ANTHRAX made four albums with John Bush singing — 1993's "Sound Of White Noise", 1995's "Stomp 442", 1998's "Volume 8: The Threat Is Real" and 2003's "We've Come For You All". Asked about them by Igor Miranda of Rolling Stone Brasil, Scott Ian did not hedge, and he did not pretend the sales figures say something they do not.
"The same as it's always been. I love them," he said. "And I think especially 'Stomp' and 'Volume 8' and 'We've Come For You All' are, I think they're very underrated. And I think it's sad that most people don't know those albums. I know how many albums they've sold compared to other albums, and most people do not know those records."
Then the pitch. "I wish people would listen to those albums. They should go on however they listen to their music — Spotify or Apple Music or Amazon — and they should listen to those albums, because they're missing out on some great albums. I love those albums the same way now as I did when we made them. And I wish more people would check them out, because if you're an ANTHRAX fan, then you have more material to listen to."
Asked which one a newcomer should start with, he gave a full ranking. "First, I would probably say 'We've Come For You All'. If you've never heard any of the John Bush albums, I would listen to that one first. It's my personal favorite of the four albums we made. And then probably 'Sound Of White Noise' second, 'Volume 8' third, 'Stomp' fourth."
Why that one is his favourite, he cannot really explain, and he does not try. "I just think it's the best one. I don't know why. Why is anything someone's favorite? It makes you feel a certain way, different than something else makes you feel."
Some context for how loaded this question is inside ANTHRAX. Bush fronted the band from 1992 to 2005, arriving after Joey Belladonna was fired over creative differences and leaving when Belladonna returned for a 20th-anniversary tour; he came back briefly after the Dan Nelson period before Belladonna took the job again in 2010. In 2010 Ian argued the case for Bush on VH1's "That Metal Show" with the line "we didn't need a bird; we needed a lion" — a remark he has since walked back, telling an interviewer in August that he was wrong to fire Belladonna in the first place.
Ian and Charlie Benante remain the only two members to have played on every ANTHRAX album across forty-two years.