SUMMER ALBUM ROUNDUP : Anthrax Does One for the Fans : *** ANTHRAX “Attack of the Killer B’s” <i> Island</i>

When is an album not an album? When it’s the sort of stuff that an artist puts out between real studio LPs. Pop groups put out dance mixes of old songs; hard-rock groups put out live albums; rappers put out 12-inch singles and just about everybody puts out EPs of stuff they never got around to using on a full-length record. Anthrax, always one of the most generous bands in metal, gives you all of the above--this might be the world’s first 45-minute “EP.”

The big news here is probably Anthrax’s version of Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise.” The collaboration with PE’s rappers Flavor Flav and Chuck D at first seems to demonstrate the basic incompatibility of noisy rap and noisy rock ‘n’ roll, but after a dozen or so listenings sears with nearly the intensity of the original: splendid racket. “Bring the Noise” brings the whole Aerosmith/Run-DMC thing around full-circle, and it’s about time. There’s also some great live stuff, the contents of a mostly forgettable European-release EP, and a rockin’, Beasties-style update of Anthrax’s rap-rock hit “I’m the Man.”

It sometimes seems less like listening to an album than sitting around with the band and having them play you really neat tapes that they happen to have lying around. “Attack” may not be the best introduction to Anthrax--that would be last year’s dark, complex “Persistence of Time” LP--but it’s the kind of fans’ record that every group should do for its fans.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to five (a classic).