Annihilator - Annihilator (2010)

Once you've dubbed an album simply Metal, I suppose the only way you can reflect upon yourself any deeper is to finally drop that eponymous effort after two decades of existence. And Annihilator certainly works far more as s proof of concept, this is basically the Annihilator album I would have wanted directly after Never, Neverland, a complete tour de force of Jeff Water's thrash metal style, with loads of earworm rhythm guitars and blazing leads. If you love the trotting blitz of records like Master of Puppets or Alice in Hell, this thing is loaded with all the pent up energy that should have been brought a long time earlier, and I think if I were to judge Annihilator records on musicality, this would be top notch and top three. You could argue that in terms of sheer velocity and energy expended, this one often tramples the debut.

As for Dave Padden, he settles into his James Hetfield/Chuck Billy style and sounds pretty good at it here, with a few more melodic lines, but staying largely consistent along with the riffing and pure force on exhibition. I like the production of his voice, it's never too awkward or overbearing. The one aspect that drags it down is the lyrics, they are full of lazy cliches and often distract away from the phenomenal music, such as the mention of 'Hot Topic' in opener "The Trend", that sort of thing is usually pretty weak and attempts to permanently date what could otherwise become a timeless exercise in thrashing. However, the opening volley of melodies, and writing in that song overall, somehow compensate this lapse in good taste. There are also a few points at which the album veers away from its more pure thrashing for tunes like "Nowhere to Go" which have a slightly more modern rock vibe to them, but even here Jeff smothers it all with so much great melody and bluesy, burning lead work that it's almost on par with all the faster, and then they often go in the entirely opposite direction, like the blasting of "Death in Your Eyes".

Quite the scorcher of an album here, which stays out of its own way at almost any cost, and easily can put your neck in a brace if you succumb to its maniacal charms. The closer "Romeo Delight" is a Van Halen cover, similar to some of the original hard rock the band often lapsed into for fun on older records, and this tune could have been clipped, but there is still some excellent bass and guitar work in there and they certainly turbo-charge the thing with an energy to surpass the original. But I can skip that, and it's easy enough when you can just hit 'STOP' after "Payback". Is this album on tier with the debut in terms of overall memorable songwriting and chops? I don't think so, and though they've never had great lyrics, some of these remain a bit too plebeian and cringe, but in every other department Jeff Waters and crew are firing on all cylinders. I don't even mind the simple cover image of the zombie girl with the band name tattooed onto the forehead, I know it's a departure from the logo and a lot of eponymous albums try this sort of aesthetic shift, but at least it looks alright. Fun album, and I hope for a lot more like it as the band finally gets the fires burning again.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.annihilatormetal.com/