Anthrax - Kings Among Scotland (2018) Hi-Res

Live albums can be curious beasts within any type of music – get them right and you’ve potentially got a genre-defining document of an artist on blistering live form, but get them wrong and you run the risk of the opposite happening. Thrash metal titans, and one quarter of the Big 4, ANTHRAX are no strangers to the concept, having put out six different live albums over their career, but now they’re set to release a seventh – Kings Among Scotland.

With this particular show being split in two, for reasons we’ll get onto later, the album kicks off with one hell of an opener in the form of A.I.R. – which immediately sets the pace for what’s to come, with blisteringly quick riffing courtesy of Scott Ian and Jon Donais giving way to the iconic bellowing voice of Joey Belladonna (arguably the MVP of this entire release. It’s quickly followed by a couple more cuts from Spreading The Disease including Medusa and fan-favourite Madhouse, whilst State Of Euphoria staple Be All, End All serves as that record’s sole input here. All are delivered with gusto and a delightfully playful feel, which serves to further endear ANTHRAX as being one of thrash metal’s most truly fun bands to listen to. Latest album For All Kings gets a look-in here in this first set too, with the likes of the lumbering Blood Eagle Wings, gleefully power-metal-esque cheesy-sounding Breathing Lightning and especially the pacey thrash of Evil Twin going down an apparent storm with the enthusiastic Scots crowd captured by the recording. Of this first set, there’s definitely a couple of omissions that would’ve been nice to hear (Got The Time, I’m The Man and Bring The Noise are all absent here), but everything’s of a strong enough quality that it doesn’t really end up mattering.

The real centrepiece of this particular record however, comes around the mid-point, with the second of two sets bringing forth an in-full (albeit slightly rearranged) airing of the band’s seminal 1987 album Among The Living – arguably one of metal’s most beloved albums. It’s here that the band seem to raise the bar even further too, with Belladonna’s vocal performance somehow seeming to take on yet more power, as he bellows through a set of nine of thrash metal’s best songs. Rarely have songs like I Am The Law, A Skeleton In The Closet and Among The Living sounded better than they seem to here, and when the real stone cold classics like pit anthem Caught In A Mosh and the rally cry that is Indians (here somehow stretched to over ten minutes in length) hit, the intensity of the live show really shines through onto the recording. It’s this second set that most fans will likely have come for with this live album, and the final outcome is a wonderful document of just how great a live band ANTHRAX are capable of being. As the band close off encoring with their cover of TRUST classic Antisocial, it’s impossible not to picture in your mind the site of hundreds of sweat-drenched metalheads in the Barrowlands losing their minds to the brilliance of what they still represent in 2018.

Whilst probably not necessarily an essential addition to everyone’s ANTHRAX collection, Kings Among Scotland is arguably the best document to date of their live prowess, containing enough of a crowd-pleasing setlist to warrant a look-in and undoubtedly serving as a great release to tide fans over until the inevitable next studio album.