It was 1989, and my 8th grade band class was invited to play in the state capitol building, which required a 2- day bus trip. Mom gave me $20 for food (which was pretty much a fortune for a single mother with 6 kids) and loaded me onto the bus with the rest of my class. As far as junior high bus trips went, it was pretty much standard: rowdy kids and frustrated chaperones threatening to lick our eyeballs (serious) if we didn't settle down... we made the capitol and did our thing and survived the night crammed into hotel rooms without the police being called. The next day, they took us to the mall to blow off some steam and all I remember was wandering into a record store (yeah, we still had them back then..) and picking up this tape (yes, a CASSETTE) called Alice In Hell by a band who I only knew by seeing their logo in a recent Hit Parader magazine, and was compelled to have it, knowing I'd never have another chance. Naturally, I pretty much starved for the next 300 miles, but I had this amazing album that I listened to over and over and over the entire trip back home; I had never heard anything like it. This album today is still in my top 5 favorites, and it makes itself quite at home in my collection with the rest of its brothers and sisters, all children of the guitar god Jeff Waters, who has graced the universe once again with one of the best metal albums of the year:
Yeah, I'm completely biased, but do you blame me? It's Annihilator. That's all that needs said, no further rationale needed; if you can't at least TRY to like it, then you clearly have no business having an opinion about metal. In the early 80's, Annihilator demos were the 3rd most traded tapes, behind Metallica and Megadeth demos and they are the highest selling Canadian metal band in history.. Can you say that about any of these pretty-boy, skinny jean, makeup- wearing, boo-hoo teenagers crying about a breakup "Metal" bands that are popping up like pimples nowadays? No, you can't, can you?
From Deadlock to One Falls, Two Rise, it could possibly be argued that this might be the sharpest Annihilator album since Alice or at the very least, King Of The Kill. Regardless, it's fucking ANNIHILATOR.. just get it and rock your damn head off.
The new album is a monster! They should be selling out stadiums here in Canada and the US!!!
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