In my head the fortieth anniversary tour is the preserve of the aging rocker or a fading folk star, but here we are celebrating four decades of metal thrashing madness. Anthrax may well have had more than their fair share of carrier mishaps, but they are still here and, since Joey Belladonna’s return in 2010, they have reaffirmed their place as major players. Tonight, is a heady mix of “mature” metalheads who remember the heady days of the eighties when the ‘thrax were still giving James Hetfield and his boys a run for their money and the younger generations who are here to worship at the alter of a band who never quite got the full set of plaudits that they deserved. Talking of plaudits, it is needless to say that neither of tonight’s would have existed if it wasn’t for Anthrax.

Sworn Enemy themselves are no spring chickens have been around in some shape in or form since the late nineties. They play a very “New York” form of metal/hardcore crossover and the comparisons with Biohazard, Hatebreed and Earth Crisis are inevitable (though with the latter two you could feasibly argue who influenced who). They throw out weighty, chunky riffs full of girth and grit. There is no finesse or delicacy here, but then there doesn’t need to be as this is muscular metal, designed to make your head bang and body sweat. Their reverence for and debt to the headliners is obvious and whilst this is by no means the first time they have supported Anthrax, you can tell they are chuffed to be here. They drag up underground metal hero Joe Kenny for a Slayer tribute/cover hybrid that succeeds in getting collective feet a tapping. Crunchy, well-made metallic hardcore and on Thursday night you cant ask for more.

Manchester loves Municipal Waste; I think it’s that shared feeling of irreverence. From the off they are treated as headliners and the pit opens for them as some form of ritualistic sacrifice. This is parody done with utter love and reverence. They maybe exaggerating for comic effect all of thrashes utter absurdity, but that doesn’t mean they don’t absolutely adore this music as much as we do. This is fast, frantic and fun. There is irony at play, but they are laughing with rather than at the audience. It is thrash boiled down to its two key ingredients, namely beer and speed. How fast can you go and how drunk can you get. Infantile and utterly pointless there is still not a better or more joyous way to spend forty minutes than throwing your self around to Municipal Waste.

Anthrax may be celebrating forty years but they seem in no mood to slow down. After a 5 minutes reverential intro to a white cotton drape, the opening salvo of ‘Among the Living’, ‘Caught in a Mosh’ and ‘Madhouse’ is an intensely savage affair. It is take no prisoners, foot to the floor thrash and they play those songs with the same furiousity that they did back in the early eighties. The Academy becomes a seething cauldron of flaying bodies and gyrating middle aged men that should know better. My one criticism of Anthrax over the last few years have been that the sets have played safe. They have a formidable back catalogue, but they seem to elect to stay within the shallow water of “Amongst the Living” and the hits. Tonight however we get a carrier spanning road trip that is quite happy to stop at lesser known destinations. 

‘Metal Thrashing Mad’ may well be simplistic in its style and substance but it is a an incredibly important corner stone in Anthrax’s evolution, and it is great to see it reinstated to the running order for the first time in over ten years. The same with ‘Keep it in the Family’. “Persistence of Time” is an incredibly underrated and under loved album and it feels like an utter miracle when they play anything from it which isn’t that bloody Joe Jackson cover. ‘Keep it in the Family’ was the sound of a band maturing and wanting to tackle subject matters that didn’t just revolve around drinking and comic books. Thirty years on it still sounds magnificent; slow, menacing, and full of rightful indignation. Then there is ‘Only’. Now this might get the keyboard warriors going but “Sound of White Noise” is Anthrax’s masterpiece. It is a stunning amalgamation of alt and thrash metals. It is the sound of a band sensing the world is changing and leaning into that change but without losing the fundamental core of who they are. ‘Only’ is one of the fundamental tentpoles of that album and it so so good to hear it again in all its moody magnificence.  

The final notable returnee to the set is Public Enemy cover “Bring the Noise”. Now you can keep your ‘Walk this Way’, as this is the song that changed everything. Thirty years of metal/hip hop crossover comes back to this one intrepid cover version and the fact that it was done with such authenticity and reverence. It showed many many impressionable listeners (including myself) that rap could be as vicious and heavy as metal. Tonight, we don’t get the full version (time is against us) but it is good to see the band acknowledge its importance in their history. ‘Indians’ closes the main set, but we are not done yet. We may be pushing up against that pesky curfew, but we get a closing crescendo of ‘Got the Time’ (that bloody Joe Jackson cover) and ‘NFL’ and then they are gone.

My fellow reviewer helpfully chips in that Anthrax were Anthrax and that’s the review right there. Bosh. The point is, that he is right. Anthrax have for many years, if not decades searched for their identity but in the last ten years they have found it and it is being Anthrax. They have started loving their back catalogue and being proud of who they are and where they have been. That pride and that self-assurance shines through, as does an utter exuberance to still being doing this after forty years. They are facing middle age with a confident grin and in doing so are as corrosive and crushing as they have ever been. Simply magnificent.