I am sure that the suggestions on here are maybe better than this, and it appears your looking to spend a bit more than this, but for me I love the orange elite. I have had some very, very nice hardtails and full sus's over the years but the elite is far better than all of them. Test rode one thinking that it might be a bit disappointing but loved it. Paint work is not really my thing, going to have it resprayed soonish, but is one of the few bikes that I have owned that I would bother doing this with.
Very fast feeling but also lots of fun to ride and surprisingly comfortable for a alloy hardtail. As I said probably not quite what your looking for but the above opinion is an honest one, not a "I've got this bike so it's great", I am never that confident in my choices and far too much self doubt to have that type of opinion!
Re the anthem: I do think it's quite funny, although maybe not much to go by, that Liam Killeen who said a while ago that the hardtail was dead for xc racing and seemed to always want to ride the specialized epic, uses a Giant hardtail, not the anthem.