Fun fact alert! Annihilator are (along with Voivod) the best selling Canadian thrash band having sold over 3 million records.
This is the follow up to the band’s super successful debut album, Alice In Hell. I remember buying it when it first came out and being blown away at how good it was. So the pressure was on for this follow up, if anything, this is even better.
The opening track, Fun Palace, is killer with a great hook and groove with Jeff Waters giving it plenty on the guitar. Road To Ruin is old school thrash heaven as this baby moves along at a fair lick, with some nice key changes to keep it interesting and groovy. Man, I forgot how good this record was, and this MOV reissue is superb sounding.
Killer opening to Sixes And Sevens – very intricate to keep the tech metaller’s happy – there are more riffs and grooves in this track that would keep Slayer going for 40 albums. The main riff of Stonewall reminds me of an Exodus track, and has more of a hard rock feel to the rest of the song with a monster solo. Side 1 closes out with the title track, and we get lots of over the top guitar wailing until the main riff kicks in. This track is quite an adventure with the light and shade elements to the music.
Over we go to Side 2 and my favourite track Imperiled Eyes. There is so much happening in the first few bars with so many different sounds and pace changes – its as though you are listening to 5 different songs in one. Kraf Dinner is next, and I guess the only reason they didn’t get sued was that they left off the T. If you were a kid brought up in North America, you know all about the delights of the aforementioned product and I’m guessing this is a tongue-in-cheek homage to said delight.
Superb opening to Phantasmagoria, with the fast chuggas and double kicks ripping along at a speed that kills. Reduced To Ash is even faster and screams past in a blur of fretboard wizardry from Waters. The album closes out with I Am In Command, and the riff and dissonant chords are killer – we are flat out to the finish here boys and girls. A superb record and definitely one of the highlights of the whole thrash genre.
9.5/10 from The Grooveman.
