Album dossier / 1987

Among the Living

Anthrax · Thrash Metal

New York thrashers Anthrax's third album was tracked over six weeks at Quadradial Studios in Miami with veteran producer/engineer Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Kiss's live album Alive!), whom guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Charlie Benante specifically pursued for the raw, live-band feel of his '70s work. The band recorded the songs essentially live in the room, but a bitter fight erupted once mixing began at Compass Point Studios in Nassau -- Kramer's first mix drenched the tracks in the huge reverbs then in vogue on Def Leppard's Pyromania, and Ian recalled telling him flatly, 'This is our album... it's fucking Anthrax,' before the band won out and Kramer stripped the effects back to a dry, in-your-face sound. The album is dedicated to Metallica's Cliff Burton, who was killed in a September 1986 tour-bus accident while Anthrax was opening for Metallica in Europe; Ian later said 'the album sounds so angry because Cliff died,' and closing track 'Horror of It All' was written last, specifically as a tribute. 'Caught in a Mosh' -- built on a tempo modeled after AC/DC's 'Whole Lotta Rosie' -- took its title from a roadie's post-show quip after being knocked offstage by a crowd-surfing fan, and the record's success (their first Gold certification) effectively launched Anthrax's career.