Heavy Song of the Week: Anthrax Deliver Sharp Thrash with "It's For the Kids"

“It’s For the Kids” is Anthrax’s first new song in 10 years. The track is a straight-ahead thrasher with a lean, aggressive structure designed to raise crowd energy mid-set. Anthrax’s history is characterized by a complex interior image and consistent politics, spanning lo-fi punky work, progressive and cerebral material, and post-Pantera groove. The new single blends harsh grooves associated with the John Bush era with melodic shredding solos from more recent releases. Strident lyrics echo the band’s earliest work. “Auflakt” by Ara pairs raw black metal elements with cavernous, dubby post-punk textures, using ugly guitar tone and animalistic vocals to shape its sound.

"Which makes their first new song in 10 years, “It’s For the Kids,” as exciting as it is. On its surface, it’s a straight-ahead thrasher, a lean and mean track that would do well to punch up the energy of the crowd partway through a set. But knowing the history of the group, it’s this exciting nugget, blending the harsh grooves of the John Bush era with the melodic shredding solos of their more recent releases set against strident lyrics reminiscent of their earliest work."

"Anthrax are curious among the Big Four of thrash, also comprised of Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer. Not only are they the only East Coast member, but they also had a more complex interior image, jocular but not quite jokey, tough but not quite evil, sharp but not quite technical. They had lo-fi punky work like A Fistful of Metal, progressive and cerebral work like Persistence of Time, and post-Pantera groove like Sound of White Noise."

"Similarly, while the precise politics of other three groups has become murky over time, Anthrax has stayed consistent throughout their history. Which makes their first new song in 10 years, “It’s For the Kids,” as exciting as it is. On its surface, it’s a straight-ahead thrasher, a lean and mean track that would do well to punch up the energy of the crowd partway through a set."

"Ara offer an intriguing mixture of raw black metal and cavernous, dubby post-punk on “Auflakt,” the opening track from their new album Hohe Tannen. The Austrian group, not to be confused with the defunct death metal band of the same name, sound often like contemporary arthouse post-punk like Disappears or Facs moreso than Darkthrone or Mayhem, at least compositionally. The only immediate tells toward black metal are the particular ugliness of the guitar tone, brilliantly so, and then those snarling animalistic vocals, absent here on the instrumental opener."

Read at Consequence