We've Come for You All is the ninth studio album by American heavy metal band Anthrax. It was released on May 6, 2003 through Nuclear Blast in Europe and Sanctuary Records in North America. This was the first Anthrax record to feature Rob Caggiano on lead guitar and their last studio album with John Bush on vocals. The album was recorded over a one-year span at the BearTracks Recording Studio in Suffern, New York. The cover art was designed by comic book artist Alex Ross, while the production was handled by Scrap 60 Productions team. The Who vocalist Roger Daltrey and Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell made guest appearances on the album.
The album received positive reviews by contemporary music critics, with About.com crediting it for "getting the band back on track". Despite this, the album only reached number 122 on the Billboard 200, with first week sales of 10,000 copies. To date, We've Come for You All has sold over 62,000 copies in the United States. It was nominated for Outstanding Hard Rock Album at the 2004 California Music Awards, but lost to Blink 182's untitled album.
Background and recording
This album followed Volume 8: The Threat Is Real, which was released in 1998. Anthrax decided to sign with record label Nuclear Blast for the release of their upcoming album. Asked if changing the record company will affect the songwriting, guitarist Scott Ian replied: "To be honest, I don't care about that at all. You know, business is business and the creative side is the creative side. Creatively, there was no big challenge. We just wanted to try to make the best record we can."
The band started writing new material during the months of May and June 2001, and entered the studio in November the same year. The recording process was shortly interrupted because the band went on a tour with Judas Priest early in 2002. They returned to the studio in March and in the next few months worked on the record and successfully finished it. According to Ian, the whole process of making the album took the band a year. Ian also said that there is no leftover material out of the recording sessions, except for the song "Ghost", which was released as a B-side on the single "Taking the Music Back".
The album was produced by Scrap 60 Productions team, consisted of Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano, Eddie Wohl, and Steve Regina. The front cover was designed by comic book artist Alex Ross. Vocalist John Bush stated that the band was honored to work with Ross, who also did the artwork for their previous pair of recordings. Bush explained that the band gave Ross a complete freedom over the concept of the artwork. Apart from suggesting the album's title as an idea, Bush said that the other members had not participated much in creating the cover art.
Release
The release date of the album was delayed several times. The album was originally set for a release on February 4, 2003 in Europe and Japan, and on February 24 in the US and Canada. After the prolongation of the release date for territories outside Japan and Europe, drummer Charlie Benante posted an explanation on the band's official website: "I hate to tell you this but ... the record got pushed back to April 15. It's only been 73 years since Vol. 8 [was released], what's another week or two? The record company needed the extra time to put more time into the promotion. One day all this crap will be over, you'll be rocking out to some killer shit." It was later announced that the release date for Europe would be also pushed back to March 3, 2003, eventually setting it on May 6. However, the problems were resolved and the record was successfully distributed through Sanctuary in North America and Nuclear Blast in Europe. Since its release in May 2003, We've Come for You All sold about 62,000 copies in the United States. Apart from entering the French Albums Chart at number 95, the record did not manage to chart in any other country. Referring to the low record sales, Ian posted a message on the band's official web site saying: "That's more than I thought it would do after five years away. That's basically what [the group's last album] Volume 8 did in its first week and this one was based on mostly just Internet promo."
Johnny Loftus from AllMusic described the music as a strained fusion of thrash and traditional heavy metal, accompanied by the harsh vocals of Bush. He noted the record for using modern production techniques, as well as displaying melodies and instrumentation that have always been Anthrax's trademark.
Critical reception
We've Come for You All received positive reviews upon release, with About.com crediting it for "getting the band back on track". AllMusic's Johnny Loftus noted the album for its "pile-driving thrash" sound, which reminded him of the group's earlier days. Loftus concluded that We've Come for You All was the definitive thrash metal album, released in a period when albums from that genre were not common.
| extra_column = Writer(s)
| title15 = Safe Home (Acoustic)
| length15 = 5:54
| title16 = We're a Happy Family
| note16 = Ramones cover, hidden track starts at 3:59
| extra16 = Joey Ramone
| length16 = 5:17
| total_length = 61:14
Personnel
Credits are adapted from AllMusic.
; Anthrax
- John Bush – lead vocals
- Rob Caggiano – lead guitar, backing vocals
- Scott Ian – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Frank Bello – bass, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Crash"
- Charlie Benante – drums, additional guitars, acoustic guitar
; Guest musicians
- Dimebag Darrell – lead guitar on "Strap It On" and "Cadillac Rock Box"
- Roger Daltrey – additional vocals on "Taking the Music Back"
- Anthony Martini – additional vocals on “Refuse to be Denied”
; Technical personnel
- Rob Caggiano – producer
- Steve Regina – mixing, producer
- Eddie Wohl – mixing, producer
- Paul Crook – assistant engineer
- Anthony Ruotolo – assistant engineer
- J.P. Sheganoski - assistant engineer
- George Marino – mastering
- Alex Ross – cover art concept and illustration
- Brent Thompson – art direction, graphic design, illustrations
Charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
! scope="col" |Chart (2003)
! scope="col" |Peak
position
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Release history
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|-
!scope="col"|Region
!scope="col"|Date
!scope="col"|Label
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!scope="row"|North America
|rowspan="2"|
|align="center"|Sanctuary Records
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!scope="row"|Europe
|align="center"|Nuclear Blast
|}