Annihilator 2010

"Annihilator strike back on this eponymous album. I've read somewhere that when a band releases an eponymous album, it often signals some kind of rebirth in the form of a more or less radical stylistic shift (as in the case of Metallica's "Metallica" for example where they abandoned thrash metal for more commercially accessible heavy metal) - and the creepy cover art could also suggest that Annihilator may have made a stylistic shift towards more brutal music.

Fortunately, nothing is changed.

Like most other Annihilator albums, there is great variation on "Annihilator" with tracks such as "Coward", "Ambush, the Exodus-like "Betrayed", and to some extent, "The Trend" (which is very melodic in the beginning though), are incredibly fast and brutal thrash metal songs, while others like "Nowhere to Go", "The Other Side", "Death in Your Eyes" (which, however, combines a blast beat section with clean vocals), and "Payback" are slower but by no means weaker, and "25 Seconds" combines a weird stoner-like riff with a number of groovy upbeat riffs and also some insanely fast thrashing riffs (I guess it's kind of a metalcore song - but, thankfully, with some Water-style soloing). Then there's, of course, the cover track "Romeo Delight", which is, if nothing else, entertaining.

There is a lot of impressive guitar work on this album (hey, it is Jeff Waters) and, allegedly, 66 soloes... so any fan of guitar acrobatics should appreciate this album.

I think that fans of old school thrash metal will really appreciate this album for its hard hitting tracks, and I also think that it should appeal to power metal fans. To Annihilator fans, this is an absolute must have.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com)"