ANNIHILATOR – Waking The Fury

Those who know me will understand how hard it is for me to write this review. I love Annihilator, and there’s nothing wrong with Joe Comeau taking the lead singer spot or Curran Murphy (Nevermore’s former touring axe slinger and headache for cops in Milan) joining in as the second guitar player – nor do I have a problem with Randy Black back on the drum stool. I still praise Jeff Waters as one of the best guitar players out there, and his uniqueness with technical riffs combined with strong melodies make him a pioneer in this genre. I still spin “Alice In Hell”, “Set The World On Fire” and “Carnival Diablos” on a regular basis, and as you would understand by mentioning those three, I like all kinds of Annihilator music; the fast and thrashy, the melodic, and the diverse and heavy.

Therefore, it hurts me to call “Waking The Fury” a disappointment. The CD sees Jeff returning to industrial sound on his guitar, and Joe – who last time around showed that he could match any previous Annihilator singer – is more one-dimensional than I expected. He has a lot to show, and I know for a fact he’s able to show it, but he doesn’t. Maybe he’s so comfortable with finding his own expression that he sticks to it, I don’t know? “Ultra Motion” is a Jeff Waters classic; fast and furious with a good melody, and “Torn”, the next song, is another cool track. “Ritual” is another favorite, but out of 10 tracks – I find only 3 or 4 that I like! And though I like them, they all have this annoying guitar sound.

“Nothing To Me” is really nothing to me, it’s simply a remake of “Shallow Grave”, which is a remake of… I am sure Jeff came up with “Nothing…” faster than the four and a half minutes the song runs. All right, I do admit I had great expectations for this CD, and if it wasn’t for the killer “Carnival Diablos” CD I would maybe have tried even harder to understand what it is all about. Instead, I have shelved the promo even before its release date… What more can I say? Oh yeah, I can say that I have an impression that these songs will be much better live (hopefully with a more metal sounding guitar sound), and that you all should show up to see one of the best live bands out there in action. I really believe this line up will slay on stage!!!