Among the Living

Anthrax's third album was written mostly in July 1986, after the tour that preceded it, with I Am the Law, Indians and I'm the Man composed on the road. Benante supplied riffs and Ian the lyrics. The band asked for Eddie Kramer, who had worked with Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Kiss, and Ian recalled, "When Eddie said yes to us, it was a total headfuck." Kramer set the sessions up as live group performances at Quadradial Studios in Miami, where the band spent about six weeks. Kramer said he had never recorded anything quite like it and had to find ways to record heavy guitars with heavy drums.

Mixing moved to Compass Point Studios in Nassau, owned by Island's Chris Blackwell, a studio Ian had suggested because Iron Maiden had worked there since 1983. Kramer's first mix was full of effects and reverb, and Ian said he wanted something modern like Def Leppard's Pyromania. The band rejected it. Ian said Kramer ended up turning off the reverb. Kramer recalled the mixing as contentious. The album was dedicated to Cliff Burton, and The Horror of It All, the last song written, was a tribute to him.

Songs and sleeve

The lyrics mixed social subjects with pop culture. Indians concerns Native Americans living on reservations, One World the risk of nuclear holocaust and Imitation of Life false personas. Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.), the title being a phrase spelled backwards, is a protest against drug abuse inspired by John Belushi. The title track draws on Stephen King's The Stand and A Skeleton in the Closet on his novella Apt Pupil, while I Am the Law is about the 2000 AD character Judge Dredd. The cover was painted by Don Brautigam, who also worked on Metallica's Master of Puppets, to a concept by Benante about how much evil there is among us.

Island and Megaforce released it on 22 March 1987. It reached number 62 on the Billboard 200, charted in Europe, and was certified gold by the RIAA on 31 July 1990. The BBC's Greg Moffitt wrote that it "strikes a deft balance between marauding speed and judicious use of melody" and is "bone-dry, and all the more brutal for it". Rolling Stone placed it in its 2017 list of the 100 greatest metal albums, where J.D. Considine wrote that its best moments attach the band's technical agility to "some of the band's catchiest, most approachable material". It entered the Decibel Hall of Fame in July 2005 and is in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. A deluxe edition with a bonus DVD of the 1987 Hammersmith Odeon concert video appeared in 2009.