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Fistful of Metal

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AllMusic[1]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[2]
Kerrang!favorable[3]
The New Rolling Stone Album Guide[4]

Fistful of Metal is the debut album by American thrash metal band Anthrax, released in January 1984 by Megaforce Records in the US and Music for Nations internationally. It includes a cover of Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen". This is the band's only album to feature Neil Turbin on vocals and Dan Lilker on bass.

History

Post release

Danny Lilker and Scott Ian had been the original founders of the band, but singer Neil Turbin fired Lilker shortly after the release of the album, and without Scott Ian's permission.

As his replacement, the band hired drummer Charlie Benante's nephew, Frank Bello, who has played on every Anthrax album since. Vocalist Neil Turbin had contributed song ideas, lyrics, titles and arrangements to the majority of songs on the debut album, i.e. "Metal Thrashing Mad", "Deathrider", "Panic", "Subjugator, "Death from Above", "Soldiers of Metal", "Anthrax", as well as Spreading the Disease songs "Armed and Dangerous", "Gung Ho" and "Raise Hell", but both Scott Ian and Charlie Benante, who played guitar in addition to drums, felt they needed tighter control on the songwriting.[5] Due to a songwriting partnership between Ian and Benante, with Ian writing all the lyrics and Benante writing the music, Turbin was released from the band.[5] Eddie Trunk admits in his book Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal: "Early on, I told Johnny Z that what I didn't like about Anthrax was singer Neil Turbin's vocals."[6] He admits in his writing to pressuring Johnny Zazula and Anthrax into firing Turbin from the band.[6]

The term "thrash metal" was used for the first time in the music press by UK's Kerrang! journalist Malcolm Dome, while making a reference to the song "Metal Thrashing Mad".[7]

Reissues and other releases

Fistful of Metal was released as a double album by Music for Nations in the UK, featuring extra mixes of the tracks "Soldiers of Metal" and "Howling Furies", which were not included on the US edition.[8] In 2000, Megaforce repackaged and re-release a compilation of Fistful of Metal and the 1985 Anthrax EP Armed and Dangerous which featured some liner notes, but excluded any new mixes and bonus tracks and features a different artwork instead of the controversial "Metal-wrapped fist" artwork.

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Deathrider"Neil Turbin, Dan Spitz, Scott Ian, Danny Lilker, Charlie Benante3:10
2."Metal Thrashing Mad"Turbin, Spitz, Ian, Lilker, Benante2:39
3."I'm Eighteen" (Alice Cooper cover)Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith4:02
4."Panic"Turbin, Ian, Lilker3:58
5."Subjugator"Turbin, Spitz, Ian, Lilker, Benante4:38
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
6."Soldiers of Metal"Turbin, Ian, Lilker2:55
7."Death from Above"Turbin, Ian, Lilker5:00
8."Anthrax"Turbin, Ian, Lilker3:24
9."Across the River" (Instrumental)Ian, Lilker1:26
10."Howling Furies"Ian, Lilker3:55

Personnel

Band members
Production

References

  1. ^ Huey, Steve. "Anthrax: Fistful of Metal". AllMusic. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
  2. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. p. 2006. ISBN 0-85712-595-8.
  3. ^ Russell, Xavier (February 23, 1984). "Anthrax: Fistful of Metal". Kerrang!. 62. London, UK: Spotlight Publications Ltd.: 8. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  4. ^ Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian David (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon and Schuster. p. 20. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  5. ^ a b "Charlie Benante Discusses The Highs And Lows Of One Of Metal's Big Four; Once our original vocalist Neil Turbin was out of the band". Jammmagazineonline.com. 2013-03-01. Retrieved 2013-03-31.
  6. ^ a b Trunk, Eddie (30 August 2011). "Anthrax". Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. New York, US: Abrams. p. 240. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  7. ^ Dome, Malcolm (23 February 1984). "Anthrax 'Fistful Of Metal'". Kerrang!. Vol. 62. London, UK: Spotlight Publications Ltd. p. 8. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  8. ^ "Anthrax - Fistful of Metal". Encyclopaedia Metallum. Retrieved 2012-03-10.
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