3 keepers
keeper avg .272
"Sound Of White Noise" was a transitional album to be sure, with John Bush replacing lead vocalist Joey Belladonna and bringing in Dave Jerden, the producer he had previously worked with. Whether due to the new personnel of just the sea change in the pop music landscape, the album is a substantially different beast than its ambitious predecessor "Persistence of Time". "Potters Field" unleashes a lot of fury in short bursts of snare rolls and jackhammer picking but the song is rather deliberately paced with too many aimless melodies jumbled together. Though also relatively mid-tempo, concise hooks and strong melodies helped "Only"***** to become their first moderately successful single (in the US); it was loved by none other than James Hetfield, the dude who certainly helped pave the way for the 80's thrash bands becoming fixtures on 90's rock radio.
Both "Room for One More"**** and "Packaged Rebellion" are also fairly accessible, with good interplay of riffs and vocals; the latter, which self-righteously pokes fun at the current fans of grunge rock and the commodification teen angst, is the poppiest song on the record with highly sing-able choruses. Even with Belladonna Anthrax had been moving in this direction on "Persistence of Time," with tracks such as "Keep It in the Family" and "Belly of the Beast," but these were nowhere near as radio-friendly as these first few new tracks. And the fade-in intro to "Packaged Rebellion" is one of the only remnants of the previous album's dramatic ambitions. The album's other high point is the sinister, atmospheric "Black Lodge"****, one of Anthrax's best songs despite John Bush's vocal limitations; though stately in tempo it's no boo-hoo pop metal ditty like "Unforgiven," but a frightening trip into madness (or addiction) and subjugation.
Elsewhere, "1000 Points of Hate" and "Burst" are in the thrash style we're accustomed to hearing, though without much memorable except for Scott Ian's malicious responses to Bush's verse lines. "Hy Pro Glo" was praised by some for its punchy start-stop riffs, except after a while they become monotonous. "Invisible" sounds pretty similar to "Room for One More," and like "Potter's Field" is another angry song about G-d and religion - how novel. The other two are metal all right but have nothing else to offer. This is the album that officially Bob Rock-ized another of the Big Four, and while they didn't go as far in to pop metal as say Megadeth, the band continued their descent into conventional songwriting. Also, as much as I've enjoyed Dave Jerden's work elsewhere, personally I'm not a fan of the shrill-sounding guitars on this album.
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