Annihilator – Feast (2013)

One of Canadian pioneer in thrash metal picked a good choice of name, Annihilator, is releasing new album again. Since their hallmark debut Alice in Chains and Never, Neverland back in late 1989, Annihilator has always been an 'underdog' thrash metal to considered at. According to Wikipedia, they were the highest selling heavy metal band in Canadian history, not a bad achievement considering the snowy land also home of Anvil, Exciter, Voivod and so on. The band is literally leads by guitarist/vocalist Jeff Waters, a respected name in North America thrash metal scene. Their middle and later albums, in general opinion are always interesting, but then they seemingly never concluded in reaching the same height as their first two albums. This year of 2013, they packed together another studio result, it's the 14th album called Feast.

Compiling nine tracks, we first presented with a good riffing ala old time speed metal in Deadlock. It's a manifesto of Jeff Waters angry chops, it's kind of Slayer simplicty riffs combined with much technical shred in the level of Dimmebag. Next song, No Way Out, is in contrast sounds closer to more modern era thrash metal. Smear Campaign is a good song however outside the traditional thrash feel already. Which is only further away by hyper modern-groovy No Surrender. Then Wrapped with all it's "yeaaaaah....." intro is totally fit for bikers in action, it's glam metal if I can trust my ears. Ah,.. and then a ballad of course, Perfect Angel Eyes sounds like a promising metal ballad, in fact there is an acceptable idea for the song, except the vocal is slightly not the best to fit in this style. With those intermezzo, Fight The World try to bring us back to the heaviness, but only then concluded with Queensryche meet Anthrax in One Falls, Two Rise.

Honestly it's another strange album by a band we mostly expected to sounds as vintage as it could be. Annihilator of course free to choose whatever new direction they wanted to. If you free minded enough, the materials are quite enjoyable, and one can argue Jeff Watson and Dave Padden guitar works are great regardless the styles of music. Feast comes with a lot of 'side dishes' for a thrash metal album. The strength of this album is move toward finding more creativity out of their thrash world. Non compromising guitar works are still there, this album is for those eager to dig up some more spaces in their listening repertoire.

Metal Harem class: ******** eight stars out of ten

Annihilator – Feast (2013)
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01. Deadlock (4:23)
02. No Way Out (5:19)
03. Smear Campaign (4:15)
04. No Surrender (5:36)
05. Wrapped (3:47)
06. Perfect Angel Eyes (4:27)
07. Demon Code (6:22)
08. Fight The World (6:54)
09. One Falls, Two Rise (8:33)

Dave Padden – Vocals / Guitars
Jeff Waters – Guitar / Vocals
Al Campuzano – Bass
Mike Harshaw - Drums
Label: UDR Music

Annihilator Feast album review