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Anthrax - Spreading The Disease



8.4 | 796 votes |
Release date: 30 October 1985
Style: Thrash metal

Owners:

915 have it
55 want it
2 trade it


01. A.I.R.
02. Lone Justice
03. Madhouse
04. S.S.C./Stand Or Fall
05. The Enemy
06. Aftershock
07. Armed And Dangerous
08. Medusa
09. Gung-Ho

Top 20 albums of 1985: 6

Additional info
Produced by Carl Canedy and Anthrax
Engineered by Alex Perialas, Norman Dunn and Carl Canedy
Recorded at Pyramid Sound, New York
Mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk
Album cover concept by Charlie Benante
Art direction by Peter Corriston
Illustration by David Heffernan
Anthrax logo by Kent Josephe
Photography by Frank White, Gary Gershoff and Neil Stopol

Track 8 lyrics by Jon Zazula (executive producer, Megaforce Records co-founder and their former producer)
Tracks 7 & 9 co-written by Neil Turbin (the band's previous singer) and music co-written by former bassist Dan Lilker

Staff review by
Pierre Tombale
Rating:
7.0
44 minutes of a bunch of killerspeed classic american thrash metal awaits the listener with Anhtrax second album 'Spreading The Disease'. When I say killer I mean killer, most of the songs are played at amazing speed, skilled and tranined metal superathletes the five guys must be able to play this material alone on a concert. I know since I play in a band currently as a drummer I tend to be exhausted after playing for ten minutes at less speed than these guys.

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published 17.04.2004 | Comments (6)

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Comments

Comments: 28   Visited by: 890 users
24.07.2011 - 18:35
Rating: 10
eyeofthebeholder

Brilliant album.love every single song on it.
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24.07.2011 - 19:42
Rating: 10
Angelic Storm
Melodious
Written by eyeofthebeholder on 24.07.2011 at 18:35

Brilliant album.love every single song on it.


Agreed! There's not one moment of filler on the entire album. It's a great classic heavy metal album as well as a classic thrash album. Even better than Among The Living, in my humble opinion! <3
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24.07.2011 - 20:28
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by Angelic Storm on 24.07.2011 at 19:42

Written by eyeofthebeholder on 24.07.2011 at 18:35

Brilliant album.love every single song on it.


Agreed! There's not one moment of filler on the entire album. It's a great classic heavy metal album as well as a classic thrash album. Even better than Among The Living, in my humble opinion! <3


It is by far Anthrax's best by quite a huge margin
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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24.07.2011 - 22:31
Rating: 10
Angelic Storm
Melodious
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 24.07.2011 at 20:28
It is by far Anthrax's best by quite a huge margin


I wouldn't say by a huge margin, but I think why this album works so well, is because the sound is absolutely perfect for Joey's vocals.

There is some thrash on the album, like A.I.R., Gung Ho, and Aftershock, but there is also some more standard metal songs like Lone Justice, Medusa, Madhouse and Armed And Dangerous. And Joey's voice was so perfect for that material! I think Persistence Of Time is the pinnacle of their thrash sound, at least for me. But Spreading as an overall metal album is one of the best of all time, in my opinion. It was a perfect blend of old school heavy metal and thrash, and is a very unique album in the thrash scene because of that. xD
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24.07.2011 - 22:35
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Among The Living is vastly superior to Persistence Of Time which is an average album at best and.
Even though Spreading has its slower moments it's all thrash even the semi-ballad Armed & Dangerous.
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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25.07.2011 - 00:40
Rating: 10
Angelic Storm
Melodious
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 24.07.2011 at 22:35

Among The Living is vastly superior to Persistence Of Time which is an average album at best and.
Even though Spreading has its slower moments it's all thrash even the semi-ballad Armed & Dangerous.


I wouldn't say it was all thrash... Certainly when you compare it to the 3 albums that came afterwards, there's much more of a classic metal vibe going on with Spreading. Which is undeniable in the songs I highlighted above. It's vibe is definitely overall, less thrashy and more melodic than the 3 albums that followed it. ATL, SOE, and POT were all albums that had the same style, sound wise. Spreading's sound is markedly different, which makes it stand out in their discography. At least this is they way it sounds to me.. lol

POT "average"? Im sorry, I have to strongly disagree with you there! xD
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03.11.2011 - 03:26
Rating: 8
masterofpeace95

Love this album. Best song is A.I.R.
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10.12.2011 - 04:16
Rating: 8
JÄY
Metal slave
Really like it when it is thrash.
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27.02.2012 - 14:56
Rating: 8
musicalkaratekid

Its interesting how quickly anthrax's sound had matured between this and their debut album released a year before. Not that their debut album is that bad, but 'Spreading...' is focussed more on well-written songs than it is an homage to primary influences. Although this album is seemingly less heavier than 'Among the living' (though that may be due to the production), there are still a fair few enjoyable moments to be found here. True Thrash:)
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29.02.2012 - 22:26
Rating: 9
Boxcar Willy
yr a kook
I find this fairly mediocre.
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14:22 - Marcel Hubregtse
I do your mum

DESTROY DRUM TRIGGERS
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09.11.2012 - 23:01
megadeath13
Account deleted
Great album with Madhouse and my personal favourite "Aftershock".
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23.12.2012 - 01:07
Illog1cal
Account deleted
That riff in 'Medusa' gets stuck in my head for days every time I hear it.
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27.12.2012 - 05:37
Maco
Pvt Funderground
I really fucking hate the sound of the drums, if it wasn't for that, it would have a 9
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Crackhead Megadeth reigns supreme.
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16.02.2013 - 11:38
Rating: 9
Egigantea

The more I listen to this, the more I love it.
This is a pretty damn solid thrash album, and perhaps one of Anthrax's best.
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17.05.2013 - 19:40
Rating: 10
Demonmayonnaise

My favorite from Anthrax for sure.
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16.07.2013 - 08:13
Lit.
Account deleted
It's a great album, but anyone who thinks this is better than Among The Living is nuts.
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16.07.2013 - 12:24
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by Guest on 16.07.2013 at 08:13

It's a great album, but anyone who thinks this is better than Among The Living is nuts.



nope, those people are actually totally sound of mind. tIt's the people who think that Among The Living is better that are nuts Main problem with Among The Living is that its production is too slick. But AtL is still a very good album and the last totally good one (okay, The SOund Of White Noise is also great), because after it tANthrax really went downhill.
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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16.07.2013 - 17:41
Rating: 10
Angelic Storm
Melodious
My main problem with ATL, at least in regards to it being a weaker album than STD, is that whilst it mostly contains great songs, there's no variety as far as the sound and style goes. Spreading is a far more dynamic album, making it a more engaging listening experience.
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22.08.2013 - 17:09
kallis222

Brilliant album that is i really all the album its fantastic and superb job done..Mad house is my hot favorite because my friends also like the Mad house...

Floor Scale
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15.10.2013 - 17:29
Lião
Account deleted
Their best.
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23.04.2014 - 19:10
Rating: 9
pipis

NICE ALBUM :banger:
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03.12.2015 - 13:13
Rating: 7
Growing

Medusa is stunning, Madhouse and some other songs are very good as well, but overall this is not Anthrax at their true potential.
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08.02.2016 - 17:44
Rating: 8
Joppe
Steelemeister
Pretty good album, but I cannot say, that all these songs are equally good or necessary to hear, at least after multiple listens it seems so. Songs like "Lone Justice", "Madhouse" and the next two become rather irrelevant after the initial listens. Good thing that there's some killer songs too like "Armed and Dangerous" and "Medusa" that offer some of the better Anthrax experiences.
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My vision is augmented
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09.02.2016 - 02:40
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Anthrax's best album by far. Gung Ho in itself is already worth it.
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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22.02.2017 - 23:42
Rating: 9
BitterCOld
The Ancient One
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 09.02.2016 at 02:40

Anthrax's best album by far. Gung Ho in itself is already worth it.


read this while working on a 'project' - disagree about "by far". for me, trying to pick between the two is pretty tough, tougher than, say, Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets (MOP for me), despite those two albums being pretty much identical.

for me the comparison is like one of those old-school "track by track" battles i used to do.

01. Among The Living v 01. A.I.R. PUSH
02. Caught In A Mosh v 02. Lone Justice AMONG
03. I Am The Law v 03. Madhouse AMONG
04. Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.) v 04. S.S.C./Stand Or Fall STD
05. A Skeleton In The Closet v 05. The Enemy STD
06. Indians v 06. Aftershock STD
07. One World v 07. Armed And Dangerous STD
08. A.D.I. / Horror Of It All v 08. Medusa AMONG
09. Imitation Of Life v 09. Gung-Ho STD


Gung-Ho basically seals the deal in an emphatic manner.

and boo my attempt at formatting the battle blowing up.
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get the fuck off my lawn.

Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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04.01.2019 - 19:29
Rating: 3
Maasai Mara

The song medusa summarizes the career of a so called big 4 of thrash. Slow, plodding along like a lullaby devoid of energy and all that makes normal people love thrash. This song would fit perfectly in any pop act, not that pop is bad but Anthrax are closer to pop than they are to thrash. If you have toddlers, play them this album when you want to put them to sleep.

Gung ho is supposedly the best song here! a marching band in a trash song! and you wonder why this band sucks. The end of Gung ho has the band members bleating like goats which unfortunately only serves to distance them from the thrash GOATS.

This band sucks and if you are looking for quality thrash, do not waste your time listening to them. An unforgettable act that hardcore thrash fans will forgive you if you do not know of their existence.
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You are not metal enough until you visit Kenya. The cradle of mankind, where man learnt first to work with stones and first enjoyed the sounds produced by banging stones which later influenced metal in all its sounds and genres.
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09.01.2021 - 00:43
Rating: 8
Redel

Written by Maasai Mara on 04.01.2019 at 19:29

An unforgettable act that hardcore thrash fans will forgive you if you do not know of their existence.

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27.02.2022 - 22:44
Rating: 7
F3ynman2000
Nocturnal Bro
Very fun album with the energy of Metallica and Judas Priest in their youth! The ending (bleating of goats, as Maasai Mara calls it) is indeed terrible, but apart from that this is solid, fun metal
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