Description

Still sealed digipak

Nearly as much as Metallica or Megadeth, Anthrax were responsible for the emergence of speed and thrash metal. Combining the speed and fury of hardcore punk with the prominent guitars and vocals of heavy metal, they helped create a new sub-genre of heavy metal on their early albums. However the start of the band came as early as July of 1981 when guitarists Scott Ian and Dan Lilker discovered the band’s name while perusing a biology textbook and claimed it solely for its sufficiently evil-sounding connotation. Anthrax was born and soon to join them were vocalist John Connelly, drummer Dave Weiss and bassist Kenny Kushner. Kushner was replaced with Paul Kahn, who was also found insufficient and-ultimately galvanized Lilker to take over bass. Greg Walls joined as second guitarist. Connelly and Weiss left and were replaced by Greg D’Angelo on drums, and after a series of vocalists (including Scott’s brother Jason Rosenfeld), they found Neil Turbin. This line-up gigged frequently locally and featured original songs like Satans Wheels and Hunting Dogs as well as covers by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kiss and more, then in July 1982 they recorded a NWOBHM-sounding 4-track demo. Walls left in the summer of 1983, leaving Bob Berry to replace him for a few gigs. However bob Berry was short-lived as Dan Spitz (formerly of Overkill) joined the band. It was this line-up that recorded their second demo in 1983. These two demos can now be found on this album as well as two tracks, Evil Dreams and Satans Wheels, performed at the Manhattan Cable TV in 1982.

Track list:
1. Across The River / Howling Furies-demo 1982
2. Hate-demo 1982
3. Pestilence-demo 1982
4. Satans Wheels-demo 1982
5. Soldiers Of Metal-demo 1983
6. Panic-demo 1983
7. Hellfire-demo 1983
8. Anthrax-demo 1983
9. Across The River / Howling Furies-demo 1983
10. Evil Dreams-Manhattan Cable Channel 1982
11. Satan’s Wheels-Manhattan Cable Channel 1982