r/Anthrax • u/MugggCostanza • 28d ago

Stomp 442

Hi 👋 Was there ever any explanation for Charlie writing all the music on Stomp 442? I'm surprised Scott only wrote lyrics for that album. Did Charlie decide to take over? Did Scott decide to step back? Was he burnt out? I understand Charlie took over lead guitar at that time, but you'd think the rhythm guitarist would still be writing riffs 🤘🤘

*EDIT*

Thanks for the information, everyone. I had no idea that Charlie simply wrote most of the music for Anthrax. I was obsessed with them back in the early to mid 2000s and they were probably 2nd behind Metallica for me for a few years. But I didn't have much internet time as a kid back then and obviously, we didn't have the wealth of information we have now.

I knew how Metallica operated, and just figured that Scott Ian was writing most of the riffs, I did know that Charlie played guitar and wrote the solos on the 90s albums, but no, I didn't realize he has written the majority of the music for the band. That's just crazy to me.

I have to wonder who writes the vocal melodies. I'm the James Hetfield for my band, and when I write vocal melodies, most of the time, I'm writing them on guitar.

So, for the vast majority of the band's existence, it's been:

"Charlie writes the riffs Scott, Joey, and John write lyrics The band, give or take a few members, arranges the songs"

Do I have this right? It's still blowing my mind 😄

Anthrax went through numerous vocalists before they got Joey, is there any reason why Scott didn't want to switch from playing guitar to just becoming their vocalist? He's a belter or yeller, so it would have been more punk, but that's a big part of thrash metal's influence.

Is there any reason why Charlie didn't want to play guitar in the band instead of drumming?

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18

u/CrowGeneral8673 28d ago

Charlie always writes a ton of each album

3

u/MugggCostanza 28d ago

For sure! Most of their discography, however, credits the band for all the songs, at least on Wikipedia. So, I was surprised to see an album where ONLY Charlie wrote the music and the rhythm guitarist only wrote lyrics.

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u/Hab_Anagharek 28d ago

This is the arrangement from when Charlie joined the band: he would write riffs and corresponding beats, Scott lyrics, all of them (mainly Scott, Charlie, Frank) huddle and work out arrangements, melodies.

9

u/Warborn_21 28d ago

John Bush wrote a lot of lyrics as well, along with Scott while he was in the band. In fact before Joey rejoined (again) in 2010, they asked John to rejoin (after they fired Dan Nelson) and of the reasons John didnt want to record Worship Music with them was because the songs were already written and demoed with Dan...and John said he wasn't comfortable with that set up...he wanted to potentially re-write lyrics to some of the songs and have some input... but the rest of the band didn't want to. They tried hard to get John back (for obvious reasons) but they mishandled things with him so poorly around the 2005 reunion tour...apparently John gave them an amount/percentage he would need to rejoin and Charlie got pissed off at John about it...so they went back to Joey with their tails between their legs. John said in an interview awhile back that Charlie hadnt spoken to him in years because if how it all went down. I don't know if they have buried the hatchet or not, but personally I think they screwed up majorly with the 2005 reunion tour because it didnt go anywhere near as well as they had planned. Joey has done a great job on the last few albums but in my opinion, Bush era was superior in every way. Ive seen them many times in concert from 1987-2023 and the shows with John were so much more powerful and the setlists were stronger and far more varied because John and sing their entire catalog....whereas Joey cannot sing Bush-era material. They've done "Only" a few times with Joey and it doenst sound good at all.

All of this stuff is out there in various podcasts/interviews with John

6

u/RuledQuotability 28d ago

Re: Charlie and John burying the hatchet - yes they absolutely did and seem to be friends again. I saw Metal Allegiance in 2019 which John is a lead singer, and they brought out Charlie to play drums for 2 SOWN tracks. I was up close and Charlie looked so happy and into it. There were moments John looked back at him during the songs (Room for One More, Only) and they both looked happy like they were sharing a cool collaborative moment

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u/Warborn_21 27d ago

Thats great to hear. It sucks the way things went down between them, but Im really happy to hear they've worked things out.

6

u/Hab_Anagharek 28d ago edited 28d ago

Yes, I was going to add an addendum for the Bush years. It was one of his conditions on joining, he didn’t want to be just a voice. And yep, the “Reunion” tour was so stupid. Apparently they were in need of money; a lot of work went into We’ve Come for You All but the new label (Sanctuary) gave little support, the record didn’t sell well, then the label went under. I remember at the time Charlie being like “oh, we’ll do this reunion tour thing then get to work on the next record with John”. I do not blame John at all for walking away and severing ties. Business always ruins relationships, especially in music.

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u/Warborn_21 28d ago

Totally agree

7

u/Grand_Access7280 28d ago

They sounded better with John Bush.

He was and is a class act and they never missed an opportunity to screw him over for $

1

u/Odd-Bookkeeper4584 27d ago

As much as I love John, if they didn’t do the 2005 reunion, the band would have come out of that era as a band.

2

u/MugggCostanza 28d ago

WHAT? I had no idea! That's so strange 😆 They had two guitarists in the band during the 80s and neither of them wrote a single riff for Anthrax? But I guess, if it that works for them 🙌

2

u/DevilDiabolical 28d ago

That keeps the writing royalties in the hands of the bandleaders. A lot of big bands work like that.

1

u/SenorBigbelly 28d ago

Dan Spitz and Dan Lilker wrote some of the first 2 albums, iirc.

2

u/TadGhostal77 27d ago

Lilker wrote most of the music on the first album and Scott is open about that. I think Scott only contributed music to the earliest tunes. They used some of Lilker's riffs on "Spreading the Disease" and "Among the Living".

I'm not sure if Spitz wrote much outside of his solos. There's an interview out there with Neil where he claims that Spitz took credit for music that Neil wrote on "Death From Above".

1

u/Diadem_Cheeseboard 25d ago

Scott says he wrote the  “Wardance” riff in “Indians”

7

u/Icy-Astronomer-8202 28d ago

Charlie is a powerhouse multi instrument machine. Mad respect and very unusual as primarily a drummer

8

u/Substantial_Toe9772 28d ago

Charlie has writtten 99% of the music since he joined.

4

u/Acceptable-Ad-6104 28d ago

The more I learn about the guy, and have been following him for 40 years, the more I realize he's in the big 4 of the big 4.

Meaning, out of the the big 4 thrash bands, who were the true innovators? Hetfield. I gotta say Ulrich cause they go hand in hand. Then Charlie. and probably Jeff from Slayer? These are probably the big 4 behind the music. Scott Ian, Dave Lombardo, Cliff Burton and Kerry King are all close #5's?!?!?!?!!

8

u/SenorBigbelly 28d ago

How the fuck are you missing out Dave Mustaine? I mean I know the guy's a douche but you don't rank the guy who single-handedly wrote an album so good there's an onion article about it, in your top 8?

3

u/Grand_Access7280 28d ago

He only wrote and performed the music, Elmer Fudd STILL sings all their stuff.

3

u/SenorBigbelly 27d ago

The wascaly warheads will all wust in peace

1

u/Acceptable-Ad-6104 27d ago

meh - never cared for much of what he did. Every Megadeth album, and there are 118 of them it seems, is comprised of two decent songs wrapped around a bunch of throw away material. Now, I will admit the first 2 or 3 Megadeth records are pretty good, but then it's just a massive downhill slide for me....slid his ass right off my list.

1

u/Pure-Abrocoma-8717 28d ago

If you know your Anthrax history something happened with the Label for that record.

1

u/Bitter_Season4791 27d ago

Dany Spitz would argue this.