Description

It seems strange looking back at the divisions that thrash metal caused in the mid eighties. For some, the surprise will be that there’s any discernible difference between, say Anthrax, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Megadeth and Scorpions. But for the heavy metal cognoscenti the difference was plain, and it wasn’t just a quibble over who had the biggest moustache or the most lurid spandex jump suit. Don’t believe me? Read this: “The thing is, most Thrash Metal simply cannot be regarded as music – merely the frustration and aggression of low life no-hopers vented through the physical abuse of musical instruments. Sure, some Thrash bands can reproduce more than the sound of a jumbo jet touching down without wheels….But most can’t.” Not the words of Tipper Gore, but of a well respected (and much missed) Kerrang! journalist, Mark Putterford, in the Kerrang! yearbook 1987. If that’s what the heavy metal writers thought, what chance was there for anyone else?! By 1986, after years of building a fan base despite no airplay or media coverage (thrash bands initially built a following through underground tape trading), then getting signed to independent and subsequently major labels, all four of the big thrash bands had produced seminal work; Slayer with “Reign In Blood”, Metallica with “Master of Puppets”, Megadeth with “Peace Sells …But Who’s Buying?“ and Anthrax with “Armed and Dangerous”. Classics all, yet thrash was still just a niche within heavy rock, itself a minority musical interest. Kerrang! Magazine acknowledged the new sound and featured thrash bands alongside the mildly less thrashy Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, but perhaps not as much as thrash’s supporters would have liked. Metal Forces Magazine had started up to cover the genre more thoroughly and Kerrang! responded with Mega Metal Kerrang!, a quarterly magazine that featured Metallica on the cover in issue #1 and which promised to give greater coverage to thrash. That they needed to do so outside the normal pages of the magazine demonstrated how thrash still divided metal fans. As i said Master Of Puppets were an massive release and have become one of the single most influential heavy metal albums of all time, but when The Four Horsemen brought Anthrax as a support act over to the Uk, for the Damage Inc tour, it was still seen upon as an underground movement. This album features 9 tracks recorded during that tour, at Hammersmith Odeon on the 21st of September 1986. Its not only one of the band’s last shows with bassist Cliff Burton, who died September 27 in Sweden, it also features Metal Church guitarist John Marshall doing James Hetfields guitar parts, as Hetfield were still recovering from a skateboarding accident.

Track list:
1. Master Of Puppets
2. For Whom The Bell Tolls
3. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
4. Ride The Lightning
5. Whiplash
6. The Thing That Should Not Be
7. Fade To Black
8. Seek And Destroy
9. Creeping Death