Top Ten Ways Anthrax is Better Than Slayer

Anthrax had a rough time after Scott Ian kicked Joey Belladonna out of the band back in the '90s, but they still churned out some great songs with John Bush on vocals - Black Lodge, Inside Out, and the list goes on. Slayer? I kinda like Undisputed Attitude... but Diabolus In Musica and Divine Intervention are just bad. Their material in the 2000s was just kinda eh... and Anthrax is better than ever now that Joey is back in the fold.

Which is more than can be said for Slayer, 'cause I don't think they're getting Jeff Hanneman and Dave Lombardo back anytime soon for obvious reasons, especially considering the band is retiring after one final world tour. Anthrax, though, is still going strong to this very day.

Joey can sound genuinely aggressive without sounding laughable. Angel Of Death scream, or Caught In A Mosh?

(Before you say it, no, the Angel Of Death scream isn't awesome. It's hilarious.)

I could give you a laundry list of times Tom Araya tried to sound aggressive and failed miserably - Angel Of Death, Raining Blood, pretty much anything from the Reign In Blood album. And in Hell Awaits, the backing vocals and chanting are scarier than Tom Araya. I think I've said enough.

Dave Lombardo is nothing special as a drummer. He can play really fast and do double bass really fast, and that's about it. Not much else of note about him. But Charlie Benante? That guy is amazing. He can do double bass like no other (save for Mike Portnoy, of course), and he can generally outplay Lombardo any day.

As for guitar work... Kerry King is a wanker! He can't write solos for crap. Jeff Hanneman could, as in Seasons In The Abyss, for example, but he always seemed to take a backseat to Kerry King. Anthrax doesn't have the strongest guitar solos, but their new lead guitarist, Jonathan Donais, is really good at writing solos. They still have a lot of other strong solos without him.

And as for the riffs, I'd say Anthrax has it in the bag. There are so many examples. Breathing Lightning has a better riff than Repentless, Caught In A Mosh has a better riff than Raining Blood, etc.

When we get to bass... oh god. Anthrax wins this one easily. Tom Araya is a mediocre bass player. Plus, the bass is always turned way down in the mix. You can always hear Frank Bello's bass, and it's more worth listening to.

This sorta ties in with the item about consistency, but I still think it's a strong enough reason to get an entry of its own.

Lately, mostly in the 21st century, Slayer has just been... eh. Not good, not horrendous, but just... average to mediocre. Anthrax, on the other hand, has gotten better since their days with John Bush. They still had some good material then, but it was kind of a low point in their career. They've made Worship Music, which was an amazing album, and For All Kings, which I believe is my favorite Anthrax album to date. That's how much I love it.

Slayer, though? Nah. They've only been producing the same record over and over again, just with a slightly different style.

Lyrically, the only subjects Slayer really sings about are, you know, Satanic themes like in Hell Awaits, mutilations, the Holocaust, and just... uncreative topics that have been done to death. I wouldn't have such a problem with it if they actually did something interesting with it, rather than just doing the same thing every other extreme metal band has done. There are exceptions, like there are with everything, but Slayer is mostly just bland. It gets old.

Anthrax has sung about a ton of subject matters, ranging from Judge Dredd to Ronnie James Dio and Dimebag Darrell. I could give you a lot of other topics Anthrax has touched upon beyond these two examples, but then we'd be here all day. Onto the next entry.

Like mentioned above, Anthrax has done more genres than Slayer has, but that's only part of what makes them more varied. They have more lyrical subject matters, more creative guitar work, and pretty much everything about Anthrax is less repetitive than Slayer. They're almost impervious to variation.

And don't give me the "Hell Awaits is an accurate depiction of Hell, South Of Heaven is more atmospheric, and Reign In Blood is a brutal thrashfest, man!" argument. Those are only slight variations, not enough to make Slayer a varied band in general.

Sure, Slayer tried nu-metal with Diabolus In Musica and punk with Undisputed Attitude, but they kinda suck. Anthrax tried nu-metal as well, but they've also tried groove metal, traditional heavy metal, punk, and of course, pure thrash. Slayer has only really tried three genres: thrash metal, punk, and nu-metal. Apart from that, Slayer rarely tries anything new, and the rest of their discography all sounds exactly the same with slight variations.

Which segues into the next thing...

This is true. Anthrax's music is less heavy. Many of their songs aren't thrash metal. However, accessibility isn't always a good thing in metal. Sometimes it can mean selling out.

Mainly because Slayer is more explicit.

I know Anthrax can be a pretty damn funny band that doesn't take themselves seriously all the time, but when they do, the listener can take them seriously as well. I can rarely ever listen to Slayer without at least chuckling at them, because they're just that ridiculous. Them taking themselves so seriously results in me not being able to take them seriously. Especially when Tom Araya does the Angel Of Death scream. That is just comedy gold, right there.

What I mean is, Anthrax is still the same thrash metal band they were back in the '80s. They're still producing kickass thrash record after kickass thrash record. Tying back into consistency yet again, Slayer isn't really Slayer anymore. They're just not the same band they used to be at all. And not in a good way.

I love Slayer's old records, Seasons In The Abyss, Hell Awaits, South Of Heaven, and the debut, but even those are kind of patchy, except for Seasons. There's also the Haunting The Chapel EP. But they're just not who they used to be at all, really...

Anyway, I guess that concludes this list. See you next time, I guess.