Fistful of Metal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Fistful of Metal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Studio album by Anthrax | |||||
| Released | January, 1984 | ||||
| Recorded | 1983 | ||||
| Genre | Thrash metal Speed metal |
||||
| Length | 35:33 | ||||
| Label | Megaforce Records | ||||
| Producer | Anthrax Carl Canedy |
||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Anthrax chronology | |||||
|
|||||
Fistful of Metal is the name of the debut album by the band Anthrax. The album was released in January of 1984 by Megaforce Records in the United States and by Music For Nations elsewhere.
Contents |
[edit] History
The album marked Anthrax's album debut, produced by the band and Carl Canedy, and featuring vocalist Neil Turbin and bassist Danny Lilker. It featured the song "I'm Eighteen", originally recorded on Alice Cooper's Love It to Death album. Rhythm guitarist Scott Ian had insisted on including a cover of the song on the band's first album, which is why it was featured.
[edit] Firing of Danny Lilker
Danny Lilker and Scott Ian had been the original founders of the band, but Ian elected to fire Lilker shortly after the release of the album. Ian had several reasons for doing so, specifically:
- The rest of the band found him to be lazy and very unprofessional
- He had failed to pay his share of the rent for the band's rehearsal sessions
- The fact that he had required more than thirty takes (2 entire days worth of studio time) in the studio to record the song "I'm Eighteen"
As his replacement, the band hired drummer Charlie Benante's nephew, Frank Bello, who has played on every Anthrax album ever since.
[edit] Firing of Neil Turbin
Neil Turbin contributed the main song ideas, lyrics, titles and arrangements to songs on the album such as "Metal Thrashing Mad", "Deathrider" and "Panic", as well as "Gung-Ho", "Raise Hell", "Armed and Dangerous" and many other classics. During the Anthrax "US Attack Tour '84", Turbin began to receive a large amount of attention as the frontman, which Scott Ian and Charlie Benante were extremely jealous of. Ian wanted to have more control over the band, and Benante, who played guitar in addition to drums, wanted to be able to make more contributions to songwriting. Ian and Benante teamed up, hired Frank Bello as bassist, and fired Turbin from the band. After Turbin's departure, Ian began writing all the lyrics, while Benante began writing the music, which would forever change the groundbreaking aggressive thrash/speed metal style and sound of Anthrax from what it was on Fistful of Metal.
[edit] Reissues and Other Releases
Fistful of Metal was released as a double album the U.K., featuring extra mixes of tracks that were not included on the U.S. edition. In 2000, Megaforce attempted to repackage and re-release a compilation of Fistful of Metal and the 1985 Anthrax EP Armed and Dangerous which featured some liner notes, but discluded any new mixes and bonus tracks and the original cover, which was replaced by a censored version.
[edit] Track listing
- "Deathrider" (Neil Turbin, Dan Spitz, Scott Ian, Danny Lilker, Charlie Benante) – 3:30
- "Metal Thrashing Mad" (Turbin, Spitz, Ian, Lilker, Benante) – 2:39
- "I'm Eighteen" (Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith) – 4:02
- "Panic" (Turbin, Ian, Lilker) – 3:58
- "Subjugator" (Turbin, Spitz, Ian, Lilker, Benante) – 4:38
- "Soldiers of Metal" (Turbin, Ian, Lilker) – 2:55
- "Death from Above" (Turbin, Ian, Lilker) – 5:00
- "Anthrax" (Turbin, Ian, Lilker) – 3:24
- "Across the River" (Ian, Lilker) – 1:26
- "Howling Furies" (Ian, Lilker) – 3:55
[edit] Personnel
- Neil Turbin – Vocals
- Dan Spitz – Lead Guitar
- Scott Ian – Rhythm Guitar
- Danny Lilker – Bass Guitar
- Charlie Benante – Drums
|
||||||||||||||||||||
