TEAM RNS PRESENTS

TITLE: The Greater Of Two Evils

LABEL: Nuclear Blast

RIPPER: Team RNS

256kbps avg - Metal
1hr 13min total-140.8mb

RELEASE DATE: 2004-11-29
RIP DATE: 2004-11-02

02 Metal Thrashing Mad            2:47
03 Caught In A Mosh               5:27

05 Among The Living               5:52
06 Keep It In The Family          7:24

10 I Am The Law                   6:03
11 Belly Of The Beast             5:41

13 Be All End All                 6:28

Throughout their infamous 20 year
career, the mighty Anthrax has always
prided themselves on being a band of the
people, for the people and by the
people. This being said and with 2004
being an election year, Anthrax have
taken that ideal one step further with
their upcoming release, The Greater of
Two Evils, an all out assault on their
history with each song being voted on by
their fans via the Internet.

Recorded live in the studio over the
course of two days, The Greater of Two
Evils stands out, as guitarist Scott
Ian puts it, As a raw, balls out, and
in your face representation of how
brutal this band is, was, and will

Covering their history from 1984-1990,
The Greater of Two Evils is made up of
fourteen classic Anthrax songs the fans
demanded by way of the thousands of
votes from all over the world received
on the bands official website,
anthrax.com. Based on those votes, the
band entered Avatar studios in NYC one
cold and snowy weekend last winter and
took a trip back in time to revisit
songs from their formative releases
Fistful Of Metal(1984), Spreading The
Disease(1985), Among The Living(1987),
State Of Euphoria(1988), and Persistence

It was just the five of us in a room
ripping. It was intense, Ian continues,
like when we first wrote these songs and
started playing them for the first time.
Except now the songs have evolved after
years of playing them live to where I
wish they were when we first recorded
them. Like good whisky, theyve aged
wonderfully. Theres so much energy on
this record. Busting the tracks out
live in two days was definitely the way
to do it. Whats crazy is when I listen
to it its like Im listening to it from
outside the band because its made up of
all these old songs that we havent
played much over the years and I really
only know the studio versions so when I
hear John singing them, its like I get
to here it from your point of view if
that makes any sense. And let me tell
ya, John and Rob are killing on this.

Our fans have been so loyal over the
years that we wanted to give them
something special, explains drummer
Charlie Benante, so we came up with the
idea of letting them pick the songs for
this album. Not to take away from our
past, but ever since John has been in
the band, people are always coming up
to us and saying I wish you would
re-record this or I would love to hear
John sing that, so we did it and it came

A point that lead singer John Bush
expounds upon, When I joined Anthrax 12
years ago we wrote and recorded Sound Of
White Noise. Although, at that time, we
felt we were going to play a lot of
those tunes live, there was still a
giant catalog of older songs for me to
learn. From that time until now Ive
embraced those older songs like they
were children of my own. Taking nothing
away from the original versions, because
they definitely stand tall on their own,
it felt like a good idea to give the
fans the choice if they wanted to hear
new versions of these songs and which
songs they wanted to hear the most.
This is not an attempt to relive the
past, just an attempt to kick 'em out
with the 21st century line-up of

And kick em out they do. Well known songs
like Caught In A Mosh, Madhouse, and
Indians, get the update as well as
lesser know songs such as Panic, Gung
Ho, and Deathrider, with the latter
getting the biggest over-haul. Charlie
Benante explains: While we didnt want to
deviate too much from the original
recordings, we didnt want to be
strapped to them either. There are a few
changes here and there with Deathrider
being the one that stands out the most.
On our first album, Fistful Of Metal,
that song is a blast from the
beginning to the end, one speed, thats
it. On the new version it's still fast,
but we pull-up a bit in the verses going
to half-time, which makes it heavier and
flow better. No one will be

All the artwork for The Greater of Two
Evils was done by Shepard Fairey, the
subterranean legend best known for his
Andre the Giant inspired OBEY graphics.
We wanted something different this time
out, says Benante who serves not only as
drummer and songwriter but as the
resident art director as well. Our last
two releases we used famed painter Alex
Ross who did two unbelievable covers for
us (2003s critically acclaimed Weve Come
For You All and their live DVD/CD Music
Of Mass Destruction which was released
earlier this year.), and we wanted to
go in a slightly different direction.
The cover is very flat, in a good way,
and the colors are striking. It will
work great as the cover, in posters,
t-shirts, whatever, it's just a cool

Anthrax hopes that The Greater of Two
Evils serves as a history lesson and a
starting off point for the whole new
generation of fans who were turned onto
the band over the course of the last
couple of years, something that was
quite evident during their never-ending
2003-04 Music of Mass Destruction World
Tour. On that tour, which took them to
virtually every continent on the planet
including shows in Russia, the Czech
Republic, Poland, and Hungary, the
members of Anthrax were noticing that
their crowds were being made up of kids
who were not old enough to be around when
the previously mentioned Among The
Living was released some years ago. Its
weird, says Benante, when I talk to our
fans I find myself amazed that we have
made such an impact for all these years.
When we first started we were kids with
nothing to do who just wanted to play.
The fact that we have been around for a
generation and continue to play to
thousands of kids all around the world 9
months out of the year, I would have
never have believed.