It's been eight long years since Anthrax's last studio album 'We've Come For You All'. What took them so long you may ask, well you see, while Anthrax may be metal pioneers and worthy members of "the Big 4", they have a cunning ability to cock things up for themselves whenever it looks like they're on the brink of something great.

Since the last album John Bush has left the band twice, once in 2005 and then again last year, after briefly reuniting with the band to dig them out of a hole when, after only a couple of years with the band, young upstart Dan Nelson was kicked out having just completed the original recording of 'Worship Music'. Somewhere in all that merry-go-round, Joey Belladonna returned for the less than ground breaking reunion tour only to drafted back into the band to re-record the vocals on the aforementioned 'Worship Music', his first album with the band since 1990's 'Persistence of Time'. Somewhere in all that mess Frankie Bello briefly quit the band to join the then newly reformed Helmet. That's one hell of a dysfunctional family history and only just scratches the surface of the crazy world of Anthrax.

Dressed in a rather splendid metallic gold cover, 'Worship Music' opens with the three pronged body blow of 'Earth On Hell', 'The Devil You Know' and 'Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't', immediately elevating the album to near classic Anthrax status. Belladonna simply sounds great. There are none of his dreaded trademark falsetto warblings that characterised eighties Anthrax, instead replaced by a deeper, rougher growl, not a million miles away from John Bush or even Dan Nelson, for whom the tunes were originally written.

One thing is immediately obvious, 'Worship Music' is not simply a trip down memory lane for Anthrax, nor is it a lame attempt at being some super modern kiddie band. It is just Anthrax being Anthrax and that certainly isn't a bad thing at all.

Okay, three songs down and it's going well. 'I'm Alive' builds up nicely into a nice crunchy riff that gets catchier and catchier the more you listen. 'In The End' begins with some splendid cello leading to another chunky riff, albeit with some odd tubular bells thrown in for good measure, and another great chorus.

Half way through and still going strong.

'The Giant' kicks some serious ass with a more staccato riff leading to another hooky chorus. Proceeded by an odd drum segue is rock behemoth 'Judas Priest'. It's not an ode to the ancient heavy rockers as you may have expected but instead a bit of a plodder. Not bad but not great. Next up is 'Crawl' featuring a very John Bush vocal. Again an okay but not brilliant track. 'The Constant' kicks the album back into gear with a more familiar Anthrax feel. 'Revolution Screams' closes things proper in fine style with a kick ass riff and catchy chorus hook.

Refused cover tune 'New Noise' rounds the album off and while pretty good, serves to remind us all of the world of single b-sides.

All in all, 'Worship Music' is right up there with 'Among The Living' and maybe armed (and dangerous) with this collection of top tunes and the exposure gained from "The Big 4" enormo-shows, Anthrax will finally get the credit they deserve.

That's of course if they don't manage to balls it all up again.........

http://anthrax.com/