Anthrax, Prong, After All

25th. of June 2003, Batschkapp, Frankfurt (Ger)


Mike had to call in sick and stay at home, down with the serious flu, therefore we had a new Dudenews recruit on board to get an
important lesson taught in heavy metal history. Welcome Helena.

This concert was the best way to understand which steps old school heavy metal took
in the last 15 years and the developments it went through to give birth to this huge
variety of different metal genres with all its brothers and sisters of the today's new metal
family. All it's turning points, milestones and improvements: in a nutshell = Anthrax.
In my opinion definitely one of the important and outstanding bands in heavy metal
music along with Metallica and the others you already know but unlike the others
Anthrax just has never gotten enough of the respect they deserve.

The Batschkapp venue is definitely one of our faves, thanks to their staff and organization, their concerts are usually all running very smooth. Since it was really hot inside it was no problem for them to open the doors for about 500 people to be able to go outside all the time - especially between the sets - to get some fresh air and get right back in without any hassles.

First off were After All from Belgium. They opened for Anthrax a few times before and had already taken stage when we decided to go to hell. Old school heavy metal but nothing really exciting about it though. Any true metal band could have opened with the same success. Just one of a kind. They didn't really get the audience going which doesn't mean they were bad but fairly unknown to the crowd. On top of that they had to fight the heat and this was the major reason for people to decide to wait for Prong to come on stage while enjoying a cold beer outside in the beer garden with more than half of the visitors.

After a little more than half an hour the stage got cleared up for Prong. A bit more space now for the band to move since they all brought their own equipment which had been crammed in three rows with the covered monster drum kit of Charlie Benante as the supreme ruler of all.

Prong came on stage fairly unspectacular. No super long intro and lights off needed. Plugg in and lets go. Finally the heavy riffing got everyone going. Prong is all about great heavy riffs combined with half time beats to create a stampede that punches you in the guts so bad that your head bangs automatically. It's not really the singing and the lyrics that get your attention it's the combination of it all. The singing just fills in the necessary
bits and most of the time just roll along with the beat and bridge the various breaks and tempi.
Unfortunately I don't know a lot of Prong songs except of the few famous ones l ike "Snap your fingers,
snap your neck" but looking at the bands history and their music from the first album
on they surely had their hands on creating metal genres as well and there couldn't
have been a better support act for Anthrax.

Heavy Metal History Lesson 1, tonight. If you listen to a lot of different bands
today you can surely find similarities with one of the two. You think it has all been
there before but those bands were actually part of the creation process and an
involuntary influence for the most - I'd say. You need to have at least a "best of" from
both. Bla, bla, bla to come to the point.

Anthrax up next. For me it was my first Anthrax show after knowing them for almost 15
years and it couldn't have been any better (Jenny says: actually it was the second show
for Mahoo. We saw them opening for Motorhead last fall. Mahoo however must have
been so shitfaced that he cannot remember this...). Sometimes it seems like musicians don't get any older just you do. I realized that looking around in the crowd. Most of them 25+ and the rest at least 30+. The only differences I could point right away were that the big mullets no longer exist, thank God the 80s are over... maybe a little mullet left over on the bass player.

And a new guitarist, I think a cousin of Benante if I remember correctly. He needs to loosen up a little bit. Other than that Scott Ian still moshing like in the good old days. He doesn't jump and run around that much any more though, as seen in live videos a decade ago. If you ask me, I think Scott Ian invented the "moshing in perfection" as well. Still very stylish 10 points, he?s too cool. I love it. And John Bush is one of my favourites, too. I never got into Joey Belldonnas voice that much when he used to do the vocals. His voice was too high and too much 80s style for my taste, sometimes a bit annoying after a while. Bush is the better choice. He plays around with his voice and doesn't stick to one style. Behind the kick ass drum set, not to forget, Charlie Benante. He?s the man.

There are only a very few bands where the drummer actually writes most of the songs. Much respect. He's a multitalented superdude and of course an awesome drummer. Tight as a drum computer while flipping through various beats and tempi that would throw every other drummer off track. To name a few songs they played: "Room For One More", "Crush", "Only", "Got The Time", "Madhouse", "Antisocial", "I am the Law",
"Inside Out" and of course "Bring the Noise". Best of almost 20 years band history.
I don't have their new album, yet but they played the title song
"We Came For You All", and I think another two I didn't know.

A really long set for having three bands in the Batschkapp. Usually the concerts
are over by 12 p.m. but they were still going at 12:30. I'm sure ever Anthrax Fan
was pleased and had a great time.





review by Michel Giardina, pictures by Jennifer Moss