To this day I’ve never seen one in person.

      10. Or close to it. I think Lego could make a killing, just re-releasing old retro sets. I’d buy this. I don’t know why they don’t do this. Every other toy line re-releases old classic toys.

      11. 😀

        Since posting that I’ve been doing little except ripping Deep Purple CDs and looking for pictures of Lego MOC (“My Own Creation”) space ships. OH MY.

  7. Now I’m fascinated by this I Am the Law ’91. Usually that would mean it’s a fresh re-recording but you say it’s hard to tell the difference? Perhaps it is slightly remixed? Things like this drive me batty. I think I should be pleased to have a rarity but what’s the point if you can’t tell the difference from the album version?

    Still, a single from ’91 was a rare find for the period. This is great. I love Anthrax. I can’t collect them, because that’s a door to madness that I will not open.

    1. Thanks Deke, as I may just have hinted in the post, I love this!

      Just glad it was all worth me drawing Scott Ian’s beard onto one of my Lego figures.

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