Jeff Waters and his ever-revolving door of bandmates in Annihilator are an under-appreciated entity in their genre. As the band approaches their thirtieth year, the band is not only refusing to slow down, but they are only getting better.
I actually arrived late to the Annihilator party. The legendary Canadian thrash band had already seen their peak when I watched the documentary that was included with the Roadrunner United album and witnessed the greatness that is Jeff Waters. I had to seek out his band.
I came to find that Annihilator are one of the many bands in their genre that was both fortunate and unfortunate to start off ridiculously strong. They were fortunate in that Alice In Hell and Never, Neverland are classics that should be on par with thrash's greatest albums. However, they were unfortunate in that the band has been living in the shadow of those albums ever since.
That brings me to the present. Feast is the strongest album that the band has put out since 1994's King of the Kill. This isn't said to put down anything in the last nearly twenty years, but this is just what an album by them should be. Something was simply missing from 2010's self-titled record and 2007's Metal, and whatever that was is back.
The album begins perfectly with the 100% thrash "Deadlock" that sounds like something that could fit on anything from Slayer's Show No Mercy or Havok's Time Is Up. From here, the album branches out quite a bit. "No Way Out" begins to present some of the melody the band can offer both musically and vocally while remaining heavy. Singer/rhythm guitarist Dave Padden is able to prove is more then just a screaming face.
My favorite track on the album has to be "Fight The World." It presents every aspect that works with the band. Opening with clean, melodic guitar before a melodic, beautiful lead line; then, the thrash drops in and it begins to kick the shit out of you. The song even borders on death metal at one point. About halfway through it becomes the kind of Annihilator track you'd expect, before slowing to a chugging breakdown. Waters and Padden hook up for some harmonized guitar lines during Waters' solo, then one last usual Annihilator bit to take this gem home. So fucking all over the place, and so fucking good.
The album has a few moments that you won't see coming. For one, you want some funk with your thrash? "No Surrender" starts with a Red Hot Chili Peppers-inspired bass slapping intro that is quite pleasant. The verse on that song is one of the few moments that I'd consider "weak" in that it's cheesy, but the rest of the song more than makes up for it. This is a very two-faced song that then becomes a circle pit-worthy track. Then, where you think the solo will be is a strange, but dark, ambient talk-down portion. THEN, guitar solo. Winds up being one of the strongest tracks.
The second moment I didn't see coming was the ballad. Yep, a ballad. Havok won't get emotional and shit, but Annihilator sure will. This track is very 80's. I mean, hell, it's called "Perfect Angel Eyes." It isn't a "Mama, I'm Coming Home" or anything but it's a good one to raise a lighter and get your sway on to.
So, in case you haven't noticed yet, I have a total guitarist crush on Jeff Waters. That guy never ceases to amaze me. While this is a Waters guitar driven album, it rarely if ever devolves into self-flattering guitar wankery, and I've always loved Waters work for that. He can lay down some crazy sweeps and whammy bar tricks and melt your face for an entire instrumental wank album if he wanted to, but then his inhuman abilities wouldn't seem so special if that's all it was.
When I first talked about this record, it was announced that a second disc of re-recorded Annihilator classics would be included with deluxe editions and that second disc is really cool as well. It's usually such a stupid thing for bands to do that, but I dig the new lineup's take on all the older tracks.
8.5/10
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M94gdB2G724[/youtube]
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