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It only takes one listen to Worship Music to realize that while Anthrax may be Scott Ian's baby, it is singer Joey Belladonna that provided much of their distinctive sound. I mean no disrespect to singers John Bush, Dan Nelson and Neil Turbin or to any of the band's songwriters, but without Belladonna's signature voice, Anthrax sounds no different than a lot of other bands.

With Worship Music, much of the "classic" Anthrax lineup is intact; Belladonna, guitarist Ian, drummer Charlie Benante and bassist Frank Bello. Only guitarist Dan Spitz, presumably still making watches in Switzerland, is absent, replaced by Rob Caggiano. While it doesn't have the youthful energy or sound of Spreading the Disease or Among the Living (the production is much too sharp and precise) it is still a damn fast and heavy Thrash Metal album. Belladonna is in fine form, even though he looks to be long in the tooth. He sounds powerful and confident as he shouts the choruses of tracks like "The Devil You Know" and "Crawl." The modern production is a letdown but there's not a lot of the tomfoolery of old either (i.e. those awful Jams shorts) so we'll call that a draw. Ian's and Caggiano's riffs are an aggressive staccato assault and the Benante/Bello rhythm section fills up the bottom end with all the bombast you could want. I can't say there are any true standout tracks but neither is there any filler so what you get is a consistently good album all the way through.

Anthrax doesn't recapture the past and that's just as well. They've moved on and with Worship Music shown they can still create excellent Thrash and are not settling for being a derivation of their former selves.