When digging through the vaults to decide what to review next, I came across a staggering statistic: it\u2019s been over 20 years since we featured Jeff Waters and Annihilator.<\/p>\n
How any of us on the panel didn\u2019t get to covering Alice In Hell<\/i>, Annihilator\u2019s debut effort, is a bit of a shocker for me. I remember the complete full-court press that college radio was giving this one for the assorted metal programs that were out there, and I seem to remember the guys who ran the show being particularly fond of this group.<\/p>\n
They were correct to have those opinions, to my ears. It might not have been an album to break new ground, but Alice In Hell<\/i> is a powerful first statement from Annihilator\u2014one, in fact, they\u2019ve been fighting to top all these years.<\/p>\n
Best known for \u201cAlison Hell\u201d and \u201cW.T.Y.D.\u201d (an acronym for \u201cWelcome To Your Death\u201d), Waters and vocalist Randy Rampage absolutely slay the listener with an audio assault on their ears. Fans of thrash metal undoubtedly have worn through copies of this album based on these two songs alone. The drum work of Ray Hartmann provides the remainder of the sonic backbone. (Although Anthony Brian Greenham and Wayne Darley are given credits on the album, they did not actually perform on any of the recordings; Waters handled all guitar work, including the bass\u2014early proof that this was Waters\u2019s show.)<\/p>\n
But there is much more to Alice In Hell<\/i> than the two best-known songs. Throughout the course of the album\u2019s nine tracks, Waters shows his absolute skills as a guitarist, beginning with the opening instrumental \u201cCrystal Ann.\u201d The speed and precision on tracks like \u201cSchizos (Are Never Alone)\u201d and \u201cHuman Insecticide\u201d add to the argument that Annihilator could well have been an underappreciated band in the metal genre.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not to say that everything is perfect; \u201cBurns Like A Buzzsaw Blade\u201d has its moments, but is weaker when compared to other songs on the disc. The same argument can be made for \u201cLigeia\u201d and \u201cWicked Mystic\u201d\u2014again, they\u2019re not bad songs by any means, and they do fit well in the scope of the whole album. But they might not be the songs I\u2019d be immediately jumping on.<\/p>\n
The sad fact about Alice In Hell<\/i> is that its own debut marked the beginning of what would be a continuing revolving door of musicians. By the time Annihilator would regroup for their sophomore release, Rampage would leave the band, and Greenham would never officially record a note with the band.<\/p>\n
Still, Alice In Hell<\/i> is an amazing first volley from Waters and crew, and even with the few weak moments, remains a \u201cmust own\u201d album in the thrash metal genre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6248],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46635","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-annihilator","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46635"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}