In a word: Nope!
Anthrax is back after 8 years with the much-delayed Worship Music finally slated to be released this September.
Long story short, Anthrax ditched Joey Belladonna’s replacement John Bush shortly after We’ve Come For You All was released/toured for a reunion of the classic line-up. Joey and Dan Spitz left the group again who then recruited unknown Dan Nelson to be the singer for what would become Worship Music. Something happened and a “he said/she said” war erupted and Nelson was out. John Bush came vacationed from his gig as a Burger King spokesperson (No, really.) and filled in on some European live dates until Joey came back to the fold for good supposedly. Worship Music was eventually retooled slightly for Belladonna who came in and recorded new vocals for the record.
Still with me? Good ’cause that was exhausting and I ain’t repeating it.
Anywho, first single “Fight ’em ’til You Can’t” has just been released and it definitely does not live up to the hype surrounding this record. Joey just sounds wrong on this. I’ll admit I was a big fan of John Bush but I definitely respect old school Anthrax. That said, you can tell that this song was written with a different vocalist in mind. This was written for Dan Nelson who, from all the clips I saw, was definitely a more aggressive vocalist in the vein of John Bush.
Hopefully, the rest of Worship Music doesn’t sound like this.