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ANTHRAX - 'THE GREATER OF TWO EVILS' (2004)

By the time this record was released John Bush had been vocalist for Anthrax for over a decade, yet many of the band's most famous songs remain those from the five studio albums released before his tenure. As such 'The Greater of Two Evils' sees Anthrax re-recording a selection of classic songs with Bush on vocals. It's an idea that has some merit, but the crucial question is whether the final results here are an improvement on the originals - and in almost every case the answer is an emphatic no.

That's not to say this isn't still an enjoyable album, but trying to replicate (or better) classics from the past is always going to be a difficult task, and matters aren't helped by the rushed recording methods which saw the entire album completed in two days. The result sounds a bit like a live radio session - a good live album, but the songs lack the care spent on the original studio recordings. Bush acquits himself perfectly fine, and the downtuned guitars give this a slighter heavier feel in places than some of the originals, but that's about it.

For Anthrax fans this is a fun little exercise, but hardly essential. And as for being the 'greater of two evils' - well, considering the fact that shortly after this the band would ditch Bush in favour of returning former vocalist Joe Belladonna would indicate even Anthrax don't really believe that claim to be the true...

SLAYER - 'SOUTH OF HEAVEN' (1988)

SLAYER - 'REIGN IN BLOOD' (1986)

SLAYER - 'LIVE UNDEAD' (1984)

SLAYER - 'HELL AWAITS' (1985)

SLAYER - 'SOUNDTRACK TO THE APOCALYPSE' (2003)

OK – let’s get the obvious out of the way first – it’s Slayer, the ultimate thrash metal band, so obviously this is going to be essential to those fans with large enough wallets, but while it’s a pleasant package it’s also a little empty in terms of content.

The biggest mystery to me is why bands ever bother to include material in box-sets that is already available elsewhere – surely the only people going to be spending such a large amount of money on a box set are going to be those hardcore fans who already own all the albums, so what’s the point of padding this set out with tracks lifted from Slayer's previous albums? As such the majority of the first two CD's is pointless padding that you’ll play once and never again. The only mild ‘rarities’ on the first CD that you might not already own (depending on what pressing of the original album releases you own) are the B-Sides 'Aggressive Perfector' and the remix of 'Criminally Insane'. CD 2 at least has the benefit of 8 worthwhile ‘non-album’ tracks (though as these have all previously been released either on soundtrack compilations or as bonus tracks you may already own a few) – highlights here include Slayer's team up with Ice T on 'Disorder' and the cover of Suicidal Tendencies’ 'Memories of Tomorrow', though inevitably the fact that the majority of the remaining songs are bonus track album offcuts means they are hardly prime Slayer material.

What should be the highlight of the set, the ‘Previously Unreleased’ material that makes up the 3rd CD, actually turns out to be rather disappointing. Genuinely interesting material include the early live track 'Ice Titan' (an early version of 'Altar of Sacrifice'), band practices of 'The Antichrist' and 'Fight Till Death' recorded in Tom Araya’s garage, and Jeff Hanneman’s instrumental demos of 'Raining Blood' and 'South of Heaven', both of which are very different to the final versions, and Atari Teenage Riots sampling of the band for 'No Remorse' (though as this is taken from another soundtrack it doesn’t really qualify as ‘previously unreleased’). The rest of the tracks are just live tracks recorded at various points in the band's career and aren’t particularly interesting (who cares that the version of 'Angel of Death' here was one of their first performances of the song – it sounds exactly the same as every other time they’ve played it!). The DVD is interesting in terms of historical footage, but contains little material of sufficient sound and picture quality that you’ll watch it more than once. The bonus live CD is well recorded, but the interest of hearing how newly-returned drummer Dave Lombardo copes with the newer material is dampened by the fact that only two recent Slayer songs are performed, with the rest of the set being tracks already familiar from the 'Decade of Aggression' live album, with only Tom Araya losing it with the security being of interest.

There’s a nice booklet, backstage pass, banner, etc – but ultimately there’s about 1 CD and 1 DVD’s worth of genuinely worthwhile material here for the confirmed Slayer fan – the rest is just padding to justify the price. For completists only.