Among the Living

This article is about the album by Anthrax. For the 1941 film, see Among the Living (film).

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Among the Living is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Anthrax. The album was released in March 1987 by Megaforce Worldwide/Island and is certified gold by the RIAA. The BBC has described the album as "arguably their big breakthrough", and "often cited by fans as their favourite Anthrax album".

Album information

The album was produced by Anthrax and Eddie Kramer. The album includes the singles, "I Am the Law" and "Indians". The video for the song "Indians" received substantial rotation on MTV.

The cover of Among the Living depicts the Rev. Henry Kane, antagonist from the Poltergeist series of films. It has also been speculated that the cover is an homage to the character Randall Flagg, the antagonist from the Stephen King novel The Stand, as this character is the subject of the album's title track. "A Skeleton In The Closet" is also inspired by a Stephen King novella entitled Apt Pupil.

This was the final Anthrax album to feature songwriting contributions from original bassist Danny Lilker, who, despite having left the band after 1984's Fistful of Metal, was credited as the co-writer of several Anthrax songs for the next two albums. On Among the Living, he is credited as the co-writer of the songs "I Am the Law" and "Imitation of Life".

The album was dedicated to the memory of Metallica bassist Cliff Burton, a highly regarded figure in the thrash community who died six months prior to the album's release.

In 2000, the album was re-released in Germany as a double album along with Persistence of Time.

On Anthrax's 2005 reunion tour with vocalist Joey Belladonna, the majority of their concert set consisted of material from Among the Living. On their 2006 tour they sometimes performed the album live in its entirety.

On November 10, 2009, a deluxe edition of the album was released which included a bonus concert DVD. The deluxe edition featured alternate takes of several album tracks; live versions; and "I Am the Law" b-side, "Bud E Luv Bomb And Satan's Lounge Band".

The first six songs of the album are included on the Compilation CD Anthrology: No Hit Wonders (1985-1991).

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Among the Living"	Anthrax	5:16
2.	"Caught in a Mosh"	Anthrax	5:00
3.	"I Am the Law"	Anthrax, Danny Lilker	5:57
4.	"Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)"	Anthrax	4:54
5.	"A Skeleton in the Closet"	Anthrax	5:32
6.	"Indians"	Anthrax	5:40
7.	"One World"	Anthrax	5:56
8.	"A.D.I./Horror of It All"	Anthrax	7:49
9.	"Imitation of Life"	Anthrax, Danny Lilker	4:22

2009 Deluxe Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
10.	"Indians (Alternate Lead)"	Anthrax
11.	"One World (Alternate Take)"	Anthrax
12.	"Imitation of Life (Alternate Take)"	Anthrax, Danny Lilker
13.	"Bud E Luv Bomb And Satan's Lounge Band"
14.	"I Am the Law (Live in Dallas)"	Anthrax, Danny Lilker
15.	"I'm the Man (Instrumental)"	Joey Belladonna, Dan Spitz, Scott Ian, Frank Bello, Charlie Benante, John Rooney

2009 Deluxe Edition Disc 2

"Oidivnikufesin (N.F.V.)" DVD. Recorded live in London, England, 1987.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Intro"
2.	"Among the Living"
3.	"Caught in a Mosh"
4.	"Metal Thrashing Mad"
5.	"I Am the Law"
6.	"Madhouse"
7.	"Indians"
8.	"Medusa"
9.	"Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)"
10.	"Armed And Dangerous"
11.	"A.I.R./I'm The Man/A.I.R."
12.	"Gung Ho"

Personnel

• Joey Belladonna – Lead vocals
• Dan Spitz –Lead guitar, Acoustic guitar on A.D.I
• Scott Ian – Rhythm guitar, Backing vocals
• Frank Bello – Bass guitar, Backing vocals
• Charlie Benante – Drums

Song information

• "Among the Living" is based on the Stephen King novel The Stand. "The Walkin Dude" is Randall Flagg, the main villain in the book, and the beginning verse: "Disease! Disease! Spreading the disease!\With some help from Captain Trips\He'll bring the world down to its knees" refers to the virus that destroys most of the population in the novel. The song was released as downloadable content for the Rock Band series as a master track.
• The rerecorded version of "Among the Living" from The Greater Of Two Evils is used as a background to the Clerks 2 Teaser.
• "Caught in a Mosh" is ranked number 29 in VH1's "40 Greatest Metal Songs." A cover version of the song is included in the game Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and the master recording of the song is included in Guitar Hero: Smash Hits and in Rock Band 3.
• "I Am the Law" is about the comic book character Judge Dredd.
• "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L)" is about the life of John Belushi. Efilnikufesin is "Nise Fukin Life" ("nice fucking life", phonetically) backward.
• "A Skeleton in the Closet" is based on the Stephen King novella "Apt Pupil" in the novel Different Seasons. It has since been made into a movie.
• The A.D.I in "A.D.I/Horror of it All" stands for Arabic Douche Intro.
• "Indians" was released as downloadable content for the Rock Band series as a master track and is included in the game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
• "Imitation of Life" is a remake, of the S.O.D. song "Aren't You Hungry?".