“Among the Living” by Anthrax
Anthrax’s “Among the Living” was inspired by The Stand, a Stephen King novel which, interestingly enough, has come up quite a few times in our research of popular musicians/songs. In fact “Among the Living” could even act as a theme song to a movie based on the book, albeit containing a few spoilers therein.
Said book revolves around, according to Wikipedia, “a global pandemic…. [that] kills nearly the entire world population”. So it’s understandable how such a book would be favored by a band which itself is named after a disease.
The Stand is in fact a work of fiction, with mention of the likes of “Captain Trips” in the first verse and the menacing subject of the chorus of this song being direct references to the novel. And even though it’s tempting to suggest that the vocalist is using said figures to allude to some type of real-world esoteric knowledge or whatever – especially considering that as of the early 2020s we have in fact experienced a real-life global pandemic – such does not necessarily seem to be the case.
Or if anything, it’s really the end of the fourth verse in which the vocalist makes this type of conclusive, macrocosmic observation, which is mankind being “right in the middle” of both good and evil.
But again, suggesting that this song has some type of deep meaning may be stretching things a bit. Indeed besides for The Stand, the Among the Living album is also said to have been inspired by the likes of Judge Dredd, Sam Kinison and John Belushi. And at the time, the members of Anthrax were in their early-to-mid 20s. So this track was influenced by the type of pop media which has also defined the band’s artistry.
Facts about “Among the Living”
“Among the Living” is the title track and first song on the playlist of the album Anthrax dropped on 22 March 1987.
The track was written by four musicians who still make up the band to this day. They are:
- vocalist Joey Belladonna
- bassist Frank Bello
- drummer Charlie Benante
- guitarist Scott Ian
- Dan Spitz (who was down with the crew about 15 years in total)
And the other co-writer is Dan Lilker, a co-founder of Anthrax who left the group in 1984.
Meanwhile the producer of this track is a well-tenured South African musician by the name of Eddie Kramer. Anthrax hired him due to his previous work with artists like Kiss and Led Zeppelin.
More Facts
The year 2021 marked the 40th anniversary of Anthrax, a heavy metal band that is actually from Queens, a part of New York City better known for rap music. (Interesting and perhaps related to note is that the “Among the Living” album features a track with rapping entitled “I’m the Man”.) And in celebration of this milestone, the band collaborated with Z2 Comics to come up with an “Among the Living” graphic novel.
“Among the Living” (the album) proved to be Anthrax’s breakthrough project. And even though we may not hear much about the group these days, they were amongst the most influential heavy metalists of the 1980s.
Anthrax recorded “Among the Living” (the album) in the Bahamas, an island nation about 300 miles off the coast of Florida.
The Stand (1978) is one of Stephen King’s most popular works which has since been adapted into a couple of miniseries, a comic book, etc.
