Produced by Anthrax with Carl Canedy, the project marked the first Anthrax album to feature singer Joey Belladonna and bassist Frank Bello and included classics like "Madhouse", "Armed & Dangerous" and "The Enemy."

The expanded 2-disc reissue presents previously unreleased bonus material including Belladonna's 1984 demo recording of the song "Medusa", nine "rhythm tracks" from Anthrax recordings also done in 1984 - no vocals, no overdubs or "sweetening," just drums, some guitar, a bit of bass, showing the songs in their naked, most basic form - and eight live songs from the group's 1987, first-ever concert in Japan, held at Tokyo's Sun Plaza.

"We wanted to do something special for our fans to celebrate the anniversary of Spreading The Disease," says drummer Charlie Benante. "We took the idea to Universal a couple of years ago and have been very hands-on with them, creating this special, deluxe edition that we think our fans will really like."

"We didn't know what we were doing, but we totally knew what we were doing," added guitarist and founder Scott Ian. "I know that doesn't make sense, but it's where we were at, a bunch of 21 year-old kids making our major label debut on a shoestring budget with nothing but a dream and a bunch of songs that we thought killed.