While they never hit big in the way Metallica or Megadeth did back in the late eighties, Anthrax put out a seriously good string of albums while in their prime and continue to make some pretty solid music to this day, even if I haven't enjoyed their material as much since they parted ways with former frontman Joey Belladonna.

Even if their albums haven't hit me as hard as they used to, this new concert DVD, Music Of Mass Destruction proves that the band can still put on one hell of a good live show as it captures them playing in front of an enthusiastic Chicago crowd in December of 2003. While current frontman John Bush gives the audience his all, the rest of the band works just as hard and the group turn in a terrific performance from start to finish.

While looking at the track listing below, long time fans may notice a few of their older classics missing and while this is regrettable, the band does such a great job with the set that it is forgivable. I'll admit, I was hesitant to see how Bush would sound on some of the tracks that Belladonna's vocals (which are quite different than Bush's) helped make so good, but he pulls it off. He gives the older material his own spin and doesn't try to ape the previous vocalist, instead making the songs fit in quite nicely with the newer material.

Tracks on this DVD are as follows:

1. What Doesn't Die

2. Got The Time

3. Caught In A Mosh

4. Safe Home

5. Room For One More

6. Anti-Social

7. Nobody Knows Anything

8. Belly Of The Beast

9. Inside Out

10. Refuse To Be Denied

11. 604

12. I Am The Law

13. Only

14. Be All, End All

15. Indians

16. Bring The Noise

It's a drag that songs that are so closely associated with the band like Amoung The Living and Madhouse aren't included (nor is anything at all from the Spreading The Disease album). Luckily, there's enough enthusiasm, energy, and, of course, moshing to make this disc worth checking out.

Video:

The video is presented in a solid 1.85.1 widescreen transfer. It's non-anamorphic, but it still looks pretty nice. The colors are well reproduced and the picture is clear and clean. Black levels remain stable throughout thought there is some mild compression artifacting present in a few spots. Considering that this was shot on film using eight cameras though, Music Of Mass Destruction looks better than your average metal concert video and aside from the mild compression artifacts and the lack of anamorphic enhancement, it holds up pretty well.