Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *
Time moves on and the brilliance of a band that came to the forefront of their country’s contribution to the Heavy Metal/Thrash genre seems to have finally come to a stuttering halt and whilst not completely disintegrating into fragments just yet, the signs are ominously there. For Annihilator and Jeff Waters in particular, the premiere of Canadian Metal, the band that bought out some illuminating and defining classics in their time, have bought out their 14th studio album, Feast, and it is regretfully anything but.
Gone it seems are the days when the music produced by this once incredible band, albeit with many line-up changes since their 1989 debut could be seen as equal to anything being produced elsewhere in the world and perhaps whilst never being appreciated fully in their own backyard, they had more fans than anybody could have expected this side of the Atlantic. The tightness of the music, the sheer elegance of the lyrics that shone like a beacon has now faded and become a pastiche of itself. In an album that has the sense of Metal but not the final delivery, it is surprising that the best track on the recording is the rather beautiful Perfect Angel Eyes, here at least remains hope. For unfortunately it will seem to the fans of the band that the album is nothing more than a shell of what was once head spinning, senses battering and mosh inducing skill gone sour.
With the U.K. and North America not having the best of times in the Heavy Metal world with album releases in 2013, with the very obvious exceptions of Black Sabbath, Stone Sour and Megadeth, Europe seems to have tied up Heavy/Thrash metal for the foreseeable future. Perhaps it was inevitable, times move on, what influenced one generation across Europe with the magnificence and raging power of Never, Neverland, Alice in Hell and Criteria for a Black Widow will one day come back around and prove to be a stepping stone for fans in the U.K. and North America.
Jeff Waters and Annihilator remain an important factor in the progress and history of Heavy Metal but rather than supplying a banquet of music delight, the guests at the table are left hungry and looking for salvation in the form of something a bit more meaty. Whilst you always hope your gut feeling to be proved wrong when a band produces something you feel to be beneath them artistically, it may be a long time before Feast is looked upon anything other than the start of North American Heavy Metal famine.
Ian D. Hall