Artist: Annihilator

Venue: The Corporation, Sheffield   

Date: 15 November 2010   

Having remained a permanent fixture (as many older bands do) over in mainland Europe for many years, Canadian thrash veterans Annihilator haven’t enjoyed the same success over in the U.K but thankfully this hasn’t deterred them from undertaking their first headline tour on these shores for quite some time. 

Despite being a veteran of the game since 1984, Jeff Waters is still trying to break down doors to get his music heard and you’ve got to admire him for that, especially when at this stage in his career, he doesn’t have to and the thrash faithful in the crowd tonight are all the better for it. We haven’t seen Annihilator in the U.K. since they supported Trivium back in 2007 and this is an altogether different, tighter and more focused band. Then, they were touring an album (Metal) that although was great, had numerous guest appearances as its main selling point which was of course hard to replicate in a live setting without said guests present. The tour did break new ground for them however, so it’s a shame that it took three years to get them back over for their own tour but it was worth the wait.

Bursting onto the stage to ‘Ambush’ from their new, self-titled album, Annihilator barely take their foot of the gas for the whole night and storm through a set of thrash and speed-metal that puts most younger bands to shame. Despite a fairly constant revolving door of musicians over the years, Waters seems to have found his partner in crime for many years to come and it’s obvious that Dave Padden is the singer that he had been searching for all this time. Putting on a versatile performance as well as being a competent guitar player in his own right, Padden does the old songs justice and has clearly had some influence in the newer material. 

Whoever has been in Annihilator’s ranks over the years, it has always been Jeff Waters’ vision and one thing that has remained different about the band is the strong sense of melody that Waters inputs into so many of his songs. As previously mentioned, the band can be described as more than just thrash. Waters is a man that is first and foremost concerned with writing a good song, something that many newer bands sadly forget sometimes. 

Forgotten classic ‘King of the Kill’ reminds us that Annihilator’s output still had plenty to offer during the ‘90’s and ‘Betrayed’ (the other new song that gets aired tonight) is a bona-fide headbanger that is sure to give everyone whiplash tomorrow morning. 

Of course, old favourites like ‘W.T.Y.D’ are what the crowd are mostly here for and ‘The Fun Palace’ proves to be an anthem that sadly never was, and rounds off part one of the set quite nicely. Just before the encore, the band unexpectedly treat us to a sit-down, acoustic performance of ‘Phoenix Rising’ and ‘Sounds Good to Me’ before returning to the stage to remind us that they haven’t gone soft and try to blow everyone’s head off with old favourites ‘21’, ‘Phantasmagoria’ and (of course) ‘Alison Hell’. Giving the impression that he could go on for another few hours at least, Waters takes a bow and says the band’s goodbyes to a crowd begging for more but sadly, it’s not to be. Fingers crossed that somebody from Download, Sonisphere or Bloodstock has been paying attention to this tour and hopefully we’ll see Annihilator include the U.K on the festival run next summer.

Setlist: Ambush, Clown Parade, Plasma Zombies, King of the Kill, Betrayed, The Box, Hell is a War, Ultra-Motion, Set the World on Fire, W.T.Y.D, The Trend, The Fun Palace, Phoenix Rising / Sounds Good to Me (acoustic). Encore: 21, Phantasmagoria, Crystal Ann, Alison Hell

Review by: Adam Grindrod

 

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