Artist: Annihilator
Title: “Live At Masters Of Rock”
Label: SPV Records
Release Date: 10/13/2009
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 3.75/5
If you are a fan of the technical shredders that the Metal scene offers you then there is a good chance that you don’t need an introduction to Jeff Waters and his band Annihilator. As founder of the Canadian Metal juggernaut, he has been delivering some really tasty stuff for decades and yet despite all the accolades that he recieves he remains more of an underground favorite in some parts of the world. “Live At Masters Of Rock” presents a thrilling set of old and new Annihilator tunes for a very loud Czech Republic crowd of some 30.000 people and the recording is clean and powerful which makes for a solid listen. We hear the crowd when we need to but the larger emphasis is on the music which is captured in all it’s power. I so dislike live albums where I hear too much crowd and thankfully, Jeff and his team have managed to avoid this being the case. The thirteen full songs that we get on the release minus the instrumental introduction piece are pieces that span a number of the Annihilator back catalog and while a couple of them come from the most recent album “Metal”, I think that the majority of fans will be leaning on long time favorites “King Of The Kill” and the bands seminal “Alison Hell”. Those were my own favorites as well and I have to add “Phantasmagoria” and “Never Neverland” to the list too. From beginning to end Waters reminds you why he is such a respected guitar player for the genre as he cooks with every single riff that he is doing and there is an amazing level of fluidity to his playing that is to be commended. The band features Dave Padden (guitar and lead vocals), Dave Sheldon (bass) and Ryan Ahoff (drums) and they do a stand up job during the show. Padden was also on the “Metal” album, but Mike Mangini did the drums and Waters all of the guitars on that one.
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Artist: After Forever
Title: “After Forever”
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Release Date: 9/25/2007
Genre: Melodic Gothic Metal
Rating: 4.5.5
I’m happy to report that I had been a fan of After Forever’s for a few years by the time that their signing to Nuclear Blast Records was announced, so when this happened I was not only excited about it but I also felt that I had a little bit more lead into what a whole new world of Metal fans would soon experience and most definitely enjoy. For those unaware, After Forever is a Dutch Symphonic Melodic Metal band that started out a little more on the Operatic side and this was when such a style was not as common as we find today. Since forming in 1995 they have morphed in sound and style and as result found themselves at times Dark Metal and almost always on the Progressive side. With After Forever music it is continually about power and majesty and now with their self-titled debut on Nuclear Blast Records are giving a brand new audience a taste of not only how they sound today but also a little look back into their storied past. The band was previously signed to the now defunct Transmission Records along with their current label mates Epica, another Dutch band of note that features AF’s former guitarist Mark Jansen. He would start Epica after leaving the ranks of AF and while they share a label once again each band offers the listener enough difference to have them equally enjoyable without any fear of repetition. Can we say that one group is better than the other well that is up to the listener to decide and I have to admit that I like the two acts equally. The newest album “After Forever” begins with a rousing flourish as the tune “Discord” kicks into gear and offers up a great Beauty & The Beast vocal duel. As soon as the song is underway you realize just how incredible the voice of Floor Jansen is.
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Artist: Annihilator
Title: “Ten Years In Hell”
Label: SPV Records
Release Date: 2/21/2006
Genre: Thrash Metal
Rating: 8.5/10
Annihilator is one of those bands whose music was a little ahead of its time in the Metal realm it first made an appearance upon. Founder Jeff Waters is an incredible lead guitarist whose craftsmanship on the axe was borderline extraordinary. This factor made Annihilator a little more of an interesting band but perhaps a little bit out of the league of some of their peers of the time. While I only casually was a fan of their music and a couple of their earliest releases, I found that this DVD set was able to make even the most unschooled of listeners an instant study and fan of what was done during their early years. Entitled “10 Years In Hell” the DVD is a showcase of what went on during the first ten years of the bands existence. There is a lot of emphasis on the release “Alison Hell” and “King Of The Kill” and with these releases the band proved that Canada could deliver the Metal just as good as anyplace else in the World. DVD1 focuses mainly on the very early stuff and celebrations around it.
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