Once upon a time there was an album called Alice In Hell(1989). The band's name was Annihilator and the impact that band had on metalheads around the world was pretty much amazing.
It's been 15 years since that release and Annihilator has always been giving us albums in the meantime. Now it's time though to take a look at what Jeff Waters' band has prepared for us this year. I'm talking about "All For You of course...
Since the beginning Annihilator has mostly been a one-man band, a kind of a "solo project with Jeff Waters carrying the band's name through time. Dave Padden (singer) and  Mike Mangini (ex-Steve Vai and Extreme drummer) joined Waters on "All For You but no one can really tell if they're going to be on a next album as well.
In my opinion, every Annihilator album is something different from all the others, be it slightly different or completely different. Therefore "All For You is no surprise to me but it seems to have created two groups inside "planet-Annihilator. There are fans who claim they simply hate it because it doesn't remind them of "Alice In Hell (1989) or "Never, Neverland (1990) and seem to be pretty annoyed by Jeff Waters' new inspirations and there are those who do like it (parts of it or the whole thing).
There are songs like "All For You which have new musical ideas in them (people preffer saying that these ideas root to Nu Metal influences), there are songs like "The One (written by Jeff Waters about a person he obviously loves) and "Holding On which are soft, full of emotion songs (I hate the word "ballads) and of course there are songs which thrash your brains to fuckin' hell (like "Demon Dance, "Both Of Me and "Rage Absolute). Oh yeah, there's a great instrumental song at the end, "Sound Of Horror.
A few songs also are a bit mid-tempo, like for example "Nightmare Factory but that's ok when you've still got the heavy guitars melting your speakers down.  I can't figure out where people tend to find something wrong on this album? Is it because at times there are a few neoteristic beat-breakes in the songs (sudden stops like those of System of A Down)? Is it because of Dave Padden's voice? I think his voice is great; it gives a refreshing tone to the album, something you might not appreciate from the very first moment but I'm sure a lot of you will feel ok with Padden's vocals after a while (see how this guy can shape his voice from a brutaly hard-thrashing song to a much softer level). Waters' riffs are as always, smashing and a bit more down-tuned than the usual. I don't think he'll ever run out of ideas or lyrics...Mike Mangini is a human drum-machine, what else is there to say about a guy who played the drums for Steve Vai!
To conclude over this album I want to point out that it's logical that "All For You is not like any of the first Annihilator albums or like any of all the albums done so far by Waters. You see, people change; musicians change because they're human beings! Let's not also forget the uniqueness every album (in music) has...how on earth would Jeff Waters manage to make yet another "Alice In Hell album when that was 15 years ago and wouldn't that spoil the unique existence of the forementioned album?
This Annihilator album is good, maybe not excellent but...quite good!
P.S. The artwork on the cover rocks! It's so...psychotic!