77. Anthrax / Armed And Dangerous (EP). 1985. 4/5.

Anthrax had followed the same learning curve and hard-working route that most bands do on their way to recording and releasing their debut album, which came in January 1984 in the form of “Fistful of Metal”. The band had had a varied assortment of members in the lead up to the writing and recording of that album, but it didn’t end there. Tensions had been building over time between bass player Dan Lilker and lead vocalist Neil Turbin, and eventually Turbin fired Lilker without informing the rest of the band. In an interview after the event, Lilker is quoted as saying "After I was thrown out, the guys unfairly said, "Well, it took him 30 times to record the bass track for 'I'm Eighteen,'" and if you listen to the bass track, if you didn't know the whole story, you would say, "Well, that's weird, isn't it?" It's only, like, five notes." Lilker went on to form the band Nuclear Assault with another former Anthrax alumni John Connolly. In his place at drummer Charlie Benante and guitarist Scott Ian’s insistence, the band hired Charlie's nephew Frank Bello to replace Lilker on bass guitar.
Anthrax then went out on tour to promote the “Fistful of Metal” album, opening for Raven amongst other bands. During this period there were continuing problems with Turbin both within the band itself, and from outside influences. Eddie Trunk, at the time becoming an influential music journalist in the heavy metal scene, has openly admitted since that he pressured Jon Zazula, the creator of Megaforce Records, and Scott Ian that Turbin was not suitable for the band, suggesting his vocals were not of the same quality as the music that was behind them. Along with the other issues that were being played out behind the scenes, the band parted ways with Turbin in August 1984. He was briefly replaced by singer Matt Fallon but this also didn’t work out, leaving the band in limbo.
Then, from around the corner, the band found their man. Joey Belladonna. He was older than the rest of the band, and they did not like the musical background that he came from, but he had a voice that drew attention to him from the first note he sang. The band played a few gigs toward the end of 1984 to assess how the new combination would go, and the resulting success confirmed Belladonna’s position in the band.
As a way to introduce their new lead singer, and to keep their name out in front of their fans, the band and their record company decided to release an EP to introduce Belladonna to their fans, as well as give Bello his first chance to record with the band. The result of this was the EP titled “Armed and Dangerous”, released to the world in February 1985. It became the vanguard for the stretch of four albums that propelled the band to stardom.

EP’s can be a tricky thing, because if they contain material that is available elsewhere then there seems to be no reason to buy them. This is where this EP is one of the best, because every song has its own individuality and while the title track was eventually available elsewhere, the other tracks can only be found on this EP which made it a perfect buy at the time and still is today.
“Armed and Dangerous” was a song that had already been composed by the band, but was finessed up here for this EP release. Both Neil Turbin and Dan Lilker had been involved in the writing process, and while they received writing credit for it, so too did their replacements Joey Belladonna and Frank Bello. It is a terrific song to introduce Joey especially to their fan base. It utilises his vocal range exceptionally well, while also showing how far the band had progressed in maturity to the playing of this track. The band is tighter than they were on their debut album, the rhythm seems clearer and more focused, and the rough edges have been sandpapered back. This song also eventually appeared on the band’s following album “Spreading the Disease”, and it is no wonder because it is a beauty.
The rest of the EP stands up just as well. “Raise Hell” was a fully formed song that didn’t make the cut for the first album, which when you hear it here makes you wonder why. Why would you decide to have a cover version of the Alice Cooper Band’s “I’m Eighteen” rather than a song that you had composed yourself? No doubt a record company decision. I also wonder how Turbin would have sung this song because it would have been different from the way Joey sings it, one would suspect. Its not a bad song, certainly not worthy of getting the cut from the first album. The band then does a rendition of the Sex Pistols “God Save the Queen”, which sounds good, but lacks any of the spitting venom of the original. It’s funny really, because you would expect a thrash band would have really gone to town on this song and drawn every piece of irony and venom from the track, but that’s not the case.
The final two songs on the original EP are the new line up of the band playing two songs from the debut album in the studio. And they both sound fantastic. The version here of “Metal Thrashing Mad” with Joey on vocals and Frankie on bass is surely the definitive version of this song. Joey’s vocals are perfect, hitting the heights when they need to, rathe than the forced scream that Neil uses on the original, and much the same from John Bush when they did this song again on “The Greater of Two Evils” album two decades later. This is fast, thrashy and combines all of the great talents that the band possesses. Much can be said of “Panic”, which again sounds like a huge upgrade on the original version from the “Fistful of Metal” album. The band races along at top speed through this song, and Joey does a great job on vocals again. I suspect that everyone who heard this on its release, having heard the original line up and the debut album, could only have been impressed, and thought that the second album was going to be a superior upgrade on that first release. They would have been correct.
Some years later when this was re-released on CD, another two songs were added, those being the two tracks from the band’s first single released from “Fistful of Metal”. “Soldiers of Metal” was the single and “Howling Furies” was the B-side. An added bonus for those that came across this in the age of the spinning discs.

I didn’t own this EP when it was first released. I must have gotten it pretty soon after it was released on CD in 1990, because I know I knew the song “Metal Thrashing Mad” prior to seeing the band in concert for the first time in 1990, and I know I heard this version of the song sung by Joey well before I heard the original version from the debut album. So that dates me getting this in mid-1990, which does make sense. And because I got the later CD version, I also had the two B-sides from the original single released, with the first version of the band, which was great for me, as it was my first exposure to them and their sound, before I finally heard the “Fistful of Metal” album.
EP’s are an interesting beast. How often would you reach for an EP to listen to when you could just reach for a full-length album instead? Why listen to this when you could have “Spreading the Disease” on instead, for instance? Well, as I’ve rediscovered this week, because it might sound bloody amazing! I’ve always loved this EP, but just rarely think of putting it on. So, when I dragged it out last week, I was ecstatic. I put on my CD player in the Metal Cavern and loved it so much I played it three times in succession. And then again over the following days. There is a great feeling about the tracks on this EP, a feeling of hope, a feeling of enjoyment. The band sounds like they are having fun, something that Anthrax almost always seemed to be doing on stage anyway.
There’s really not much more to say. I think this is a great EP. It does the job that an EP must do. It publicises whatever tracks the band wants to put out there in order to either keep the fans sated until the next album comes out, or pushes a song from the next album to try and get fans to buy that as well. It also has the bonus tracks that are not available anywhere else, so to buy it means you will have those songs and be able to snigger quietly when others talk around you saying, “I’ve never heard that song!!!” Of course, in this day and age of streaming and downloading that becomes a less likely event. But if an EP is not on those platforms – much like THIS one isn’t out there on a streaming platform – then you, like me, can enjoy it in your own home, and feel smug all over again.