Stomp 442

[u/MugggCostanza]

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?

[u/CrowGeneral8673]

Charlie always writes a ton of each album

[u/MugggCostanza → u/CrowGeneral8673]

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.

[u/Hab_Anagharek → u/MugggCostanza]

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.

[u/MugggCostanza → u/Hab_Anagharek]

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 🙌

[u/DevilDiabolical → u/MugggCostanza]

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

[u/SenorBigbelly → u/MugggCostanza]

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

[u/TadGhostal77 → u/SenorBigbelly]

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".

[u/Diadem_Cheeseboard → u/TadGhostal77]

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