Annihilator - Metal (2007)

I get that it's supposed to be a 'profound' title, a reaffirmation for the band that they're just playing some good old metal, and that maybe you shouldn't label it, but so deep into the career of an exceptional thrash axeman like Jeff Waters, I come to expect that he will PROGRESS, and ADVANCE his sound, plumb the depths of his playing and come up with something genius. All this dumbing down and simplifying just doesn't fit the bill for me. Not that Metal is some idiotically basic thrash record, it partially feels like a cut and paste of its predecessor, Schizo Deluxe, but it comes across like the laziest form of pent up energy, like when you're watching your 100th Battle Royale on PPV and all that excitement and drama just isn't there anymore, it becomes a more obligatory and mechanical experience with no heart behind it.

Metal might as well be any pastiche of 90s thrash trends, there are moments here like some of the tough guy vocals and snarls in "Couple Suicide" where they are just aping Pantera, the James Hetfield style vocals are also all over the place. There are also a bunch of vocal lines here in tracks like "Army of One" where they almost feel a bit rappy, maybe like a mix of Mike Patton and Mike Muir. I guess you could say that parts of this album border on nu-metal or mall-core, but it's all dumb, with laughable lyrics and a singer that still has yet to register much of a distinct personality for himself. I know I sound like a broken record, but almost ALL the highlights of this disc are when Jeff Waters plays in his clinical, technical, choppy style ("Downright Demise"); those are the only moments in which my ears perk up and the album seems to slightly stretch its fingers from the mediocre mire in which it stagnates, to grasp something much more exciting and rare. And even in these spots, he does sound like he's just self-plagiarizing from a bunch of other riffs he's already written before, these just don't have the benefit of other choice elements like a Randy Rampage or Coburn Pharr vocal line.

It's professional, it's polished, it's punch enough for the crowds who just want to hear anything heavy and 'thrash' surviving into the 'oughts. Mike Mangini brings a lot of rumbling low end and energy that the songs don't even necessarily deserve, but the chameleon vocals and lack of really memorable hooks prevent this one from ever setting in. Quality is squarely between All For You and Schizo Deluxe and that's not exactly a compliment. Shouldn't the 'mid-life' crisis return to form album have happened by this point in Annihilator's career? It seemed like they were headed in that direction some records before this but it all fizzled out and broke on the rocky beach.

Verdict: Fail [4.75/10]

https://www.annihilatormetal.com/