Annihilator – Alice in Hell – 1989

I’m actually not sure which album served as my introduction to Annihilator. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Alice in Hell though, their first album! Over the years, Annihilator, or more accurately, Jeff Waters, who is the essence of the band, has managed to remain innovative and interesting. While other bands have evolved negatively and felt tired, Jeff has consistently appeared vital in terms of compositions!

Alice in Hell is, indeed, their debut album, and it’s perhaps not as well-produced as what would come later. It also lacks the same degree of tempo changes and innovative guitar playing that would become a reality in subsequent works. Annihilator can be said to play across many genres, depending on the album. They’ve covered thrash, regular heavy metal, and almost radio-friendly rock, and here, it’s mostly speed metal in my opinion. The differences might be subtle, but for someone as meticulous as I am, music must be precisely categorized. I’m joking of course. There are many genres where I don’t possess the in-depth knowledge to categorize the music in detail.

As always, the music is incredibly tight. I believe Jeff is somewhat of a musical genius because whatever he undertakes sounds good. It may sound theoretically incorrect, but when he does it, it turns into melodic riffs! This is just the beginning of the journey that Annihilator will embark on, but it feels great to be there from the start!