A brief quiz to answer quickly. Ok, go!..What's the Temple you 're in right now?..Genre aside, what kind of music do you like?..What's the Eiffel Tower made of?..What's the new album by ANNIHILATOR called?
One of the most famous Canadian music exports is back! ANNIHILATOR have released Metal! The great Heavy/Thrash band has managed to create a very faithful river of followers throught their 16-year presence in the scene, and they most certainly deserved it. They are one of the top reasons one gets to like Thrash Metal. I'm sure you know the other top US Thrash bands out there, right? Anyway, this time I cannot help but being blunt on my words to ANNIHILATOR. Do not be confused. I think Metal is a nice album. But it's not rigid Metal/Thrash sound. It's an effort to capitalise on the talent of many contributors to the album (there is a fantastic guest line-up here!), but it fails to do something really great with it.
First of all lets take a look at the guests. We have Anders Bjorler (THE HAUNTED), Jeff Loomis (NEVERMORE), Alexi Laiho (CHILDREN OF BODOM), Michael Amott (ARCH ENEMY), Willie Adler (LAMP OF GOD), Jesper Stromblad (IN FLAMES), Angela Gossow (ARCH ENEMY) and Corey Beaulieu (TRIVIUM). What is more, we have the traditional sound of ANNIHILATOR and a great label to support all of this (ROADRUNNER). But there is something missing here. There is no spice in the taste. No acid in the flow. No knife to the bone. In the end...no harm done. And in Metal terms, this is mediocre. A core fan of the band will immediately point out that the tracks seem to be slower and longer. There are obvious references to the 80s era and that is happening with some good solos and a few powerful riffs here and there. Jeff Waters seems to have chosen the easy way out: Radio-friendly Metal sound with some great names for commercial reasons.
The tracks remind me of Google-search. If you put thrashing good riffs you will get Army Of One and then Operation Annihilation. Consequently you have guitar solos - Downright Dominate, tempo changes - Haunted and Kicked, grawlest vocals - Couple Suicide.
All in all, Metalcore fans of ANNIHILATOR will have fun with Metal, but they will never put it beside Alice In Hell and Road To Ruin in their CD racks.