Anthrax performing at the Austin360 Amphitheater in Austin, Texas

Anthrax performing at the Austin360 Amphitheater in Austin, Texas on June 20, 2018, with Joey Belladonna, Frank Bello, Charlie Benante, Scott Ian, and Jon Donais.

Nearly as much as Metallica or Megadeth, Anthrax were responsible for the emergence of speed and thrash metal. Combining the speed and fury of hardcore punk with the prominent guitars and vocals of heavy metal, they helped create a new subgenre of heavy metal on their early albums. Original guitarists Scott Ian and Dan Spitz were a formidable pair, spitting out lightning-fast riffs and solos that never seemed masturbatory.

Unlike Metallica or Megadeth, they had the good sense to temper their often serious music with a healthy dose of humor and realism. After their first album, Fistful of Metal, singer Joey Belladonna and bassist Frank Bello joined the lineup. Belladonna helped take the band farther away from conventional metal clichés, and over the next five albums (with the exception of 1988's State of Euphoria, where the band sounded like it was in a creative straitjacket), Anthrax arguably became the leaders of speed metal.

As the '80s became the '90s, they also began to increase their experiments with hip-hop, culminating in a tour with Public Enemy in 1991 and a joint re-recording of PE's classic "Bring the Noise." The remainder of the decade saw the band continuing to both flex and expand its sonic muscle, but lineup changes and label woes remained a constant stress throughout, and by 2003 they were only playing sporadically. In 2010, after a seven-year hiatus, Anthrax reconvened for Worship Music, a return to form that many called their most potent offering since 1990's Persistence of Time. (Source: Artist)

Setlist for the show at the Austin360 Amphitheater

• The Number of the Beast (tape)
• I Can't Turn You Loose
• Among the Living
• Caught in a Mosh
• Got the Time
• Madhouse
• Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't
• Breathing Lightning
• Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)
• Medusa
• I Am the Law
• Be All, End All
• Antisocial
• Indians
• Long Live Rock 'n' Roll

Anthrax shared the stage with Slayer, Lamb Of God, Behemoth, and Testament at the Austin360 Amphitheater. The band continues across the United States, Canada, and Europe with the last stop at the Helsinki Ice Hall in Helsinki, Finland on December 8, 2018.

Anthrax
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Photos by Ralph Arvesen
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