"Only" was the first single from Anthrax's 1993 album Sound of White Noise. The album, the band's first with new vocalist John Bush, was a breakout hit for the band, and "Only" was an absolute monster of a metal song.

The Only single was released in two separate editions. The first one came in a cool double-gatefold digipack that had a black space for the then-unreleased Only Part 2, which came in a plain cardboard sleeve.

Only Part 1 featured three songs. The first song was a radio edit of "Only". Now I sure as hell never heard Anthrax on the radio, but I assume this shortened version was the one that accompanied the video, which did actually get a fair amount of MTV airplay. The second song was a heavy cover of the Thin Lizzy classic "Cowboy Song". The third song is listed as "Sodium Pentathol". This song appeared as "C11 H17 N2 O2 S Na" on Sound of White Noise.

Only Part 2 also featured three songs, one of which was a cover. The first song was a remixed version of "Only". Perhaps the only thing more useless than a radio edit is a remix, so I didn't get much out of this one. Next up was the cover - Cheap Trick's "Auf Wiedersehen". It's weird to hear the eternally poppy Cheap Trick in a thrash metal setting, but Anthrax makes it work. The final track, and the only new song that remains exclusive to this set (since "Cowboy Song" and "Auf Wiedersehen" later appeared on the 2001

reissue) is "Noisegate", an 8-track demo recording of a song that apparently didn't make the cut for the full album. It's a heavy song, and it's a totally decent b-side.

The packaging was cool, and the idea of combining the two discs was clever, but there really isn't much value to these singles now that (most) of the exclusive material is available elsewhere. Still, if you're a die-hard Anthrax fan, the Only set is a pretty cool item to add to your collection.