Review by Felix on October 14, 2024.

How long does it take to lose your musical integrity? Well, efficient people like Jeff Waters manage this challenge quickly. Only four years lie between “W.T.Y.D.” or “Burns Like a Buzzsaw Blade” on the one hand and “Phoenix Rising” or “Sounds Good to Me” on the other hand. Sad fact: thrashing violence turned into commercial slime. Of course, thrash metal was facing hard times in 1993, but this form of kowtow to harmless, radio-friendly music was neither necessary nor qualitatively high. I don’t say that each and any pop song sucks. Roughly 1% is okay, haha. But Jeff’s compositions definitely belonged to the remaining 99%.

However, everybody needs a second chance, right? And in times of horrible terror and unleashed war machines, there are greater crimes imaginable than the publication of a shitty (non-) metal album. Well, I am not as efficient as Mr. Waters and therefore I needed more than 30 years after the terrible “Set the World on Fire” to really dive deeply into one of his later releases. I picked up “Annihilator” – an album that shares the name of the band should demonstrate the true approach of the artists, if I am not mistaken. Anyway, my expectations were low. I even felt an inner defensiveness when I started to listen to the album. The fact that a cover version of Van Halen, a band that stood for all that wasn’t metal, did not make things better, is quite the opposite. And it goes without saying that the cheesy “Romeo Delight” may be delightful for Romeo (and Jeff and Eddie) but for no one else. Oooh, baby, feel my heartbeats!

But, naturally, this shitty number at the end does not represent the true content of the album. “Annihilator” scores with a well-done beginning. Pretty soft yet promising guitar tones open the album and form the beginning of an opener that boasts staccato riffs, stomping drumming, a dynamic bridge, and charismatic vocals. A short narcissistic solo is included, but it does not hurt the quite great overall impression that “The Trend” is leaving. (For all cynics, it was clear right from the beginning that a song with this name works in the catalog of Annihilator. The trend has always been Jeff’s best friend.) Anyway, a good opener does not guarantee an equally good album. But look, after the first song, Annihilator really get serious. Both “Coward” and “Ambush” make no prisoners and send ferocious signals. As said before, I am not familiar with a lot of albums of Annihilator. Perhaps this is the reason why I did not know that they could reach such a level of unbridled aggression. Either way, the songs may not reflect the cruelty of the early classics of Slayer and Exodus, but they are free from any commercial thoughts. However, it is not just the first third of “Annihilator” that shows the compositional strength of our old friend (?) Jeff. “Betrayed” burns itself into my brain due to its menacing, slightly psychopathic, and very heavy beginning, the unrelenting riffs, and the denouncing “Liiiaaar” screams of Dave Padden. By the way, this guy truly performs how a metal singer should perform: energetic, with full, unreserved, and obviously possessed by dark forces.

“25 Seconds” reinforces the partly sick psycho-atmosphere of the album and features rather unusual sections, but all in all “Annihilator” is pure heavy thrash speed metal (during the first nine songs). There is a high number of riffs that do not miss their mark and the rare melodic sequences (for example the chorus of “Nowhere to Go”) are also too strong to fall on deaf ears. Naturally, the offensive, direct, and pretty brutal production makes it easy for the songs to reveal their full potential. But to be honest, a good sound was the only thing I really expected when I started the listening session. Maybe this is the secret why I like “Annihilator” a lot. Please bear in mind that the best events are often those where you think in advance that it's going to suck anyway. Therefore it is more or less logical that almost nothing on this work from 2010 is shit, even though the later songs cannot fully mess around with the big dogs of the release. It doesn’t matter. “Annihilator” is a more than solid, strong and totally metallic statement. It reconciles me with Waters’ musical baby and makes me forget his crap from 1993. So only one question remains open: how long does it take to regain your musical integrity?

Rating: 7.7 out of 10