Anthrax - Armed and Dangerous - February, 1985

This is a funny little EP. But it's obviously a message from Anthrax saying, "Don't worry, we're still here and our new singer can wail just as well as, if not better than our old one!" It starts off well enough with the title track, which has always been one of my favourite 'Thrax tunes... and it's also immediately obvious that Joey can fucking wail! The other new original, "Raise Hell" is alright, and wouldn't sound out of place on Fistful of Metal, but Anthrax is already demonstrating a penchant for inserting stupid cover songs on their albums. Why do I need to hear Joey Belladonna do his best Johnny Rotten impression? I don't. Stop it.

As far as I'm concerned, the main reason to own this EP is for the two re-recordings of the Fistful of Metal tracks. The instrumentation is largely the same, but this is Joey going "Neil? Neil who, motherfuckers?" So what if this weirdo likes Journey? Dude can melt your fucking face! Still though, not the greatest album. It's just a nice introduction for a new singer.

1. Armed and Dangerous
2. Raised Hell
3. God Save the Queen
4. Metal Thrashing Mad
5. Panic
6. Soldiers of Metal
7. Howling Furies

Score: 6/10