While Anthrax are one of the Big Four of thrash, it seems like at the end of the day, they enjoy being a classic rock cover band. Their 2013 Anthems EP featured covers of song from Boston, AC/DC, Journey, Rush and Thin Lizzy, and they’ve covered Pink Floyd live acoustically recently. And having just launched the Killthrax tour with their buddies in Killswitch Engage, the band have released their cover of Kansas’ “Carry On Wayward Son” from the For All Kings vinyl box set.
As far as covers go, it’s faithful to the original. In fact, if you weren’t told it was Anthrax, with the exception of Joey Belladonna’s voice, you would probably have no idea that it wasn’t Kansas. The song itself is a classic, both kind of proggy and sort of heavy at the same time, but if you’ve listened to a classic rock station at any point in your life, you’ve already got it ingrained in your brain, and hearing a metal band cover it almost to the note isn’t going to make you want to hear this more than once. That being said, the artwork, which plays off of Kansas’ Leftoverture, that features band mascot the Not Man in place of the wizard-y looking guy on the album of the original. And the band are obviously having fun playing it.
The For All Kings vinyl box set also includes six demos from the album, “Vice of the People,” and a cover of White Stripes’ “Black Math.” You can order it here.
