Rocktrospectiva: The Consistent "Persistence Of Time" Turns 35

Released on 21 August 1990 "Persistence Of Time" was the fifth studio album by the US thrash metal band Anthrax. The album spawned the singles "Got The Time" a Joe Jackson's cover, "In My World" & "Belly Of The Beast". 

Anthrax returned to the studio in the fall of 1989 with Mark Dodson (who produced the previous album, State of Euphoria) to start work on their fifth album. Recording of the album was difficult, with a large structure fire causing the band to lose more than $100,000 worth of gear and their rehearsal studio, on January 24, 1990. Following this disaster, the band moved to a different studio in late February of that year to finish work on the album.

The album's tone is decidedly more contemplative and mature than the bulk of Anthrax's previous work. Abandoning the humor and comic book references which were common on their previous albums, the lyrical focus of Persistence of Time is the need for tolerance and peace. Reaction to Persistence of Time was mixed, with critics and fans alternately panning and praising this darker sound. The band also introduced a progressive side of the music which had not been present in their earlier work, while also placing a reduced emphasis on typical thrash metal elements such as fast tempo and aggression. This is the last full studio album to feature Joey Belladonna on vocals before John Bush took over vocal duties. Belladonna appeared on several songs on the 1991 EP Attack of the Killer B's before splitting acrimoniously from the band in 1992. 

The introduction to the album's sixth track "Intro to Reality" featured dialogue from an episode of The Twilight Zone called "Deaths-Head Revisited". "Keep It in the Family", "In My World", and "Belly of the Beast" were later re-recorded with the John Bush/Rob Caggiano line-up for the album The Greater of Two Evils. In the end, the band left the speed and agresivity in order to focus in the most progressive tunes and changed their topics for something more serious like time, life, death and hate. 

Persistence of Time's highest position on the Billboard 200 chart was No. 24. and receive a favorable review, saying that it "rivals Among the Living as Anthrax's best album. Other critics underlined the social tone of the lyrics and describes Persistence of Time as "a foray into the dreary, gray bowels of urban hell", praising singer Joey Belladonna.

 

Persistence Of Time Track List:  

 

1. Time

2. Blood

3. Keep It In The Family

4. In My World

5. Gridlock

6. Intro To Reality (Instrumental)

7. Belly Of The Beast

8. Got The Time

9. H8 Red

10. One Man Stands

11. Discharge