ANNIHILATOR - Suicide Society

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Canadian thrash/heavy metal masters ANNIHILATOR will release their fifteenth studio album, "Suicide Society", on September 18 via UDR Music. As he has in the past, guitar wizard Jeff Waters handled all songwriting duties, played all guitar and bass, engineered, produced, mixed and mastered "Suicide Society", and he is also back commanding lead-vocal duties, as he did on the critically acclaimed "King Of The Kill" (1994), "Refresh The Demon" (1996), "Remains" (1997) and other ANNIHILATOR albums over the years.

Waters on his return to vocal duties: "Dave [Padden, ANNIHILATOR's vocalist from 2003 to 2014) and I have, essentially, been ANNIHILATOR since 2003 but he resigned last December, citing having had enough of touring, being away from home and other commitments. I thank him for his 11 years with ANNIHILATOR. That said, ANNIHILATOR and I are known for never giving up and, occasionally, coming up with something even better than its former offering(s): this is undeniably the case with 'Suicide Society'!"

With "Suicide Society", ANNIHILATOR goes headfirst into some of the most technically perfect, crisp, and crushingly taut, riffage Waters has ever produced. Although Waters' vocals keep traces of stylings from his "King Of The Kill" album, they now evoke a surprising blend of legends such as Layne Staley, Ozzy Osbourne, James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine. This, in a twisted way, mirrors Waters' signature blend of riffing, drums grooves and bass; all drawing from multiple sources and genres.

Waters has built a worldwide reputation as being a premier guitarist and songwriter; the conciseness and arrangement of "Creepin' Again" is both an air-guitarist's dream and a sharp reminder of this. The gloriously-brutal thrash of "My Revenge" calls up a vintage of '85 with the technical chops of 2015. The neo-classic title track defiantly expresses anger at the state of world affairs, while offering up hope in closing. With the multi-layered power of the anthem "Snap", Waters illustrates the diversity of ANNIHILATOR's sound, without sacrificing one decibel of attack.

"Metal fans will likely sport evil, satisfied grins on their faces, when they hear this record" chuckles Waters, "but in the words of Joe Perry: 'Let the music do the talking!'"

"Suicide Society" track listing:

01. Suicide Society
02. My Revenge
03. Snap
04. Creepin' Again
05. Narcotic Avenue
06. The One You Serve
07. Break, Enter
08. Death Scent
09. Every Minute

ANNIHILATOR's touring lineup will include drum monster Mike Harshaw, who continues on for his fourth year with the band; bassist Cam Dixon (from "King Of The Kill" era); and new guitarist Aaron Homma.

Aside from the band's upcoming, scheduled devastation at some of Europe's summer festivals (including Wacken Open Air), ANNIHILATOR will be headlining Europe this fall on the "Europe In The Blood" tour 2015. Talks are underway to bring the band to South America, Japan and likely North America in 2016.

Excellent ! And I'm sure that the Padden haters are glad he's gone (personally I didn't mind him). I always thought Jeff Waters was a pretty decent vocalist too.

I thought Padden was fine. But Waters is cool too.

That artwork is cool. I could not care less about Annihilator now, but I do like that artwork.

Good news. But the sample is boring. Too modern for my liking. Will still get the cd of course.

Jeff sounds a lot like Dave Mustaine on much of this. I look forward to hearing the rest of this album.

Yeah - I hear average Mega-Dave here. And I am a Padden fan. Too bad he bailed.

Too bad Coburn Pharr didn't rejoin.

I'm surprised that Padden hung around for as long as he did. Prior to his arrival, it seemed like Annihilator changed vocalists every time Jeff Waters changed his socks.

Some great guitar playing from Jeff (as usual) but I'm not feeling the vocals... If you're gonna imitate another singer, I wouldn't pick Mustaine.

They should have brought randy back in...

Once again with the ugly cover art.

The clips aren't doing squat for me. Most of them sound plodding. At least Feast got the fury and speed down well.

I don't mind Jeff on vocals but it is rather underwhelming in effect. I enjoyed Padden quite a lot.

corplhicks wrote:

Once again with the ugly cover art.

You don't like that artwork?

If it were 1999 and I still blindly bought stuff at the record store, I'd buy that in a heart beat. Then I'd be disappointed when I got in the car and popped it in and I'd vow to stop buying things based on the cover.

I hate to say it, but I think Padden actually sounded much better than Jeff vocally. That being said, I wish Coburn Pharr was back in the band. He had a great clean voice that worked well with the music.

I wish Joe Comeau was back in the band.

Cool. I never carded for Padden.

All of Annihilator's vocalists were pretty good to varying degrees.

ultmetal wrote:

Cool. I never carded for Padden.

I didn't either... until I heard Jeff's vocals on this new one. Now I regret Padden left.

I hope this new vocal situation is temporary. Jeff needs to find someone else to handle that dept.

If Belladonna wasn't in Anthrax, I think he would be a good choice for Annihilator.

Troublezone wrote:

I hate to say it, but I think Padden actually sounded much better than Jeff vocally. That being said, I wish Coburn Pharr was back in the band. He had a great clean voice that worked well with the music.

Coburn's too busy lording over plastic to be "In Command" of Annihilator.

Joe Comeau is a good choice, but I don't think he left on good terms.

ultmetal wrote:

Cool. I never carded for Padden.

He was alright when he wasn't delivering quasi-emo bridges and choruses.

Jeff was great on king of the kill. His voice suited the music perfectly well. But here. .....

Padden's a decent vocalist, but he was always my least Annihilator frontman, it's great to see Jeff back doing vocals again.

DakotaRogers wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

I hate to say it, but I think Padden actually sounded much better than Jeff vocally. That being said, I wish Coburn Pharr was back in the band. He had a great clean voice that worked well with the music.

Coburn's too busy lording over plastic to be "In Command" of Annihilator.

Joe Comeau is a good choice, but I don't think he left on good terms.

What is "lording over plastic"?