Among the Living
Occupation
- Joey Belladonna: Vocals
- Scott Ian: Guitar
- Dan Spitz: guitar
- Frank Bello: Bass
- Charlie Benante: Drums
Among the Living is the third studio album by American thrash metal band Anthrax. It is considered the commercial breakthrough of the band, in 1990 it was awarded in the U.S. gold for 500,000 copies sold.
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The basic tracks were recorded in the radial Quad Studios in Miami, Florida, the mix and the mastering found at Compass Point Studio, Nassau, Bahamas, instead. The obligation of Eddie Kramer as a music producer went back to Charlie Benante, who liked his work for Led Zeppelin and Kiss. While the producer wanted a modern sound with a lot of reverb, the band was expecting a dry sound as possible.
When songwriting Anthrax attacked partly due to existing fragments. That's why Danny Lilker Credits received at I Am the Law, even though he was not involved in the actual songwriting Among the Living. Lilker also received credits to Imitation of Life, because the opening riff of the song Are not You Hungry? comes, the Lilker for S.O.D. had written. The texts were predominantly made by Scott Ian and are partly inspired by the works of the writer Stephen King. I Am the Law is about Judge Dredd.
The band dedicated the album to his friend Metallica bassist Cliff Burton, who was killed in a 1986 accident.
The album was remixed with the help of not used in the first production in 1987 Takes 2009. Were available alternative versions of various guitar solos and vocals.
Shaping
The basic idea for the album cover comes from the novella Apt Pupil ( Pupil ) from Stephen King's short story collection spring, summer, autumn and death. The cover shows a lot of look-alike people plan view, who lowered his head. In its center is a white-haired man who looks at the viewer, raises his hat and has his hand raised in greeting. This figure is for the " dark personalities " are to live among the people and in them there. It has resemblance to a character from Poltergeist or the figure Randall Flagg from Stephen King's novel The Stand. Drawn was the picture of Don Brautigam.
The photo on the back of the cover was in the New York subway. It was secretly, because the band had not obtained the necessary regulatory Photo permission.
Title list
Reception
Steve Huey of Allmusic suggests that Among the Living was often regarded as the best album of the band. He calls the album forceful and aggressive, it will driven by insanely fast guitar riffs, explosive drumming, tempo changes and the hardcore -like vocal style. Frank Trojan writes in his contemporary review that the album is expected of it more than satisfies, it was perfect and belongs " to the strongest ... what has so far brought this genre to the day." On the occasion of the re-releases called Greg Moffitt of BBC Music Album as a major breakthrough for the band, it contains some of the great moments of the band and was surprisingly stable, in contrast to the usual standards of the time it was produced dry and it offers a clever balance between breakneck speed and the appropriate use of melodies. This music Decibel Magazine led the album 2011 in the category Disposable Heroes (German: , expendable heroes ' ) as an overrated album with cult status. Author Jeff Wagner says that even after more than 21 years was not a great album. It refers to the majority of the guitar riffs as monotonous, the choruses of songs like A Skeleton in the Closet and Efilnikufesin (NFL) were " terrible non choruses ", the sing-along numbers such as One World just cheesy and the vocal performance by Joey Belladonna bad. Only the energy of the album was considerable, including the impressive work of the rhythm section contributing.