Review by Felix on October 17, 2023.

It has already been said a lot of times, the early nineties brought a time of reorientation for the old thrash heroes. The new shit from Seattle made an impact, but was this really reason enough to deny the own roots? Anyway, the great names of the past were not fainting. Anthrax, for example, had a budget great enough to produce an excellent sound. Right from the beginning, “Potter’s Field” achieves a magnificent result in terms of depth, multidimensionality and raw precision. The “Sound of White Noise” makes fun, it’s so powerful yet smooth and very close to perfection.

And in terms of music, Anthrax also showed their teeth. John Bush’s natural voice is much more metal than that of Joey Belladonna. He gives the songs a very male and vigorous touch. He strikes every tone perfectly and enriches the material by his performance significantly. I don’t say that Belladonna is the worse singer, but I cannot imagine the here presented songs with his vocals. They are tailored to Bush’s voice and he makes the very best out of this situation. Naturally, you cannot turn shit into gold just by a good vocal performance. But don’t worry, sometimes the white noise is much better than its reputation.

Anthrax start with a powerful triple strike. The shredding of “Potter’s Field”, the smoothly flowing “Only” with its characteristic drum intro and the mega-catchy chorus and the somewhat inconspicuous but very well done “Room for One More” make fun. It’s no thrash, at least not in its pure form, but the muscular compositions are clearly based on a very stable fundament. Anthrax play an authentic form of metal. They do not whine to the mainstream for attention. Even “Black Lodge” doesn’t do this. Yes, it is a calm number with a certain Metallica-affinity, but it is free from schmaltz. Moreover, it holds emotional harmonies and is cleverly arranged. I don’t say that I am listening to a masterpiece when it comes to this semi-ballad, but it definitely does not annoy the audience with embarrassing details. And, of course, it sets the stage for the power riffs that open the next track “C11 H17 and the rest I have forgotten” (my old chemistry teacher isn’t surprised). It’s a decent track, but the following neckbreaker “Burst” comes much closer to the real thing. Especially its nervous lines at the beginning as well as its explosiveness are impressive.

Unfortunately, some tracks fall short of expectations “Packaged Rebellion” is acceptable, but it stands in the shadow of the opener or “Only”. “Hy Pro Glo” sees Bush doing the Ozzy (which is always a bad idea) and when it comes to “1000 Points of Hate”, I am still undecided: is it pretty cool or just noisy mediocrity? And yes, it is not just the closer (with a great, intense ending) that reveals their newly found weakness for zeitgeist inspired harmonies that made Alice in Chains famous. Either way, those of you who do not always look for the pure dogma, can lend an ear to the album. 30 years after its release, “Sound of White Noise” can be an interesting and good historic document. The spirit of the time could not significantly hurt the quality of the songs.

Rating: 7.4 out of 10