30th Anniversary Edition Remastered by Drummer Charlie Benate and Expanded With Previously Unreleased Outtakes.

As one of the Big Four of thrash, Anthrax helped usher in a style of metal that not only dominated throughout the ’80s, but lay the template for metal to come. Yet while their Big Four counterparts, Megadeth, Metallica and Slayer, were West Coast acts, Anthrax formed in New York City. It’s a distinction that’s stood them apart from their peers: the group remain the most notable East Coast metal act of the era, infusing the music with some distinctly New York sensibilities – not least a CBGB-indebted punk intensity to their playing. On top of that, Anthrax’s grip on melody meant that, for all their aggression and astounding precision speed playing, they also wrote unavoidably hook-laden songs, making them a unique proposition among the thrash metal elite.

Drummer Charlie Benante was certainly the driving force behind much of the music on Anthrax’s fourth album, State Of Euphoria (1988), which explains the propulsive two singles released from the record – “Make Me Laugh” and “Antisocial” – the former targeting Televangelists (“Jesus saves/But only after I’ve been paid”), the latter just one in a line of curious choices of cover material, being originally released as a single, in 1980, by French hard rockers Trust. In celebration of the album’s 30th anniversary in 2018, State of Euphoria has been newly remastered by Charlie Benate and is expanded to a 180g 2LP-set with previously unreleased outtakes.

Features:
• 30th anniversary edition reissue
• 180g 2LP-set
• Newly remastered by drummer Charlie Benate
• Previously unreleased outtakes