10 Rock Songs That Don't Sound Like The Artists Who Made Them
1. Toast To The Extras – Anthrax
A country song on an Anthrax album? The late '90s were a strange time for all of the hard rock and metal acts of old, and each found an outlet for their music in a world they no longer understood -- but Anthrax's Volume 8: The Threat is Real (1998), and their song Toast to the Extras, was the strangest.
The hard rock/thrash metal band, of Big 4 fame, have been by far one of the most disjointed of all their contemporaries, going through a new lead guitarist every 5-10 years and some 10 singers to date. It is by some miracle then that they have managed to keep a fairly consistent sound across 40+ years and 11 albums, with most of the music written by drummer Charlie Benante and rhythm guitarist Scott Ian.
But Toast to the Extras stands as a testament to the strange places things can go if you don't keep your vision in check. Featuring four-album mainstay John Bush on vocals (second only to Joey Belladonna in terms of longevity), the track ditches distortion, growls and chugging rhythms in favour of twangy guitars, bluegrass lyrics and a Roger Alan Wade vocal. Why? Because they could.