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Following their excellent self-titled album, Annihilator continue their revival with the thrash-friendly Feast. Annihilator have been one of Canada’s top underground musical entities for decades, though they made quite an impression with Alice in Hell and Never, Neverland.

The ‘90s weren’t as kind to them, but main man Jeff Waters never wavered in maintaining the band’s status. Though the lineup has been unstable since the band’s inception, the past few years have found some stability with vocalist Dave Padden.


Each album with Padden has made positive strides, and Feast shows that Annihilator still have life left in them.

The self-titled album had some outright scorchers, like “Betrayed” and “The Trend,” and Feast does not waver from this principle. “Deadlock” is a bruising cut ripped from the pages of early thrash, and is the most aggressive song on the album. Though no other track gets to that level of intensity, they make sure that there are similar moments on most of the songs.

Another holdover from their self-titled record is Waters cutting loose on the guitar with wild solos. Though nothing is as jaw-dropping as some of the stuff on the last album, he still has a firm grip on his playing. Annihilator do something unique with the track listing, placing three tracks at the end that are over six minutes each. These songs provide a chance to let Waters have some space for his elastic guitar work. “Fight the World” and “One Falls, Two Rise” are ambitious without falling into excess, incorporating flexible melodic passages.

Though Annihilator are a thrash band, they’ve always found room to experiment with other musical styles. It’s much more obvious on Feast, though like past albums, the quality is all over the place. The band gets into a Red Hot Chili Peppers fix for a few minutes on “No Surrender,” and brings back vocalist Danko Jones (who provided guest vocals on 2007’s Metal) for “Wrapped.” The only glaring miscalculation is the limp ballad “Perfect Angel Eyes,” which tries to pass off sappy lyrics as legitimate emotional fodder.

Fourteen albums in, Annihilator have not gotten any softer (not including “Perfect Angel Eyes”). Their thrash metal still has the recklessness that the greats had in the ‘80s, though given a modern reworking. The band members sound great, especially Padden, who has grown into a stronger vocalist with each album.

When the band moves away from the thrash, the proceedings get less engaging, though the album never gets to a groan-inducing stage. Feast is more proof that the resurgence of Annihilator is real, and Waters and company are as vital as they were back in 1989.

(released September 3, 2013 on UDR Music)

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