Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The clock ticks down with strength and purpose as the black clouds of unimpressive rain and chocked down November days hit the Birmingham Streets. The Bristol Road, once a serene setting for W.H. Auden as he meandered back home in which to place a timely piece of prosaic poetry, is now lined with the signs of two of the “Big Four” of American Thrash Metal adorned on T-shirts and the rightful acknowledgement that Birmingham is the true home of Metal.
For Anthrax the salute comes easy, as they pump through their set with the speed in which Concorde used to play havoc with time, the songs of a generation that never let go of their meaning and the feeling of a guitar out-damaging a buzz saw, the chips of relentless artistic expression falling with pride where they must, nobody in the audience at the Birmingham 02 Academy could ever say that Anthrax don’t understand the worth and history that the city plays in the genre.
A quarter of a century has passed since Anthrax supported Iron Maiden at the N.E.C., the circle partially complete as they will support the band once again in Latin America on the next tour and yet as each pulse quickened, as each note was given birth to by Scott Ian, Charlie Benante, Frank Bello, Jonathan Davies and the ever glorious frame of Joey Belladonna, there would have been placed in everybody’s minds a swift return to that halcyon night in which the Kings of British Metal and the Thrash lords of East-Coast America joined forces to create the type of explosive gig that would shake the second city to its core.
If the salute came easy to Anthrax, if the gesture of truth and acknowledgement poured on the Birmingham crowd with the same magical spell as a Lazarus being woken from a long nap, then the response on the floor was just as keenly appreciated. The fist pumping, the vocal return and the heartfelt smiles on the crowd’s faces as they sang heartily the lyrics to Got The Time, the blistering Anti-Social, Evil Twin, Indians and the tour de force of Metal/Horror cross over in Among The Living, these were the moments of truth, these were the dice rolled always in Anthrax’s favour; for in the heat of Birmingham’s glorious contribution to the world of Metal, a gigantic piece of American cool played out with honour.
Birmingham and Anthrax, the metal possibilities are endless, for they truly walk among the living.
Ian D. Hall